"Kidding, I didn't watch it live."
One of the things I like most about covering the world tour is it’s easy to understand. Someone wins, someone loses.
Even if the judging is incomprehensible, at the end of the year you get a world champ and it’s all hunky dory.
Big-wave surfing, whole ‘nother story.
WSL broadcast live the Big Wave Awards and I watched it live so you wouldn’t have to. Kidding, I didn’t watch it live. Awards ceremonies give me panic attacks unless they are hosted by Ricky Gervais.
I have been over the presser and the awards itself though struggling to make sense of it all. This is ironic because about the only thing the general public understands viscerally about surfing is guys and gals careening down massive walls of water.
Mum and Dad have got no clue about Italo pulling spinners at D-Bah but Laird is still pulling cheques from Nat Geo covers 20 years ago.
Big-wave surfing is anti-marketing. It hypes itself. It sells itself.
Married to innovators and entrepreneurs like Laird and G-Mac it’s a reliable meal ticket.
Who won? Everybody!
No, Kai Lenny won.
No, Grant Baker and Keala Kennelly won.
I thought the champions had already been crowned, but that was for the Big-Wave Tour (BWT). This was something different called the Big-Wave Awards.
Confused? Clear as modern boxing?
The Big-Wave Awards was something that used to be owned by Billabong, has nothing to do with contests and has never been won by Laird, despite Laird being the best-known big-wave rider in the World, correct?
OK.
In a new gendered category, Brazilian woman Andrea Moller won the biggest paddle-in wave and a Guinness World Record at the same time for a “42 foot wave” at Jaws.
Twiggy Baker won Ride of the Year and Paddle of the Year for two waves at Jaws during the cancelled Jaws day on Nov 26. A day of madness when the WSL dropped its bundle on the whole entire meaning of publicised big wave surfing.
Our shrivelled little modern souls need danger to survive and the best danger is lived vicariously. I haven’t heard the Chas/E-Lo bro-down yet but I hope he grilled him on the Jaws capitulation.
Our shrivelled little modern souls need danger to survive and the best danger is lived vicariously. I haven’t heard the Chas/E-Lo bro-down yet but I hope he grilled him on the Jaws capitulation.
Still following?
Twiggy won the BWT (did he make a wave?), Ride of the Year, Paddle of the Year but lost out to Kai Lenny for the XXL and Over-all Performance Award.
It took a bit to decipher but eventually I realised that is the new Tow-In award. Maybe renamed the egg on your face award, seeing as Kai made the BWT look silly by showing up at the biggest day of the year at Jaws ready to rumble. Surely, the WSL has to be ready to shift gears and grab the rope to avoid leaving its audience all het up and horny when the surf gets giant.
Not that long ago, Big-wave surfing was going to be the golden ticket to take surfing to the mainstream and cash in bigly. It’s struggled to find its feet and gain traction.
A concept so simple that any Okie could grasp it has become a convoluted program more byzantine than a Game of Thrones episode.
Justine Dupont, a Seignosse local, got the Overall Performance and biggest (tow) awards for a “53” footer at Nazaré. Did you know G-Mac had already broken the 100-foot barrier at Nazaré? It’s very hard to keep up with but Wikipedia tells me he achieved this astonishing feat in 2013.
I don’t mean to sound snarky about big waves. I love big waves and the guys and gals that ride them.
I love to watch them ply their trade.
Can you guess the high-profile pro surfer that wrote me an email suggesting gals should not be endangering their lives and the lives of their rescuers by being out in big surf?
More importantly, now that the WSL has gendered the Biggest Paddle In Award, which is, as far as I can tell, the Gold Medal, can we speculate on which country the first transgendered athlete will come from to steal the bikkies.
I say Austria, raised in South Africa.
Even more importantly, which way will the wozzle swing, so to speak, when the first transgender athlete crashes the scene.
Do you think they have a contingency in place? I sure hope so.
The context matters here. Are the gender queer kids living as girls — or just calling themselves girls to play sports? If they live as girls, they’re girls. If they’re claiming to be girls to win at sports, the adults in the room are fucking this thing up.
At the elite level, legal identity is for me the line. If Gabe Medina or a cis-male athlete wants to compete as a woman at the elite level, he has to live as a woman and have a legal identity as a woman. Ie, there’s more to this whole thing than just like, showing up and belng like, oh btw I’m a woman today.
