The template for the WSL comes straight from the
ATP. Who knew? Bobby knew!
I thought it was common knowledge that the WSL is built
on the blueprint of the Association of Tennis Professionals
(ATP). The contest/tournament calendar, the ranking
system, the contest format and now the exhibition extras – all the
same as the ATP.
It makes sense, therefore, that professional surfing’s owner has
turned the reigns over to Sophie Goldschmidt with her four years
experience as a vice-president at the WTA (Women’s Tennis
Association).
It ain’t sexy but it ain’t crazy, if you dig.
Listen. If you were a minnow sport like surfing and looking to a
big brother for advice, tennis makes sense. Count the similarities:
an individual sport, competitors from a wide variety of nations,
tournaments scattered around the world. And tennis has provided
household names and reaped fortunes for over half a century.
But Tennis is a rich man’s game. The outfits, the tradition, the
silence. That ain’t surf or it at least it wasn’t.
And isn’t tennis really about the four grand slams? Does anyone
actually tune in for anything else?
Tennis certainly doesn’t have super-star names who don’t compete
but attract fabulous salaries and starry eyes for knocking the ball
around the practise court. There’s no Dane Reynolds, no Creed
McTaggart, no Craig Anderson. And judging from tennis’s moves
trying to shorten and re-jig the format over the past few years,
you know they’re having a golf-type issue in trying to appeal to
the new generation.
If we look purely from a governing body’s format, what has the
WSL borrowed?
1. Tournament Structure – Tennis has the
Challenger Tour and the World Tour. Surfing has the Qualification
Series and Championship Tour. Both formats allow competitors to
earn points through lower events and use these points to qualify
for higher-rated events.
2. Tournament Funding – The level of an ATP
event (points available), all depends on the prizemoney offered,
and as a result the more funded to the governing body. Want to
stage the ATP1000 in your crummy little neighbourhood, just cough
up the cash and it’s yours. Surfing is the same game. Fork out the
money and you can have a QS10,000 at your local break.
3. Hopman Cup / Founders Cup – Did anyone else
notice that Sophie’s first big splash, The Founders Cup, takes its
colours from the Hopman Cup? International all-team tournament with
mixed gender teams? Hopman.
4. Nitto ATP Finals / WSL Mentawaii Finals
– The WSL will introduce a finals series to finish of
the year in 2019. When this was announced everyone’s eyes went to a
NBA/NFL/MLB finals format thinking those jocks were the
inspiration. It was actually tennis that has had a finals format
for years now. With an Emirates-sponsored ATP Race to
London points ladder.
What does the future hold? Tennis has pushed towards indoor
single day/night exhibitions to lure millennials in with loud
music, flashy lights and a shorter time frame, the Laver Cup for
example.
What’s surfing got? Pools, pools, pools.
And another similarity, to quote Billie Jean King, “Tennis is a
perfect combination of violent action taking place in an atmosphere
of total tranquility.”
Multiple news outlets reported, yesterday, on
the World Surf League’s alleged edict to
photographers/videographers not to focus on female professional
surfers’ rumps whilst duck diving/bottom turning. The original
story appeared in Stab, though the WSL’s Vice-President of
Global Brand Identity, Mr. Dave Prodan, told the Herald
that Stab‘s reporting was “largely
inaccurate.”
Still, a fun enough moment though it did not seem particularly
noteworthy to me. I don’t ever recall seeing very tightly framed
shots of female professional surfers’ rumps during a webcast nor
have I ever read any complaints about any uncomfortable leering by
the WSL’s lensmen.
Still. Fun. And even more fun when seven-time world champ Layne
Beachley goes on the radio to discuss.
Now, where would you think Ms. Beachley would come down on the
issue? Do you think she would decry blatant sexism whilst praising
the WSL on its (now debunked) stricter guidelines? Well you are
wrong. Layne says bring the sexy!
I respect the fact women can choose the bikinis they wish to
surf in based on comfort or practicality. It’s up to them to choose
how they want to present themselves. I think it’s a step in the
wrong direction as far as telling cameramen that they can’t film
girls duck-diving or doing bottom turns, because that’s a natural
part of surfing. I appreciate the “zooming in” part though, I don’t
think there’s any need to zoom in on it.
I’ve always been a proponent of “sex sells”, and that was a
part of the generation that I came through, and we just struggled
to get any attention and recognition, let alone
sponsorships.
We’ve broken down those barriers and now the women are
actually embracing there femininity, their beauty, their style,
their grace and their sexiness. And if that’s helping them sell the
sport and improve their chances of being supported throughout their
careers, then good luck to them.
