A title wrapped in Portugal is Dirk Ziff's worst nightmare…
Sleep deprivation is a nasty drug, second only to a seasick hangover for bringing on a sour, joyless vibe. Seen Captain Jack Sparrow’s vision of hell in Pirates of Caribbean? The one where all the rocks turns to crabs and he tows his ship endlessly in a salty desert? That’s covering Portugal for me.
Yet watching round three heats at the Supertubos this evening I found my spirits elevated and a single rhetorical question: “how fucking good is this?” kept repeating. If you like, or even love surfing, watching live surfing from the best in the world is a total no-brainer.
How can the WSL alienate surfers from a product featuring surfing? Thats a special kind of talent. It should be the ultimate shooting-fish-in-a-bowl scenario.
New boy Erik Logan has been bought on to introduce some kind of pay per view. Will you pay? Me? A qualified yes. Most definitely on a contest by contest basis. Most definitely for some kind of Grand Slam leg featuring Indo, J-Bay, Tahiti and hopefully Fiji. Most definitely for any kind of slimmed down Super Event in the Ments to determine a World Champ.
Pipe, yes.
Would I pay a year-long subscription to watch the Tour in its current iteration and format? Probably not. Too much dross and long arduous slogs to whittle away the deadwood and get to the good match-ups. It’s punishment I’m not willing to pay for.
Looking back on the year and, inadvertently, the Tour has stumbled on some portals to a future product that appeals. The back to back Bali leg was sick. Especially because the field for Ulus had already been whittled down and we cut straight to the chase. Reduced field, Indo leg Doesn’t need to be G-Land, doesn’t need to be Deserts or No-Kandui’s. Ulus is fine. That should be carved in stone.
Surf Ranch was boring but the leaderboard and finals day after the cut was the format of the future. Will they have the vision and balls to take the opportunity to grasp that or will they stay mired in a product rejected by the market for 40 years and suffer another humiliating retreat?
The time is now. Got to be. You can’t expect people to pay for the same thing they have rejected when they get it for free. That’s a special kind of madness.
The first heat of round three was announced by Strider in a soft pink scarf and beanie. To my eye, a nice offset to the weathered head with the attack dog tits well sheathed. Mendes started strong. Italo looked over-caffeinated. With Mendes enjoying a solid lead Italo greased a far reaching air reverse. The first of many passion claims for the day followed. 7.33.
Mendes was over-scored on a chunky right to take back the lead. With 30 seconds to go, Italo aimed a solid two-turn combo into the lip of a groomed semi-close-out. In the presser that followed the close victory he announced a disdain for the human judges.
“Only God can judge me,” he said.
Strictly speaking Italo, those judges do too. But they sometimes get it wrong.
Not this time.
Heat two with Zeke and Kolohe was a classic. Zeke over-powered Kolohe. Brother answered back. There was a helluva lot of body language communication with the judging panel. Zeke rode a wave with 45 seconds to go and the judges awarded it a perfect tie. Which meant, highest score wave went to Zeke and he took the heat. A vision of surfing as jock sport heaven isn’t for everyone, true. But I think Noa Deane would have quietly applauded, in his heart of hearts.
Wilko edged out Jordy. Morais was just a whisker too good for Connor. Bourez survived a miracle tube-ride, the first deep dark drainer of the event but was judged incomplete. He got a three for a ten but still won against M-Rod.
The Medina-Callinan heat did not disappoint after a slow start. Medina laid the biggest upside down backside hook of the event into the wind to take the lead. As the heat wound down he started living all over Callinan, smothering him like an elephant seal. That forced Callinan into an interference and it was game over.
The tactic was not Fanning approved. “If the wave’s not there I don’t think you need to be that close,” he said.
With the anti-hassling rule brought in after the Zeke/John John incident, it could have backfired spectacularly for Medina. With black eyes glinting in the presser, he gave Callinan, he told Rosie “no space.”