Look, there’s no such thing as absolute fairness in sports. And this question of gender is one more place where it’s never going to be entirely fair. Look, I competed against people who were pretty obviously doping in a previous life. I survived fine without those results. People are going to cheat at sports, same as life. There’s going to be shitheads who try to cheat the rules on gender — pretty sure cis-women are resilient enough to deal with this and to recognize how quickly things become problemmatic if we start to argue over whether a woman athlete is “feminine enough” and a “real woman.” Because, that’s the flip side of this issue.
Okay, god, I have to go back to my real job. I’m interested in this topic, obvs, but yah.
You lucky bugger . Off on Sunday to take on the Baltic Sea’s version of Rocky Point ( well there are rocks and a point ) in primo conditions , 35 km winds ,directly onshore , 4 second interval with half of Germany and the biggest danger is not getting slammed but avoiding hypothermia and seasickness ….
Better to be turning 60 than dead at 30! Just clocked 54 this week and loving it ( except for the hair loss , except where I don’t need it , glasses and pain and forgetting things etc ) So funny ,my mum had one and would drive 4 adolescents surfers and two under 5s to the beach with the boards on dodgy early 80s roof racks . It wasn’t Twiggy , It wasn’t glamorous , it would certainly be illegal today but fuck we somehow got there in the end .
yeah i get the feeling that you and i probably disagree on almost everything but not on this.
jen, the argument that because there haven’t yet been trans men-to-women who’ve come in and kicked ass in women’s sports means there wont be in the future doesn’t hold up.
this is very new territory we’re in – and even more because as goat rodeo suggests, kids today insist on “changing” their gender without even bothering to go through the surgery/hormone treatments. they simply say “i now identify as a woman, my pronouns are she/her, my name is daphne (s/o to the great billy wilder in Some Like It Hot), and I’m here to compete on the girls’ team.”
“Can you guess the high-profile pro surfer that wrote me an email
suggesting gals should not be endangering their lives and the lives of
their rescuers by being out in big surf?”
I’m surprised there was only one. I’ve had at least a half dozen guys say the same thing to me. And I’m not just talking about grumpy old men. I’m talking about hip progressives, who know it’s not polite to say such things in public. And they do it with concern and sincerity, furrowed brow and all, talking about the biology of physical strength in waves that size.
Why is this? Is it because they, as lifelong surfers, can’t imagine charging a wave like that, so they question how any woman possibly could?
Give ’em up, LT!
Yah — I think it’s definitely threatening to them. Which, I’ll confess, kinda makes me giggle!
Hmm, if I may be earnest for a minute? The jokes about trans women “stealing” results and prizes from cis-women are kinda gross, actually! It sets up the argument that trans women should not be allowed to compete — and the argument that maybe they aren’t women at all. And that’s bullshit, actually. So.
How so?
Dr Jen , I am really sad , disappointed , angry ,somewhat shocked that in this epoch which we all live that highly educated men are so afraid of women and anything else that is not a straight white rich man . FUCK GUYS ,BE AFRAID OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND FUCKING ROBOTS and embrace all types of humans, bright and beautiful and exotic , while we all still exist !
Robots, yes! Humans are lovely. Variety is interesting. 🙂
If Biodiversity is great for the environment then diversity within our own species is a wonderful thing and might even keep us treading the evolutionary path a little longer than expected ?
Slipper(y) terrain here which all hinges on the definition of the word “woman.” In general, physiologically speaking, men’s strength is greater than women’s. That’s a fact and is a natural byproduct of how God or evolution or whatever made our bodies. Of course, there are exceptions and there’s a wide spectrum within each gendered body. Serena Williams would probably (definitely) kick my ass in a fight and Carissa’s turns throw more spray that mine ever will. However, a trans woman that was born with — by physiological definition — a male body and male strength who now identifies as a female (which is fine and well) but nonetheless wants to compete in a physical competition, where strength is undoubtedly an advantage, could be viewed as unfair from a competitive standpoint. Further down the line of shitty human behavior, it’s possible some numnuts could claim to be a woman just so they can compete with a physical advantage against women. To note, this unfair view would be held most acutely by the other women in the competition, not men on the sidelines of life being chauvinist, short-sighted assholes, which many can be but I don’t think Longtom was. Fairest thing would likely be to have a trans tour if it came to that.
