Windy three-foot Bah is fun to watch. No?

Strange to see Kelly, twenty-seven years into it , scratching around windy, scrappy little peaks like a seagull after a chip. Spit-roasted by Brazilian goofyfooters with vastly updated arsenals.

The patented carving 360, state of the art when Yago was not a twitch in his old mans nut-sack, awarded a lowly four points.

I know the WSL was caught flat-footed with the late D-Bah start but I was still very excited by the venue change. Brazilian goofy-foots throwing tails into the wind was my vision and that transpired from both Yago and Italo.

Kelly relegated to the new round two.

Judgement withheld on the new format, though Pottz’ logic that it somehow puts “more pressure on round one” is hard to fathom. More likely it depressurises round two and puts the first level of interest at round three. Advantage Kelly.

How many sub-10 point heats against better credentialed opponents before Kelly’s legacy is chipped away at? Probably an infinite number seeing as WSL controls the narrative and the new media partnerships with RedBull Media House will mean a mountain of content burying any dissenting viewpoint.

Judgement withheld on the new format, though Pottz’ logic that it somehow puts “more pressure on round one” is hard to fathom. More likely it depressurises round two and puts the first level of interest at round three. Advantage Kelly.

We are back… with Kieren at the helm. That was comforting. Ronnie, Pete, Joe, Pottz. It’s incredible the stability the WSL has maintained at the coal face of the production. More CEO’s than commentary team changes. The only discernible difference in the production was a fridge full of RedBull cans placed subtly in a corner of the location room.

Where are the VIP ticket holders holed up? The Atlas Pass. $1300 for the event. $300 for the day. Did you buy? Know a friend who did?

Don’t be embarrassed, come on in and share the experience. Tell us about the goodies in the freeby bag.

Well, all in all WSL look like geniuses waiting a month to hold Snapper this year.

March has been deady bones and windy three-foot Bah is fun to watch. No?

How about a Soli Bailey-Italo Ferreira Final.

Does that excite?

I think it is on the cards.

Also, what's more important? Gay rights or world titles that matter?

A few nights ago, at a presentation ceremony in an old Gold Coast casino where your correspondent used to sling cards and occasionally tool horny punters, the Hawaiian Keala Kennelly spoke about being surfing’s first openly gay world champ.

“I hated myself because I didn’t think you could be World Champion and gay at the same time… I get to be proud of who I am and I get to love myself exactly as I am, not as people would want me to be,” said forty-year-old Kennelly.

It must be noted that the world championship was decided after one event, the Women’s Jaws Challenge, and that Kennelly won the event and the title despite not making a takeoff on her two waves.

A world title?

It’s a stretch, I think, and it’s correct that the WSL says it takes a tour to make a title.

Anyway, in response, the “three-time longboard champ” Cori Schumacher surfaced on Facebook to challenge the first openly gay world champ claim.

There is a rewrite of history that is being attempted right now in the annals of professional surfing. It’s frustrating to see this happening. Not only are openly gay professional surfers who remained on tour being erased (I knew them when I was young, and while I was on tour), but the world is also being told by the World Surf League and Keala Kennelly that professional surfing just crowned its first openly gay world surfing champion.

This is incorrect and there are documentaries (OUT in the line-up) and news stories (see below) that prove it’s false.

A huge congratulations to Keala for her Big Wave Tour win, but the record needs to be corrected. She is not the first openly gay surfing champion, nor is she the first openly gay professional surfer.

In 2010, pro surfing crowned its first openly gay world champion. I was not sent an invite to the awards ceremony, so there was no opportunity for me to make a grand statement from the stage, nor did the organization at the time (the Association of Surfing Professionals) recognize the landmark.

I was silenced, erased, and today, professional surfing is attempting to rewrite the past in a way that shows how effective past efforts of erasure are.
In our support of LGBTQ athletes, we need to be aware that there was (and still is) an effort to silence and make invisible LGBTQ folks from the past and women who have fought to make change across history.

We need to do a better job at remembering our history, especially women’s surf history.