Medina’s win put extra pressure on Toledo. A loss means Medina can clinch in Portugal. He hasn’t looked the same since that close loss to Callinan in France and against Joan Duru he again looked brittle and flaky. It was tight, and his best ride was lowballed. It could have been a low seven and not a mid six. Have a look and see what you think. The door was left open for Duru and he slammed it with a six with a minute to go.
Wilson got through. One long deep sand sucking tube was enough, with a minor back-up to get past Gouviea.
Close-out beachbreak ain’t really my bag, but you couldn’t deny the challenge. The tide dropped and the predicted North wind started howling.
Italo smashed round four heat one with a pair of sevens, the second a seriously throaty one. Wilko through, Zeke bounced.
Medina through in heat two.
The tide bottomed out, raggedy closeouts finally forced the hand of Trav Logie. He called it off after the third heat of round four.
The title is still live. Wilson out, Medina wins is Ziff’s worst nightmare.
MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal Round 3 Results:
Heat 1: Italo Ferreira (BRA) 13.66 def. Jesse Mendes (BRA) 13.30
Heat 2: Ezekiel Lau (HAW) 13.40 def. Kolohe Andino (USA) 13.40
Heat 3: Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 12.83 def. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 12.77
Heat 4: Frederico Morais (PRT) 11.33 def. Conner Coffin (USA) 10.40
Heat 5: Michel Bourez (PYF) 12.33 def. Michael Rodrigues (BRA) 11.14
Heat 6: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 13.60 def. Ryan Callinan (AUS) 7.33
Heat 7: Joan Duru (FRA) 12.50 def. Filipe Toledo (BRA) 12.10
Heat 8: Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) 13.60 def. Jeremy Flores (FRA) 9.77
Heat 9: Wade Carmichael (AUS) 10.17 def. Tomas Hermes (BRA) 5.30
Heat 10: Owen Wright (AUS) 15.27 def. Patrick Gudauskas (USA) 6.97
Heat 11: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 9.66 def. Willian Cardoso (BRA) 7.03
Heat 12: Julian Wilson (AUS) 13.90 def. Ian Gouveia (BRA) 7.17
MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal Round 4 (H1-3) Results:
Heat 1: Italo Ferreira (BRA) 14.60, Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 13.30, Ezekiel Lau (HAW) 6.00
Heat 2: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 11.67, Michel Bourez (PYF) 7.84, Frederico Morais (PRT) 3.63
Heat 3: Joan Duru (FRA) 11.50, Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) 9.10, Wade Carmichael (AUS) 7.93
MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal Remaining Round 4 (H4) Matchups:
Heat 4: Owen Wright (AUS), Adrian Buchan (AUS), Julian Wilson (AUS)
I pay for surfing content,
Matt Warshaw’s EOS, gladly.
Kidman.
Might’ve paid for The FreeRide Voice.
Bet most of the freaks in here would’ve…
Independent media needs support.
WSL is an private investment, should make money out of advertise, social media and whatnots.
Anyone you know pays for porn ? (smiley with tongue out and money eyes)
phil won his heat. watch it again and decide who was surfing better. safety surfing won out again,
You deserve a special kind of award for sitting through this all season. Hitler didn’t show this level of attrition.
Just have wsl camera guys follow and document all CT surfers year Round and create original content.
Sorry Wade. I couldnt resist.
hahahahahahahaha I’d probably doubt that but I’m pretty sure he knew the guy is more than enough of a threat in a close heat when a world title is insight.
Rumor here is (France) that WSL/ Quicksilver just signed up for the Hossegor Pro till 2021 , Pretty sure RC have the same deal with Peniche , which means there will be no Mentawi final 6 , and looks like Oaktree will still support the QS/Bong branded events!
The only fan base who would sit for 8 hrs and watch live surfing or 1 hr of action tops , would be a surfer , so their is a serious limit to the fan base as live surfing is too boring!
