Do we stand on the precipice of a new era in women's surfing?
Earlier this year you’ll remember, or maybe you won’t, memories ain’t what they used to be, BeachGrit flew Lakey Peterson to Mex to enjoy personal aerial tuition with Filipe Toledo.
Along with another coach, Huntington Beach’s Brett Simpson, and iPads with the Hurley Surf Coach app, and GoPros affixed hither and yon, and a Karma patrolling the sky, we had four days to coach, and coax, Santa Babs’ Lakey Peterson into the biggest huck ever by a girl.
Get a little taste, here.
And here.
Today at the Swatch Pro, Ms Peterson, who is twenty four years old and has a velvet complexion, drew on her newly learned skills to perform a grab-rail air-reverse and score an 8.83. It wasn’t the prettiest air, something that would have accomplished male surfers dragging the clip into the trash, but it glowed starkly against the safety turns that define women’s surfing.
Watch here. First scoring wave (click on the little green bubble.)
Maybe there was a little sugar floating in the warm air ’cause in the previous round, fellow Hurley team rider Carissa Moore, who was our initial pick for the Mex project, scooped a clean air-rev, a 7.73. A score which indicates the judges thought the wave good, though not excellent.
Watch that here. Second green bubble.
Do we stand on the precipice of a new era in women’s performance? Will risk enter the game or will waves like the 7.70 Carissa’s opponent, Malia Manuel, got for a couple of turns (second scoring wave on the heat analyser) be enough incentive to keep playing it safe?
“Trestles: Me, Derek Reilly, Made History For Women’s Professional Surfing When I Taught A Woman How To Coax an Air Out of Thin Air!! Me, Me, Me!!!! It Was All Me! It Was Her, But It Was More Me!! You Are All Welcome!!”
A skewering deserved, and well played. Touché.
Thank you for progressing women’s surfing Derek!
She’s been doing that same ungainly bunny hop since her NSSA days. Silvana Lima anyone? She’s been legitimately punting for years. Of course she’s not yanking a bikini bottom up her fart box either so you know…
Oh, I’m a fan of Silvana too. I wrote almost the same story two years ago, but with Silvana as the protagonist.
http://beachgrit.com/2015/0…
Surfing is still about turns & Lakey is stacking up as the 2018 world champ. She has developed this weird double jointed thing with her back leg and it is driving huge in her turns. See the video where Lakey was surfing Kelly’s wave; how deep in that weird barrel she was due to her back leg technique. I have been thinking this for a while & she just legitimately smashed Carissa. Its all in the head for Lakey if she wins the title. She is a very strong woman, naturally leveraged & stronger than Courtney, Carissa or Tyler. As we know, she has the genetics from her mom
If we stand on the precipice, does there not lay before us a terrible drop? And are we looking backwards or forwards. Maybe we stand at the precipice. I can’t move on from this.
Maybe climb back inside. It’s terrifying!
I just want a quiet place to live.
It ain’t too much to ask for.
Some crabs live in shells.
Some crabs live in clams.
But all crabs need water.
And what is water, without something sliding through it 😉
Oh please. A new era in women’s performance? Melanie Bartels? Silvana Lima? Gil Ferreira? The sad fact is that the judging criteria seems to be interpreted differently during women’s events and they simply aren’t rewarded for taking risks. Women can, and have, been doing airs for more than a decade but only a handful risk doing them in comp. Why jeopardise your career when you are more likely to be rewarded for the same old top turn, bottom combo?
You just wait until one of them throws the Alley Oop. Mel will let out the squeal that has slumbered since Seabass’ Margret barrel.
Agree. Sally was just given a 7.00 for a long tiny wave doing a million tiny turns. I would have scored it a 4.50. Courtney goes hard & gets a 6.0