Please be earnest all minutes.
slipper terrain. mostly confined to floor areas in the house but short excursions out to the rubbish bins may also be considered slipper terrain. sofas ends while reclining and coffee tables are also appropriate slipper terrain. not really sure it hinges on women. that slipper terrain is mostly in the kitchen.
Bahh… That would have been slippah terrain
So, this is both complicated and simple, in my view. Sorry, bit long here 😉
I think conventional wisdom is that trans women would have an advantage in competition, because of their birth gender. In practice, that has so far not generally been the case. We have some examples of trans women in endurance sports, and while they do sometimes win, they aren’t out there winning everything.
To some degree, that reflects the physiological and biological realities of transitioning. Cis-women athletes, their bodies produce T. A trans woman suppresses that T production — and, loses the benefits of lean muscle growth and recovery that T provides. So it can — and there are a few documented cases of this as more openly trans women enter sports — be more difficult for trans women to train and recover, due to the ways their bodies respond to hormonal changes of transitioning (which are going to be different across individuals) and to training stresses. It’s very difficult for science to replicate the hormonal profile of a cis body — and that has consequences for trans athletes.
On the whole, elite athletes don’t fit “normal” physiological parameters. This is at the heart of the Caster Semanya case — and the CAS ruling on her case is profoundly misguided. But, that’s another story 😉 There are significant physiological variations across the human population, and especially once we get into the realms of elite sports. Gender is just one of them. For me, trans women are, simply, women. So, they should compete as women.
A cis-bro who wants to go to the trouble to get legal id with a woman’s name and pretend to be trans to compete in women’s events is an asshole. And he should get his ass kicked in and out of the water. Howevs, I don’t think that edge case should be cause to prevent trans women from competing in the category that fits their gender identity. I’d prefer to see sports err on the side of inclusiveness and tolerance, basically.
There’s so much double-think ridiculousness in that statement it’s hard to even fathom that you may actually understand and even more scary, actually wholeheartedly believe what you are talking about Jen.
So if a Trans-person is actually the other gender originally, then why do they have to ‘Transition’ – pretty sure Trans, being short for transitioned, transitioning, implies that you are changing from one sex to the other, not that you are another sex trapped in another sex’s body? If you are actually born a woman you wouldn’t have to transition, because you were born as a woman, not a man!
How about the trans ‘woman’ MMA fighter who fractured her opponents skull? How about the trans ‘woman’ weightlifter shattering all the women’s records?
Why don’t we see any trans ‘men’ competing against biological men?
No trans-men rugby players, no trans-men track athletes?
No matter how you try and justify it or come up with some kind of ‘science’ to explain it, it’s still a biological man pretending to be a biological woman.
This train of belief is actually undermining and destroying all that is unique and sacred about femininity and how truly amazing womankind is with your ‘progressivism’ – you’re actually doing more harm than good when it comes to elevating and empowering women by letting biological men fuck you over once again with this ridiculous trans rhetoric.
Cutting off your cock and balls doesn’t make you a female, it makes you a eunuch. Pretty simple, but then again logic doesn’t fit in to the agenda does it now?
It does fit in perfectly with the whole cognitive-dissonance that unfortunately seems to effect most of the US west coast population.
Fuck the patriarchy! Fuck old rich white men! Vote Bernie Sanders 2020!
Agree with my world view or you’re a racist, bigot and probably a nazi!
So many lols, so little time!
Thank you for reminding me that we’re in a comments forum.
For a minute there, we were dangerously close to civil discourse.
Not close enough.
Don’t see a whole lotta simple in that, apart from “For me, trans women…”, but I appreciate the discourse and the thoroughness of your response. One side of the debate that I was blind to prior to this exchange was the unfairness put upon the trans women for being excluded. Not competitive, but more the personal/identity unfairness of them not getting the unconditional gender recognition they feel, and should be/are, entitled to. I don’t for a minute think transitioning is a life choice, and everybody getting their needs met all at once is never going to happen on Earth, but I think I still maintain that if men and women — for all the various gender/biological/physiological reasons — are and should be competing on different tours than there should be a trans tour as well. I don’t see that as exclusive. I see it as catering to everyone’s needs in as balanced a way as possible. Which would be the optimal way, no? I have no idea, but I’m curious of the percentage of trans folk that refer to themselves as a strictly a woman or man or, rather, as a trans woman or trans man. It may be semantics but it seems like it’d be telling.