Such a wonderfully reasoned response in these shrill times.
Don’t you think?
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Julian Wilson swings into the quarter-finals, despite
rupturing his AC joint at the end of January. Here, with big
brother Bart. | Photo: @tsherms
Day 4, Quik Pro: “Zero tolerance for score
faking!”
Mick Fanning disappears; Filipe soars; judges
discover the joys of tough love.
Kelly and I share many traits and life circumstances,
including teenaged daughters, bad backs, suspicion of the media and
bad insomnia. Laying awake listening to the vast
industrial hum of 999 Twin Towns pokies in the wee hours I fretted
that calling the mood yesterday soviet and sour was too harsh, just
a reflection of my inner state after too many Coronas drunk with
the great Mullet.
When Kelly announced his withdrawal I thought: the sport has
moved on, you won’t be missed, we’ll get on fine without you. But
we didn’t. Not yesterday anyhow. Save Medina and Parkinson, a world
without Kelly felt smaller, more constrained and predictable: a QS
World with a bush league vibe. The surfing, in waves tailor-made
for flaring and high perf, was safety to the max and I am very,
very, very, very happy that Pritamo Ahrendt scored it accordingly.
A ballsy statement.
Today, was different.
Launching the Fanning Foamy out of Mermaids corner in the dark I
got throttled by a squadron of gaping Snapper rocks caverns (do not
Google) and smoked down to Rainbow Bay. A close range cyclone
swell. I know this fucking music! Every Queensland pointbreak
surfer does. Neil Young and Crazy Horse,
Ragged Glory. Find the bass line and enjoy
the guitar squalls. Shut up and paddle.
The crowd finally engaged with the surfing, but it wasn’t
Fanning they cheered. It was Toledo vs Ferreira that raised the
crowd from three days of somnolence.
After watching the Fanning Coffin heat, magnificently eulogised
by Joe Turpe,l I realised there really is only one path forwards
for a man described as an “angel” by Owen Wright. He must become
the next Secretary-General of the United Nations. Imagine the
global one-two punch of Parko as Mayor of Coolangatta and Fanning
as Secretary-General of the UN. That would really put pro surfing
into audience growth mode.
Italo’s backhand, best on tour, seemed undeniable against
Filipe. But the crowd thought otherwise and judges seemed to
cripple it by a crucial margin. Incensed, I stormed the media room
to demand a judge breakdown. The spread on the best scoring waves
differed by a point and a half which would have made all the
difference in a heat decided by less than a point but Filipe had
the crowd, had the jazz and by close of play the ends justified the
means.
Mikey Wright has a schtick but it’s real, at least as far as the
old skool warm-up goes: throwing a football around, the jumping
jacks and the bush hat and big shaggy dog. Big man up close,
well-muscled, 15-17% body fat. Could be a second-rower or a wide
receiver. Behind the bogan facade are rock-solid skills and the
crucial trait of composure.
Mikey Wright warm-up routine with dog etc. Photo:
Longtom
“Whats the strategy against Medina?” I asked his coach Troy
Brooks.
“Start strong and find the better waves. Mikey will do the
bigger turns.”
That is a supremely confident strategy for a Wildcard to take
into a heat against a World Champ and event winner.
Verging on arrogance. He will do bigger turns than Medina? OK,
lets see it.
Medina was preparing up on the rocks. Strange scene. Very quiet,
very holy. A crowd was gathered around. Girls on their haunches,
boys with heads bowed. Medina himself was still and silent. Seconds
passed like minutes. Sweat flowed like rivers. Then he raised his
head and started to move. The silent crowd erupted with cheers and
hallelujahs and speaking in tongues. A feeling like electricity
passed through the crowd in sizzling ripples. A Brazilian girl fell
backwards into me. I put my hand up to say it’s OK.
She said, “No prablem, eets tha life man”.
Mikey put the game plan into action, perfectly. Big strong, raw
opening ride with completed powerful turns. Did exactly what he did
to John Florence: overpowered him in the opening exchange to the
tune of a two-point spread. A two- point spread is hard to overcome
if a surfer can maintain composure. It was wonderful to watch
Medina try and jam against Ragged Glory and find his own
rhythm.
The judges were showing zero tolerance for score manufacturing
and faking. Medina got a four for the best backhand blast I’ve ever
seen. That turn felt like a kick in the guts from a mule, on the
beach, well in the Corona Pavilion. The Australian Mullet put
another big, brutal ride on the scoreboard and then let Medina
swing away on shittier waves, only losing priority with two minutes
to go. Gabby got choked out by the clock. Gone.
