A good opening day…
Even at it’s absolute worst D-Bah is still a great venue. Ronnie was pondering with Pete Mel the preponderance of champion surfers on the Gold Coast.
They neglected to mention the obvious fact that was right in front of them.
Through onshores, tidal ranges, wind squalls and every other vicissitude of wave and weather D-Bah throws up surfable peaks. As it does every day of the year, so it did today.
The swell line is split into multiple wave trains as it runs across the Tweed River tidal bar. Separated swell trains arrive at a multitude of angles, some of them bouncing and refracting off the river breakwall. Tell me, did you see a single straight closeout today? That is why.
Pete Mel said he had been studying waves in the off-season as part of his pre-season training. He came up with refraction and convergence.
I know you are reading Pete, Phase enhancement is the term you are looking for.
The swell line is split into multiple wave trains as it runs across the Tweed River tidal bar. Separated swell trains arrive at a multitude of angles, some of them bouncing and refracting off the river breakwall.
Tell me, did you see a single straight closeout today? That is why.
WSL came out cock-a-hoop for the opening day of 2019.
Taking stock: the QS is thriving, the WSL has merged with it’s former mortal enemy RedBull and is producing slick content with them and on its own terms. New three-year deals have been inked with Quiksilver and Rip Curl for Snapper and Bells, Margies is locked in for two.
All of a sudden, with Sophie G’s hand on the tiller it looks more solid than ever. With Redbull in the tent the chance of a Rebel Tour is nil. As Steinberg observed of Lyndon B Johnson: “(She) has learned to seize authority from the lazy or slow, threaten and storm the weak, flatter the vain, promise the greedy, buy off the stubborn, and isolate the strong”.
I’ve been thinking about Kelly’s legacy a lot.
It’s an appropriate past-time for surf writers. It presents us all with many facets of contradictory feelings, that even a great artist could barely give expression to. For one, the strange incongruity that despite decades of dominance there is barely a hint of his style or approach in any of the top 34 surfers on Tour. No one looks like him. There are no imitators. His influence, even as his time on Tour winds down looks to be weirdly understated.
There is legacy – what Wikipedia and the casuals will think when they hear his name – and legacy. Let us be honest: pro surfing is a sport for the very few. It is those few who decide the legacy.
Or is it silly to make that distinction?
The back half of the heat draw looked like it might be a let down after the first half. Medina had set the pace, as expected. Non-forecast dependent. Non-location dependent. He threw the opening manoeuvre on his opening wave up towards the wall, twisted like a pickle fork in the breeze and carried on as if 2018 never ended. A power down-carve and sped-up nose-pick reverse was adjudged (rightly) as the only excellent scoring wave of the day and in so doing established a template for good surfing in 2019.
The biggest turns of the day belonged to Michel Bourez, who had trained for onshore D-Bah surfing Teahupoo thereby “getting the good waves out of my system”. Soap around the bath-tub cutbacks with a Baryshnikovian rebound and exaggerated sprays were the foundation of his heat win.
Kiwi battlers > Aussie battlers. Like many I rooted for Ricardo Christie who earned a second go around at being a rookie. Unluckily for him, a Brazilian battler on a clear board, Michael Rodriguez and noted Aussie battler Wade Carmichael, who ran his closing wave “wet and deep”, pushed him into relegation. Christie needs nothing more than some luck to run his way.
A slovenly D-Bah threw on a touch of mascara for heat 11 as an offshore wind spruced up the lineup. I had made a bold prediction that Kolohe’s unfashion with judges would be balanced out this year by more favourable views.
Such it was as he got highballed for a series of cutbacks into first place. Luke Egan was in the booth with Ron Blakey. Luke’s normally deeply somnolent style had been injected with extra vim and vigour. It was not an unpleasant coupling.
It was good to see Travis Bickle picking up his contest jersey for the last heat of the day.
Caught you out too?
I had to go on my own training program for this year, and I’m glad I did because a lot of people got very emotionally exercised when I suggested JJF’s opening heat, his opening wave, was crucial to his re-integration into the Tour.
.@johnjohnflorenc is BACK! Tune in to watch him in the final heat in Round 1 of the #QuikPro #GoldCoast now on https://t.co/ie0ZfNdmHw , https://t.co/Go1G6Cz5rM , or the WSL app!@Quiksilver pic.twitter.com/vucEvNpesh
— World Surf League (@wsl) April 3, 2019
It was just an obvious point that to keep up with the new front-runners of the Tour he needed to come out of the blocks firing. Somehow that made people very angry.
