...a total refutation of the piece I was going to
write but have to now choke on.
Ever have those nightmares where you’re trying
to run away from some beast in the night but you can’t run? You
can’t run, you can’t scream and the sticky tentacles of some grisly
fate seem to inexorably drag you downwards. S’how I feel about
covering pro surfing. I try to escape and I can’t. Just end up
alone in a room under a single bulb at 2am trying to make sense out
of the nonsensical.
Which in this case was a whole day spent in a funk wondering why
pro surfing seems to inevitably drift towards the safe and the
conservative. It was dragging me with it, serving up lukewarm meat
and potatoes camouflaged as surf writing and there seemed no
escape. No Dane clause I could invoke.
Stick with me. Risk does not equal reward under the current
format. A subjective sport pitching itself as the elite surfers
surfing at the highest level has an existential problem – an ugly
monster David Lynch himself would be proud of – that all the sports
management jargon in the world can’t hide.
Y’see I wrote that as the opening heat siren went to begin
another days competition in perfect Jbay. An a priori observation.
What happened next was the most stunning counter-factual to the
above argument. I’m still stunned by it.
Filipe came on stage the third heat of the day and dialled up
the intensity 20, 30 percent on what had transpired previous. The
turn speed, vicious angles and repertoire made the screen sizzle.
He put Yago Dora in what Joe Turpel called a “subtle” combo and
then what I call a brutal combo.
It was a total refutation of the piece I was going to write but
have to now choke on: That somehow skill development and risk
became stymied in professional surfers and that what we, the
general public and pro surfing fan base get served up, are slowly
degrading versions of the surfers who come on Tour. Maybe the
argument still holds, but huge exceptions now need to be carved
out, weakening it; perhaps fatally. Kelly Slater in the Dane
Reynolds Era is exhibit A for the rebuttal. Filipe Toledo, Exhibit
B.
Griffin Colapinto, one of the rare mutants to drop out of the QS
womb fully formed, gave a clue as to how the progression might take
place. It accords with the science of expertise and skill
acquisition analysed by Florida State Professor Anders Eriksson.
Eriksson highlighted the importance of “mental representations” in
becoming a master. Colapinto in his post heat presser said he’d
been lying in his bed dreaming, imagining the pure Joel Parkinson
line at Jbay. He outdid the master and outclassed another scrappy
dog performance by Mikey Wright. Griff was sharp and smooth but not
sterile, his Final wave was fucking blem. A 9.57.
Medina and O’Leary tore into sunlit walls that had what food
writer AA Gill might describe as a “delectable texture”. I’ll say
what you were thinking: Medina now has the best style with the
fewest interruptions to the pure top to bottom speed line of any
Top 34 surfer. The lack of nervous movement is a gorgeous divinity
and no, I’m not high.
The final 4 heats of the day, being Rd 4 heats one to four
cumulatively represented the best sequence of pro surfing heats
this year. Jbay specialists Joel Parkinson, Jordy Smith and Connor
Coffin derived top flow and tremendous rail turns in Ht 1 as the
lead seesawed and then reversed. Parko took off from the gates like
a 2 year old at a barrier trial and then was run down by a fast
finishing Connor Coffin. His last place was a savage indictment on
his inability to find another gear. As a swansong it was both
elegant and elegiac. His presser was an examplar of grace. Please
find it and listen.
Julian kept his shot at the title alive after an indifferent
heat with a wave of brilliance in the final minute to go from last
to first.
Three man heats in perfect surf are a sweet spot of performance
and entertainment. We can agree on this, no matter our country of
origin, sexual identity etc etc , yes? I think we can. Waves being
ridden, nothing going to waste, a mini leaderboard. Drama. Filipe
took it to another level in Heat 3. It was obvious that he was
prepared to build on his performance from last year. He fell on the
end turn of a wave that was a certain 10 , a wave that made my body
twitch with pleasure. Adriano was magnificent; another example of
one of the rarified few who have managed to improve their skill set
while on Tour. I think, I hope, all the talk of the ugly squat
style will be banished, will become as offensive as the n word
after Adrianos surfing today. No disrespect intended.
Seabass was a cooked goose, shot. Stick a fork in him and pull
him out of the oven. With half the heat done it was like he was
shot out of a star cannon. He ditched Adriano from second to
elimination with brutal radical precision.
I was glad they called it off after the end of Heat 4 , Rd 4. I
couldn’t take much more. I did not know Kanoa Igarashi could surf
that good. Total revision of my opinion of him required. Medina
looked bemused, almost shocked as Griff elbowed him out of the way
to ride a wave on the buzzer. It was not enough. But still an
almost comical end to a heat that Medina looked to have squashed
between his thighs with two powerful 8 point rides.
Did you watch? Thrilled? Almost as much as by Stone Dead Soph’s
mea culpa on Facebook posted on the WSL site today. What a great
day it was. What a turnaround! There is hope for us all, even
us
Men’s Corona Open J-Bay Remaining Round 3 (H5-12)
Results:
Heat 5: Wade Carmichael (AUS) 16.77 def. Jeremy
Flores (FRA) 11.70
Heat 6: Julian Wilson (AUS) 12.80 def.
Wiggolly Dantas (BRA) 12.23
Heat 7: Filipe Toledo (BRA) 16.60 def. Yago Dora
(BRA) 7.94
Heat 8: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 13.77 def. Michael
Rodrigues (BRA) 10.84
Heat 9: Sebastian Zietz (HAW) def. Owen Wright
(AUS) INJ
Heat 10: Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) 15.83 def. Willian
Cardoso (BRA) 7.67
Heat 11: Griffin Colapinto (USA) 17.70 def. Mikey
Wright (AUS) 11.67
Heat 12: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 15.63 def.
Connor O’Leary (AUS) 14.20
Men’s Corona Open J-Bay Round 4 Results:
Heat 1: Conner Coffin (USA) 16.03, Jordy Smith (ZAF)
15.56, Joel Parkinson (AUS) 14.20
Heat 2: Julian Wilson (AUS) 13.66, Wade Carmichael
(AUS) 13.00, Frederico Morais (PRT) 12.90
Heat 3: Filipe Toledo (BRA) 17.23, Sebastian Zietz
(HAW) 16.13, Adriano de Souza (BRA) 15.23
Heat 4: Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) 18.04, Gabriel Medina
(BRA) 16.50, Griffin Colapinto (USA) 9.50
Men’s Corona Open J-Bay Quarterfinal
Matchups:
QF 1: Conner Coffin (USA) vs. Wade Carmichael
(AUS)
QF 2: Julian Wilson (AUS) vs. Jordy Smith
(ZAF)
QF 3: Filipe Toledo (BRA) vs. Gabriel Medina
(BRA)
QF 4: Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) vs. Sebastian Zietz
(HAW)