“How do you rate that performance?” I asked Troy Brooks.
“On par, for Mikey,” he said.
“Anything to improve upon?”
“He made a tactical error two minutes to go handing over
priority but had such a mental advantage from the opening spread he
got away with it.”
The Colapinto/Parkinson heat had mad drama. Gaping holes
spitting from deep behind the rocks (no Google) were waiting to be
stuffed by J-Parko. But it was Griff who proved to be the rarest of
all phenomena: a fully formed rookie. He had the strategy
elasticity to lash the wider sections with an abundance of
repertoire and then out Parko Parko when he bomb-dropped into a
bulbous keg and slithered out a tiny foamy hole at the top. If Team
Parko review the tape honestly they might revise retirement plans.
There is a world of pain ahead in those match-ups for Parko. For
real.
My notes go squiffy here, sometime after noon. Coronas were
making me see double, the Queensland sun cooked my brain but I
think I had fully flip-flopped on the Slater position by then. The
sport is fine without him. It’s just the dead wood of round two
that distorted perspective.
Fanning’s last heat was odd, to the max. Like Medina, a small
crowd gathered around him as he prepared. The mood amongst the
crowd was tense and expectant. Fanning rocked off, people pushed
closer to the sea. The webcast gave almost zero indication of the
crazy energy focussing on Snapper Rocks.
But it wasn’t Mick who harnessed it. The big O grabbed the heat
by the neck like a pitbull and just savaged it. From a close
vantage point it looked very committed and big surfing.Mick
struggled, got a legrope tangled around his feet, stumbled,
couldn’t find a deep tube and in the end went out with a whimper.
Fanning. Out!
The crowd gathered, waiting to pay their respects. But Mick went
around the back of the main WSL structure and never re-appeared. A
strange feeling came over the crowd. Was that it? It ends like
this?
Filipe’s first ride passed in this strange, respectful silence.
The great Mick Fanning had just surfed his last heat at Snapper,
something should be happening. Some ceremony to commemorate the
occasion. Not just business as usual.
But nothing did and on Filipe’s second wave, about which my
notes read: Say fucking what?! wrt some piece of outrageous
showmanship, maybe the tweaked club sandwich, the crowd erupted and
Mick was……..was forgotten. Terrible to say, but true. Finally
judges saw what they wanted to see and Toledo started strafing the
scoreboard with 8’s and 9’s.
By chance, I saw a line of people stretched down the street down
near McDonalds Greenmount. Families clutching posters mostly and
there, wearing dark shades, Michael Fanning, an angel to all was
discharging his duties as a World Champion surfer, apparently, as
far as I could see, with great distinction.
Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast Round 3 Results:
Heat 1: Owen Wright (AUS) 14.50 def. Willian Cardoso (BRA) 9.04
Heat 2: Mick Fanning (AUS) 11.67 def. Conner Coffin (USA) 7.37
Heat 3: Tomas Hermes (BRA) 12.40 def. Kolohe Andino (USA) 9.60.
Heat 4: Filipe Toledo (BRA) 14.60 def. Italo Ferreira (BRA)
13.70
Heat 5: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 13.36 def. Jeremy Flores (FRA)
13.10
Heat 6: Mikey Wright (AUS) 16.07 def. Gabriel Medina (BRA)
14.90
Heat 7: Julian Wilson (AUS) 7.30 def. Michael February (ZAF)
7.10
Heat 8: Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) 15.26 def. Frederico Morais (PRT)
11.10
Heat 9: Griffin Colapinto (USA) 13.50 def. Joel Parkinson (AUS)
12.94
Heat 10: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 15.07 def. Wade Carmichael (AUS)
13.60
Heat 11: Michel Bourez (PYF) 12.50 def. Connor O’Leary (AUS)
6.43
Heat 12: Michael Rodrigues (BRA) 15.00 def. Jordy Smith (ZAF)
14.40
Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast Round 4 Results:
Heat 1: Owen Wright (AUS) 17.00, Tomas Hermes (BRA) 11.20, Mick
Fanning (AUS) 10.43
Heat 2: Filipe Toledo (BRA) 15.70, Adrian Buchan (AUS) 14.60, Mikey
Wright (AUS) 11.20
Heat 3: Julian Wilson (AUS) 15.97, Griffin Colapinto (USA) 13.83,
Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) 11.67
Heat 4: Michel Bourez (PYF) 13.97, Michael Rodrigues (BRA) 13.83,
Adriano de Souza (BRA) 13.53
Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast Quarterfinal
Matchups:
QF 1: Owen Wright (AUS) vs. Adrian Buchan (AUS)
QF 2: Filipe Toledo (BRA) vs. Tomas Hermes (BRA)
QF 3: Julian Wilson (AUS) vs. Michael Rodrigues (BRA)
QF 4: Michel Bourez (PYF) vs. Griffin Colapinto (USA)
Roxy Pro Gold Coast Semifinal Matchups:
Heat 1: Lakey Peterson (USA) vs. Malia Manuel (HAW)
Heat 2: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) vs. Keely Andrew (AUS)
Jack Freestone too! Off the books, allegedly, for
2019!