Opening turn, opening wave John, launched an awkward air reverse. A stray foot couldn’t kill it. A flat five was awarded. Mikey started hacking away with a classic Aussie power-squat stance that is somehow derided as unstylish when performed by Gabriel Medina.
Thirty seconds to go and John is in danger of being shunted to round two – where, let’s face it, a loss would put his 2019 into Rigor mortis – he catches a weird looking peak, pumps for speed and launches a difficult to land air reverse away from the wind.
That, sports fans, may be the most crucial wave John rides this year. Good opening day.
A bold and beautiful move by a newly confident WSL to take it to D-Bah.
For the first time the Tour did not look dependent on either Kelly or John for star power.
The locus of leverage has shifted.
Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast Round 1 Results:
Heat 1: Griffin Colapinto (USA) 10.26 DEF. Soli Bailey (AUS) 9.83, Owen Wright (AUS) 8.23
Heat 2: Jack Freestone (AUS) 10.67 DEF. Ezekiel Lau (HAW) 10.47, Jordy Smith (ZAF) 5.03
Heat 3: Yago Dora (BRA) 14.33 DEF. Italo Ferreira (BRA) 11.93, Kelly Slater (USA) 9.70
Heat 4: Joan Duru (FRA) 11.10 DEF. Filipe Toledo (BRA) 9.53, Caio Ibelli (BRA) 7.60
Heat 5: Seth Moniz (HAW) 11.17 DEF. Reef Heazlewood (AUS) 9.50, Julian Wilson (AUS) 8.36
Heat 6: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 13.84 DEF. Ryan Callinan (AUS) 13.57, Mateus Herdy (BRA) 7.23
Heat 7: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 10.13 DEF. Conner Coffin (USA) 10.00, Jadson Andre (BRA) 8.40
Heat 8: Michel Bourez (PYF) 13.27 DEF. Jeremy Flores (FRA) 8.90, Leonardo Fioravanti (ITA) 7.57
Heat 9: Michael Rodrigues (BRA) 13.17 DEF. Wade Carmichael (AUS) 13.07, Ricardo Christie (NZL) 12.67
Heat 10: Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) 12.73 DEF. Deivid Silva (BRA) 12.00, Sebastian Zietz (HAW) 8.03
Heat 11: Kolohe Andino (USA) 11.00 DEF. Jesse Mendes (BRA) 10.90, Willian Cardoso (BRA) 8.40
Heat 12: Mikey Wright (AUS) 12.10 DEF. John John Florence (HAW) 10.93, Peterson Crisanto (BRA) 8.36
Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast Round 2 Matchups:
Heat 1: Julian Wilson (AUS) vs. Leonardo Fioravanti (ITA) vs. Mateus Herdy (BRA)
Heat 2: Jordy Smith (ZAF) vs. Ricardo Christie (NZL) vs. Caio Ibelli (BRA)
Heat 3: Owen Wright (AUS) vs. Peterson Crisanto (BRA) vs. Kelly Slater (USA)
Heat 4: Willian Cardoso (BRA) vs. Sebastian Zietz (HAW) vs. Jadson Andre (BRA)
I hate the fact that Gabby is a great surfer. It Shits me.
he looked amazing.
UBer surfer
HOLD ON DID WE LOSE THE HEAT ANALYZER???? no way am i watching entire heats.
Italo looks like Mike Tyson in his prime, ready to launch, punch and destroy. If this kid continues to work out the comp strategy side he will be world title threat.
That’s the point, he needs a bit of Gabe strategy head
“All of a sudden, with Sophie G’s hand on the tiller it looks more solid than ever.”
I’d disagree given that the app functionality is worse than ever, heat analyzer has disappeared, announcing is more sanitized than ever, facebook is looking worse all the time and no way am I getting an account to watch it on there. It’s anecdotal, but the people I surf with seem to care about it less and less about the events every year. Maybe because the WSL is trying to get the elusive non-surfing viewer, but it’s just never going to happen.
I agree with all those points, but if you merely look at the money scaffolding pro surfing Sophie has done a good job of shoring it up.
#gojaddy
If the ocean and the pool and ELo want it to be , it shall be ?
Couple good 540s on the day as well …
Six degrees of separation or 180 or 360 ?
credit where credit is due. nice baiting.
👀👀
what happened to filly?
Michel Bourez ripped. As for Gabriel and co., I understand that it’s radical to do airs like a skater… But it still looks like skating, and skating gets boring.
By the way, what happened to jjf pulling out of the comp? Fake news?
Is he surfing that good?