This past week was my closest encounter to any of this in real life. My wife’s coworker came out as trans with a new name and new pronouns. When I was first informed by my wife, I thought it strange, because (my) first thoughts are often shortsighted and judgmental. I saw him nee her a couple days ago and it wasn’t at all. Smooth as. Just an adjustment.
So, the trans people I’ve interacted with definitely consider themselves “a woman” or “a man.” No qualifiers. And, for example, some trans women object to the formulation “women and people who identify as women” as setting them apart and potentially, identifying them as “less than” cis women. Beyond the people I’ve encountered, there may be a variety of responses to this question, but it is considered bad vibes to out someone as trans without their permission. Setting up a trans category for sports requires athletes to out themselves, which I think many trans people would say isn’t what they want. On the whole, in my experience, they want to be recognized as their gender and live complete lives — sports included — in their gender.
This is a moment I wish Ben were still around to comment. Btw Negs is his ban permanent or simply a timeout?
if you’re being earnest, also be clear: are you saying men who transition via surgery and hormones to become women should be able to compete against athletes who have been women since birth?
i do not think they should be allowed to do so. perhaps competitive surfing is a sport in which exceptions can be made, since its not really head-to-head battles but rather judging an individual on how he or she surfs their own wave.
but consider the advantages someone who’s born a man would have in a sport like boxing, or track and field, or MMA.
not sporting.
I actually didn’t mean to really make a joke about it…..but it will be an issue that surfing will face sooner or later.
And then a decision will have to be made.
Ah, okay, fair enough. I read it wrong 🙂
it was the whole Caster Semenya case which got me thinking
Imagine a “sport” where everyone goes out and fails during the comp? A “Winner” is named based on something and the New York Times sends a clueless reporter out to craft a story about the glory of not accomplishing the goal of the competition?
That sport is Presidential Elections ? Except the failing and broken promises usually take place after the event …..?
LOL Worse bro….
https://heavy.com/news/2019…
AS long as the trans athlete gets equal pay, they should have their own division of the WSL.
Love your stuff LT but maybe consider leaving the quasi snarky clickbait rhetorical questions at the end of an article to Chas. It cheapens the overall effect of your established voice. Let Chas ruffle those feathers instead.
yep. the worst thing is I knew I was doing it when I did it, and I still did it.
I really don’t know what you’re apologising for. Write what you like.
“Can you guess the high-profile pro surfer that wrote me an email suggesting gals should not be endangering their lives and the lives of their rescuers by being out in big surf?“
McChazzles?
He has a high profile on this board, is a professional teacher, surfs occasionally, and wrote an article I am going to wilfully misconstrue here by claiming that he said no women should surf big waves.
Howzat?
Chas’ wardrobe is tending towards the androgynous these days so maybe he’ll be the first “gender neutral” big wave “Champion.”
Which way is it swingin’, Chas?
https://www.google.de/searc…
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
A love song to a big wave ……
Hahahahaha!!!
Live to fight another day ? Or a complete capitulation ? Will this lead Beach Grit into becoming an occupied territory ,like West Germany or Japan was in the 40s , 50s , 60s and 70s with visits from Elvis ,and become an economic miracle or will it remain Surfing’s version of 80s BERLIN ?
Why can’t someone simplify it with tech. Survey laser trig + GPS.
Bouys for refraction/ receiving at appropriate locations past peak in channels and computer does work.
No more photoshop guesswork of swell height.
Yep . We can capture an image of a black hole in a galaxy far far away but can’t measure a wave in front of our own eyes ?
As my mum always said « They can put a man on the moon but can’t make a washing machine that doesn’t break down when you need it and then went on to blame man made appliances because they were made by men …. « .
I’d also like to blame a bloke from my town ,Max Planck , the father of quantum mechanics ,whose work lead to Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle which seems to make it impossible to measure anything ;
« Now think of a wave at the seaside. We know the direction of motion. It’s straight in towards the beach. But where is the wave? We can’t pinpoint an exact location. It’s all along the water. » ?
That black hole you speak of is just a backlit butthole. NASA has been playing these smoke and mirror tricks for sometime.
Where did they insert the flashlight? I can kinda figure it out if the Black Hole is female but if it’s a dude my 9th/10th grade biology is failing me.
I would never assume it’s gender but I think your on the right track with your hypothesis
Excellent point…I should never assume gender.
Speaking of Buttholes and Surfers
https://m.youtube.com/watch…
Elo and the ”buddy” shut down was the clear highlight.