Joel Parkinson is not the kind of guy who would
be at a place like this at this time in his career. But here he is,
allegedly, though he cannot say the terrain is entirely unfamiliar.
He is on the Gold Coast right now, participating in the World Surf
League’s 2018 kickoff and, by all accounts, surfing well. But a
rumor just floating past my ears as I picked up dry cleaning that
his relationship with Billabong will end in 2019. Stablemate Jack
Freestone’s too.
And he has certainly watched many of his friends leave, or be
left by, longtime sponsors. He watched Andy Irons’ younger brother
Bruce and Volcom part ways. He watched Kelly Slater and Quiksilver
go on without each other. And now, if the whisper is to be
believed, it is his turn. Still a young man, by some accounts, but
the product of a different generation.
He traveled in the course of his career from the meticulous to
the slime, witnessing the Association of Surfing Professionals
become the World Surf League along the way and winning one of their
world champion trophies in 2012.
But what now? What happens when an arguably young man reaches
the end?
Politics?
I’ve always thought Joel Parkinson had a bit of the statesman in
him or at least since the first time I spoke with him on Oahu’s
North Shore. His voice is uncharacteristically high though he can
be easily understood. Bogan is a language as natural as human
breath, I’ve come to find. It is a chipped tongue in which the
endings fill up the pauses, covering those gaps and gaucheries of
conversation that embarrass Americans and the British. It’s a
language whose inertia has remained on the plus side. It’s a
language in which the voice runs to all levels and Joel Parkinson’s
voice mostly runs very high.
I cannot remember what we spoke about but my memory has him as a
statesman. And if it is true that Billabong is indeed taking his
contract off the books for 2019 then I hope he runs for Coolangatta
city council. I think he would do well there. I think his star
would rise and he would someday be elected Prime Minister.
Come read Sophie Goldschmidt's vision for the surf
future!
I had the opportunity to meet Sophie
Goldschmidt, the World Surf League’s chief executive, at Surf Ranch
alongside the most important surf journalists of our day (minus
Steve Shearer, Matt Warshaw and David Lee Scales) at a small
Mexican restaurant on Lemoore’s main drag. I cannot properly recall
if she was drinking margaritas or not, nor if she ordered a
chimichanga, but I was happy for professional surfing that she was
there.
Her predecessor, Mr. Paul Speaker, did not possess the temerity
for face to face meetings. If I’m allowed to parse his brief run at
the top, I would say that he believed in surfing without surfers.
That he could take the core physical/competitive activity, burn off
the ugly cancers, repackage and sell it to the rest of the world.
Bigger than football. Bigger than life.
Unfortunately for him, surfing’s ugly cancers metastasized long
ago and cannot be cut away.
Ms. Goldschmidt seems to recognize this fact, see her meeting at
a small Mexican restaurant and read her words in a new, wide
ranging ESPN W
interview. It is well worth a read. My favorite bit
was when first told about professional surfing, her response was,
“Wow, this exists?”
I also enjoyed her take on the new Facebook partnership.
We feel for our long-term growth, we need to invest in
technology in our events, in the infrastructure that we’re building
out around our operations, in the Kelly Slater Wave Company, in our
marketing and communications resources. I wouldn’t say we’re niche,
but we’re not nearly as mainstream as we’d like to be. We’re really
in audience-growth mode. We were so excited to expand our Facebook
deal, which was pretty groundbreaking for us. One of the key
reasons we went with it is because it’s free. You don’t have to pay
to watch content on Facebook, and that’s really important to us.
Maybe some at some point down the road, we will have some kind of
subscription service for content, but I think, philosophically,
it’s always going to be important that a significant amount of our
content is available for free. It’s kind of the surfing ethos to a
certain extent.
Gross, unrealistic expectations certainly are the surfer’s
ethos. No wonder Paul Speaker tried to perform surgery.
