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!”
By Longtom
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)
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Rumor: Joel Parkinson to be dropped by
‘Bong!
By Chas Smith
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.
If not politics then what? The Mad Hueys?
Let’s discuss Jack Freestone tomorrow.
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Ms. Goldschmidt at Surf Ranch.
WSL CEO: “Wow, this exists?”
By Chas Smith
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.
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John got his head held underwater by the Australian
mullet on the opening exchange and ended up getting his arse well
and truly beat by the wildcard. | Photo: WSL
Day 3, Quik Pro: “A Sour Soviet Mood!”
By Longtom
Round two was terribly dull. Goodbye John John.
Joel P gives a little dazzle.
Stumbling into Ross Williams on the path between
Greenmount and Snapper I intro’ed myself as Steve Shearer
writing for BeachGrit. He said, “Uh huh.”
Big man in the flesh, over six foot, Dad bod.
I asked him if I could chat to him about his coaching of John
John 2018.
He said he wasn’t doing any media and I said, “Uh huh.”
“Any changes to the formula,” I pressed.
He said, “Nah”.
The reticence I believe was due to the arctic camo and
syphilitic skin cancers up in his grill.
“What about boards, putting more volume in made a massive
difference last year, any changes this year?”
“He’s a big dude,”he said. “Still growing, so we need to keep
evolving the equipment.”
It was a low-energy exchange and it left me worried about
John.
There is a growing trend in him towards philosophicalism, a
character flaw I am well acquainted with. Anyone seeking self
knowledge via a surfing competition is prone to wandering in a
wilderness of delusion. That is called, in the school of Surf
Journalism I subscribe to, as The Kelly Error.
John did start low energy against Mikey Wright. He got
his head held underwater in the opening exchanges by the Australian
mullet and ended up getting his arse well and truly beat by the
wildcard.
Gabby played rope-a-dope against Leo slipping away from expected
confrontation and laying hammer blows on smaller waves, drawing the
pity of Ronnie Blakey who called the wave Gabby surfed a “poor
thing.”
The bigger showcase was the judging signal laid down by new Head
Judge Pritamo Ahrendt. It was a major and much needed correction of
Porta Era over-scoring. Leo threw a technically perfect tail high
throw and got a 3.77. It would have got a high six under
Porta. In the rush to establish the scale Medina was probably
underscored, especially in the context of a day of mostly mediocre
round two surfing.
Wilko choked against new rookie Michael February. For perfect
two-to-three-foot rippable point surf it seemed incredibly easy to
get lost out there. I’ve long thought incumbency is as much of a
hindrance as a help at Snapper and Wilko proved my point.
I needed some expert advice to find out why and sought the
counsel of Irish Super Strategist and Coach of the most lethal team
in pro surfing history, Glen Micro Hall.
Once again I intro’ed myself and we shook hands. Little man,
clean cut, ripped. Shaved down if I’m not mistaken.
“Glen”, I said “Why are Wilko and other top seeds finding this
lineup so hard to read? There are good waves everywhere out
there.”
“I don’t know,” he said.
“Any theories?”
“Nah, not really.”
Is that not core business?
Do coaches not collect their ten percent to figure this shit
out? Or am I reading this wrong?
There was no question of rookies over-respecting incumbents and
the day was looking tedious until Parko took the water behind the
rock against Pat Gudauskas. In the last two days I have seen
hundreds of waves spit their guts out after barrelling from behind
the rock. And not one pro surfer has paddled over and caught
one.
Parko threaded one, then two, then three. Putting the big
swinging top turn carve on the end for emphasis. The only waves
ridden in two full days of mens competition that reached into the
eight-plus excellent range.
Objectively analysing the crowd using scientific transects and
language detection I estimated the official language of QuikPro as
Portugese. Lots of gals, lots of brown guys. Not White Australia at
all. A gal in front of me and Jazzy P swooned and dropped to the
floor in the Corona Pavilion. Two babes in front swivelled bottoms
slowly from side to side like honeybees at the hive. The air was
thick with the chemical smell of sunscreen and human
pheromones.
A cadet surf journalist interned to me by Derek Hynd asked me if
I had any advice and I said, “The best way to avoid a hangover is
not to drink but the best way to deal with a hangover is to have
another one.”
“Jazzy P, have you got your hands on the BG purse strings, I
need another Corona.”
M Rod was the only other pale sun to shine on a dull day when
anticipation of much greater things to come infused the day with a
sour, Soviet mood emanating from judges, surfers, fans, coaches and
surf journalists alike.
Round two. We should all write a letter to the Commissioner and
ask them to drop-kick it off a cliff.
What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.
Cyclone 13P named by the Joint Typhoon Warning Centre in
Honolulu is bearing down on the QLD coast and on track to deliver a
finals finish at Kirra if WSL can play their cards right. If,
comrades, they had run overlapping heats today they could’ve been
in a go position to pick the eyes out of what may be a small window
of cyclonic opportunity and enlivened an otherwise dull day.
Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast Round 2 Results:
Heat 1: Mikey Wright (AUS) 15.10 def. John John Florence (HAW)
10.76
Heat 2: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 13.00 def. Leonardo Fioravanti (ITA)
7.90
Heat 3: Michael February (ZAF) 11.03 def. Matt Wilkinson (AUS)
8.97
Heat 4: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 11.40 def. Ian Gouveia (BRA)
10.07
Heat 5: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 17.03 def. Patrick Gudauskas (USA)
9.67
Heat 6: Michael Rodrigues (BRA) 14.67 def. Sebastian Zietz (HAW)
10.80
Heat 7: Frederico Morais (PRT) 12.16 def. Ezekiel Lau (HAW)
9.90
Heat 8: Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) 10.60 def. Keanu Asing (HAW) 8.86
Heat 9: Willian Cardoso (BRA) 12.90 def. Caio Ibelli (BRA)
10.83
Heat 10: Conner Coffin (USA) 12.20 def. Yago Dora (BRA) 10.60
Heat 11: Tomas Hermes (BRA) 14.93 def. Joan Duru (FRA) 12.17
Heat 12: Wade Carmichael (AUS) 11.74 def. Jesse Mendes (BRA)
11.13
Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast Round 3 Matchups:
Heat 1: Owen Wright (AUS) vs. Willian Cardoso (BRA)
Heat 2: Mick Fanning (AUS) vs. Conner Coffin (USA)
Heat 3: Kolohe Andino (USA) vs. Tomas Hermes (BRA)
Heat 4: Filipe Toledo (BRA) vs. Italo Ferreira (BRA)
Heat 5: Jeremy Flores (FRA) vs. Adrian Buchan (AUS)
Heat 6: Gabriel Medina (BRA) vs. Mikey Wright (AUS)
Heat 7: Julian Wilson (AUS) vs. Michael February (ZAF)
Heat 8: Frederico Morais (PRT) vs. Kanoa Igarashi (JPN)
Heat 9: Joel Parkinson (AUS) vs. Griffin Colapinto (USA)
Heat 10: Adriano de Souza (BRA) vs. Wade Carmichael (AUS)
Heat 11: Connor O’Leary (AUS) vs. Michel Bourez (PYF)
Heat 12: Jordy Smith (ZAF) vs. Michael Rodrigues (BRA)
Roxy Pro Gold Coast Semifinal Matchups:
Heat 1: Lakey Peterson (USA) vs. Malia Manuel (HAW)
Heat 2: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) vs. Keely Andrew (AUS)