“Schumacher, who in 2008 wed her longtime partner, Maria Cerda,… has a history of advocacy… raised awareness for gay rights in surfing…” March 26, 2011 (printed in the New York Times, 3/27, front page of the sports section).

Keala, all class, wrote back:

I would like to make a correction in my acceptance speech. It has been brought to my attention that Cori Schumacher is actually the first professional surfer that came out to the media while holding a world title.
I was completely unaware of the timeline.
I want to give her the respect and recognition she deserves. #womenupliftingotherwomen
I’m completely elated that I can be a World Champion without having to compromise who I am.
For me it’s not about getting the credit for being the first one. My only goal in making that very public statement in front of the entire surfing world at the WSL Awards was to raise awareness about LGBT athletes and the struggle we have gone through so that future LGBT athletes don’t have to go through that.
The @wsl is at the moment really trying to make positive changes in regards to discrimination of LGBT athletes and they have my full support.

Boom. Gavel hits. Matter settled.

The last item on the agenda is the validity of single-event world titles.

From what I can tell, two of Schumacher’s titles, 2000 and 2001, came from winning single events, not sure about the 2010 crown.

Kennelly’s, as we’ve discussed, from two wipeouts.

I think it’s a little rich, personally, to claim a title after one contest, let alone not making a wave.

The gay thing is wonderful, however.

Some of my best friends etc.

Drop-in followed by dunking then all-girl beach fight!

I’m no moral philosopher but on reflection I lean on the side of localism. Education and deterrence, not violence of course.

Not kiddies getting slapped or gals getting dunked.

As my friend, the dearly departed David “Baddy” Treloar would say “learn respect to earn respect.”

“No-one owns the ocean,” says the VAL as rebuttal.

Well, of course they do.

Countries have exclusive economic and territorial zones extending out from their shores. Pacific countries claim “reef rights” and ownership of inshore assets including surf breaks.

The mighty US Pacific Fleet under Chester Nimitz laid down the “most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare” against the Japanese fleet under Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku at the Battle of Midway, effectively owning the Pacific Ocean for the next 50 years and allowing a pissant nation like Australia to develop a surfing culture on the back of it.

Long bow, but true.

The stability of localism works, by and large. When stability breaks down chaos ensues.

Despite the image of country soul that the town still trades on a quiet war is being waged periodically around the perimeter of Byron Bay – not in the Bay itself – that has been overrun.It is the most chaotic collection of surf breaks on the planet.

No, the war is happening on on the pointbreaks that border it. Mark “Carcass” Thomson faces court on Friday over a “ surf rage” incident against Jodie Cooper at Lennox head. That will be framed by the media as a #metoo moment but it’s better understood in the context of local order breaking down under the impact of crowds.

Another skirmish has broken out, this time jumping the gender gap, at Broken Head. My source, a long-term worker in the surfboard industry who has a tendency to fish too light on the beaches when sharks and jewfish come in after floods, reported a local lass getting dropped in on by a French longboarding gal. It is reported a dunking/holddown ensued. Blows were exchanged.The skirmish moved to the beach where several more females became involved.

The vibe has changed amongst the local surfing community following an epicly bad six months of surf and a major shift in the surf demographic. Estimates of around 500’000 overseas students in Australia. 499 000 of them now live between Suffolk Park and Burleigh. Safety in numbers seems to be the motto.

Chaos is in their self interest. Failing the emergence of a kind of local wolfpak or another global financial crisis the Bondi-fication of the area will be complete by 2020.

I spent the day calling Byron Bay cop shop.

I can say there are two Keoghs there. A Detective Sergeant and an Inspector. Both very friendly. Inspector Keogh kindly fetched the file for me and confirmed the incident had occurred, was under investigation and witnesses were being sought. No charges had been laid and he declined to name the names of the alleged perp or victim.

If you feel like snitching ask for the Inspector. I got a feeling this won’t be the last surf rage case he’ll be fielding this year.

How’s localism in California going these days?

Is the war over?