But the reality tv side of documenting the surfers is less boring then current mainstream tv. Travel, missed flights, excess baggage, airports, problems etc. Punters will watch that all night
Well Ryno beat him last time they met.
i went off a bit early there. had been having a similar discussion with mates who were just whinging because he’s a brazzo. couldn’t help myself
Medina, Filippo, all it takes is someone to have one good heat to knock them out, it’s going to pipe Dirk will love it
had no idea, wow! well, he’s perfect for boxing, mma, etc!
A couple observations.
1) Live, competitive surfing will NEVER appeal to a non-surfing audience at a level which the current administration is hoping for. The WSL is wasting money trying.
2) The time zone thing kills it live for many of even the most hard core fans
3) The actual “sport” is difficult to understand (judging, strategy, etc). There’s no clear goal or finish line. Point scored, line crossed, guy gets knocked out, etc. Surfing can rarely produce that, if ever.
4) Relying on nature to produce a contestable playing field will always be an issue. No, wave pools isn’t the fix.
5) We need to “grow” surfing why? Fuck the Olympics. 2 ft blown out Japanese mush isn’t exciting and will probably do more harm than good.
6) Facebook might be the most tone deaf decision yet, that is until the paywall comes along. We only watch it because it’s surfing and it free. Oh, and BTW, Facebook is not a platform of the desired demographic.
My two cent’s solution.
1) 16 surfers in the main event. 14 seeds with some wildcard formula to bring in new blood.
2) One, two day max events in great surf. Pick locations that work, not that are convenient. Is the gate $$ even a factor?
3) Create a live broadcast aimed at the core consumer,. Down and dirty is fine.
4) Bring back surf brand sponsors.
Hurley/Lowers, Volcom/Fiji, Bong/Pipe, etc.
5) Create 30 minute packaged programming for mainstream tv. They don’t care if it’s live. It just a novelty to most.
6) Get a fucken surfer involved in the key decision making if you want our attention.
That’s all I got.
Medina don’t think
He just wins
Back in the late 70s and 80s we always said the best surfers weren’t on the tour… fast foreward… now clearly the top contest surfers are taking a alternative route on income…. the Pro with Out a Cause tour is worthless without “best extreme waves” as it’s goal. This would attack audiance and advertisers would follow.
As always, you nailed it LT…
I think the WSL is full on cultivating that ‘special kind of talent’ (corporate), and one day in the not too distant future, surfing, and pro surfing, will be almost unrelateable.
Maybe just don’t watch it if it suck so bad.
But you will keep watching cause you love it.
That may be
The only reason I stayed up; then to bed.
We need claims. We need hassling. We need conflict. We need good waves. We need shit waves. We need stories. We need God fearing surfers. We need Atheist surfers. We need groupies. We need star fans.
Surfing needs DRAMA and its lacking it 99% of the time.
You must be watching the QS
Compelling argument. Yeah you’re right. Let’s dumb it down.
I noticed Eric Logan missing from your list. #hiddenagendaric?
Busted.
And Riots ? Well maybe not that far but it all seems a bit to sanitized for my liking as if they scrubbed up a couple of wild kids and dressed them up for their first Holy Communion ?
I’m all for hassling, )wish they took it further actually(
After all, I’m on BeachGrit!
Post heat interviews with both winner and loser separated by a coffee table and bodyguards to create a Gerry Springer Show like atmosphere .Possibly more exciting than 80% of live heats ?Especially for close heats with less than 0.10 separating the result and replay the 2 scoring waves of each surfer and have a judge explain to the victim why 3 judges gave him the score but he/she still lost as the scene turns to pandemonium and the ratings and clicks go soaring through the roof . Sounds like fertile ground for a REBEL TOUR ?
Yeah I should state I fucken love the hassle. It’s just boring as shit/slightly offensive for the layman and woman
Not sure they lost the “surf sponsors” as much as they simply priced them out of the market.
Couldn’t agree more
Never miss his heats
Even Mick said he’s a cool guy out of the surf.
Massive winner!!