I realize that is fantasy sorry to get off topic LT. But it’s difficult for me to get excited about D Bah. 3 or 4 events in waves like that and just go ahead and crown Yago.
There is nothing we can do about it either. The best thing about surfing is also the worst thing. Great conditions are elusive pure and simple. 12 day waiting periods in prime season often result in shithouse slop that is reality.
exactly …….that shart was boring as fark. Dbah is as bad to watch as Brazil……actually Brazil was way better last year
I keep looking back to Slater’s performance at Pipe Masters. Going on pure Backdoor death bombs over and over with a 10% chance of a make. Absolute animal commitment with a purity and grit that Ben Marcus ciuodn’t buy with money he doesn’t have anyway.
If it was somehow a real wave tour ( 8’ Tahiti, 8’ Cloudbreak, pumping Pipe etc ) could Kelly win a title at 50?
Could be…..waves today were crap despite how the WSL and this writer tried to dress them up
Are you going to start an international spy recruitment ring here on BG?
The only thing unstylish about GMed
Is his fake dad.
Yeh steer clear of im
The WSL failed to notify the fans that Pottz either had a stroke in the off season or he left his dentures in the hotel room. What’s with the new lisp?
Yeah his teeth usually look like they belong to a long term shard head.
Spend more money on teeth and less money on tattoos . Good teeth get you sex ( in the long run ) !
yeah, just dont bite the dick…
sounded like he was sucking on a marble.
What’s with the name change? Is this you coming out of your Westerly phase to go back go plain old Steve?
I predict you won’t know whether you’re Arthur or Martha by season end.
my computer shat itself , now I’m on this junky old back-up and it won’t let me log into disqus…..this was the only way I could get in. Didn’t want to dog the comments.
‘Dog’?
Take from behind?
Slaters problem almost seems to be that he is
too good of a surfer, he is so balanced through his turns that they seem without risk, and his style is so familiar it seems predictable. Then he bogs on a basic turn and the above theory goes out the window
Slater’s problem is he’s surfing like it’s 2011
I know, I know…. but If surfing like it is 2019 means surfing like Jaddy, Cardoso and co, 2011 it is for me!
Common themes for most surfers over 45.
not for me. like its 1999 babeee
Loneliness has followed me my whole life. Everywhere. In slabs in Beachies, point breaks, reef breaks everywhere. There’s no escape. I’m God’s lonely man…
I hear Byron might sort you out for that.
I loved double johns new head do. Fuckin rad!
I wish I understood how the seeding works.
It would really help my highly speculative and schizophrenic gambling strategies.
For a long time I was convinced it was a secret. Finally found it hidden on the WSL site. Events –> Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast –> Event PDF
Yeah thanks, I have seen that and it does help. But what is the order based on? Results from last season?
And if so, how are the rookies seeded?
I read something that said the seeding for the 1st half of the 2019 Season is based on 2018 rankings. Rookie seeding follows behind and is based on 2018 QS rankings.
Then seeding for 2nd half of 2019 based on rankings for 1st half of 2019.
Unfortunately, I’m just not smart enough to consider any of this info into my fantasy picks. I’m also confused why there is predetermined seed #’s in round three. Some of those seeds will have been eliminated.
I am no expert but after the first contest it becomes a percentage of this year’s results and last year’s ranking until contest no 6 when it is totally from this year . The importance for rookies to have the highest possible QS seed going into the CT and get some good results as soon as possible .
I use this http://wslbracket.com/ . It doesn’t explain how they’re seeded but does help avoid friendly fire in later rounds if that’s what you’re after.
i have a killer fantasy strategy… #gofullbrazzo
Even Slater doesn’t surf like Slater anymore. And when Italo and Yago turned it up a notch Slater was left in 2011. Going to be a long year for him if waves aren’t epic and his boards bog for being too loose. Yago should be on everyone’s fantasy team I’m thinking.
You’re right about Yago (isn’t his nickname Skinny Goat?). Glad to have him in my team. Less so, Jordy. I thought him and Jadson would be carrying unstoppable momentum. Not so. And in more Fantasy Poindexter news, the fantasy format hasn’t caught up with the new WCT format yet. Hope they get that fixed by round 3.
Thought smelly skater had nice flow and looked good on the face but looked really old hitting the lip , not releasing the fins or getting any drift , even though he was belting it , therefore less exciting than his contemporary rivals . Not sure about 2011 because Occy was more spectacular hitting the lip in 84 than Kelly was today ?
*kelly staler
Exactly. Yago looked smooth, powerful, technical, and graceful.