Are we absolutely sure he didn’t say ‘Bhodi’?
Either way, great insight into how he rolls and the WSL is probably very lucky to have him onboard if they want to succeed as a business.
He absolutely shat on the lads, and I almost felt embarrassed at the gulf in professionalism, but then I remembered A: I hate that slick professional sliminess, and B: they are on two different planets, metaphorically.
The good bit starts around 2:00 in but the lead up gives comical context
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Overall performance award = person who spent the most money award
I haven’t caught up with the Chas poddy yet: highlights?
No highlights, IMO.
Him a silver tongued devil. Very very pro.
Boys were a little like “deer in the headlights” this time round. Blinded by the schmooze.
He’s the foil WSL needed – he’s deflected all attention away from the deficiencies of Soph.
Rember her ? Yep, she’s still the boss.
My takeaway – they’re still trying to figure out how to best monetise this thing that Dirk bought for fukkall.
The “for profit” intent is smattered here and there throughout.
Corpo hairy nads proffered, tongue applied liberally.
DLS actually seemed to try playing ‘bad cop’ but was only dialled up to knee-high dribbler strength.
Have not heard the bro down yet? Do yourself a favour and give it a swerve mate. Listening to it was like watching your favourite pub burn down.
Edit: can’t believe I disrespected Twiggy in public. He made a shit ton of waves at Nazare.
I totally forgot about that contest.
Someone will have to tell him
And 1 wave won him 2 awards, right?
My wife loves Twiggy. Thinks he comes across great on camera and is a very likable person.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Sometimes I can’t believe I’m going to be 60. I always say there’s no point moaning about getting older, when there’s nothing you can do about it. But still, I do find it quite funny. I look at that number, 60, and I think, ‘Really? Me?’ Twiggy
2 for One ! Moaning quote from Twiggy ……
Hahahahaha! I actually met her once. Kind of a stupid story but she is a pretty lady.
Doesn’t matter that he didn’t make the wave at Peahi. One of top 3 barrels in history ( Nate at Chopes another and maybe Shane at Peahi ) he literally got blown out of tube off his board and bodysurfed it. Negotiating that midface ledge was impressive too.
The view from channel is most impressive. As good as surfing gets
best wave I’ve ever seen ridden live.
Nate? Or twig?
I saw Nates wave live, it was fucking terrifying.
I bet. Would you recommend Tahiti for a trip? Moorea?
Have Chas publish a follow up piece à la Sam George but you write it in response to yourself
I’m more interested in the amount of pros on Instagram complaining about not being invited than about the awards themselves. Tom Lowe, Laurie Towner, any more I’m missing?
Post some moaning quotes!
How dare they not invite me?
That just proves I don’t want to be part of it anyway.
Dusty Payne knows how to send emails?
much, much higher up the totem pole.
Derek?
Probably someone bothered that the ladies are going bigger than themself?
Billy Kemper certainly ain’t on that list. I know that Kai gets most of the attention (and rightfully so) but Billy is one of the guys who wows me almost every time.
You going to spill the beans? We’re all friends here.
meet me at the top of the Point with a Sixpack of coopers Sunday afternoon and I’ll ‘fess up.
I can’t believe how many people on here don’t follow other surf media outlets. Its been plastered all over the place!
If you secretly tell me who it is then I’ll drop a casual comment as if they emailed me about it and then you can deny being the whistle-blower.
Isn’t this exactly the kind of scandal we live for here?
Was said surfer South African or Hawaiian?
Sounds very Laird. Don’t surf when you’re on your period, etc.
How about this big wave?
https://media.giphy.com/med…
You’re adorable.
Could do with a shower though, couldn’t he
If I lift my nets will you grab my shrimp?
Easy now, Bubba
Would you prefer his raw prawn …?
Best Claim Ever ? Or The Gump impersonating The Goat’s windmilling trailing arm ?
Monster Wave, surely? https://media.giphy.com/med…
On reflection, will there be a queen wave award? https://media.giphy.com/med…
I couldn’t see the royal wave , mesmerized , wondering about who placed , so lovingly , the pearl necklace around her majestic neck . Shurley , you’re joking ?
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Funnily enough Vivienne Westwood is now a Dame , long lives the Queen while Sid and Jonny Rotten have No Future …….?
Shurley, you can’t be serious.
Strife is like a box of Chiclets, ….