Did you feel the last vestiges of rational defence against Kelly being swept away in your mind?
In Australian parlance, a dag is the piece of matted wool and shite left hanging on a sheep’s tail. Also known as a dingleberry.
Today could have been anything but odds favoured a few desultory losers rounds hanging off the main event like a ripe dingleberry.
But it weren’t.
Mostly due to a timeless performance from the old guy.
Someone in the audience at the Byron Q and A asked Kelly for some tips to hold the line or keep improving as you age. To my internal guffaws, Kelly claimed it was mostly mental, a matter of believing that physically “your best days are still ahead of you.”
He rammed those guffaws right back down my throat today.
It was Jack Robinson we wanted to see first up and he kept the hometown crowd on it’s toes, not catching a wave for 20 mins before a horrifically nervous start where he could barely contain the twitching and spasmodic pumping off the bottom.
That is one advantage of watching the broadcast over the live event.
From the slow motions and close-ups the nervousness was almost overwhelming. He settled enough to throw down a finner and do enough to advance with Jack Freestone in lumpy/glassy three-to-four-foot gurgling rights.
Hard to surf, a real tricky bitch of a wave to surf.
It didn’t augur well for Kelly.
The first sign it might be his day came in heat two, when Leo Fioravanti scored an eight for a well-surfed safety wave. During the Keramas coverage, if you recall, we noted that the continual judging lowball could not hold and at some point there would be a detente and the high scores would flow freely again.
That point was reached during the finals at Keramas and with the Leo eight it was now obvious judges were ready to spill the wine at the banquet.
The next two heats were insane.
Panda, Fred Morais and Yago Dora fought a pitched battle with multiple lead changes. Last went to first and first went to last etc etc. Dora shut the lid on it with a real popped air rotation, no foot placement change at all on the landing.
That has to be seen as a point of difference, as Pottz would say, between the front foot on the nose and awkward shuffle back style or air.
Rewarded.
Kelly Ace and Caio. Caio’s first wave looked an underscore at a low six for three solid on rail turns. Kelly came alive mid-heat. A first turn that had shades of the JJF layback snowboard carve, except tighter and a square snap pulled so tight that on the slow-mo he rode back through the wake he had created.
The French judge was so moved he awarded a nine.
Did you watch?
Did you feel the last vestiges of rational defence against Kelly being swept away in your mind?
Like the judges.
He’d been surfing his brains out for fives and now he was being showered with eights like broken glass at an Ashkenazi wedding.
Bad error in the reporting yesterday.
His Aipa looked too easily overpowered but we’d neglected the Tokoros he’d already dialed in at Pipe last year. They looked drivey and incredibly loose.
Somehow, the oldest guy on Tour by a decade, has made a unique selling point out of… looseness. It wasn’t the Ghost of Dane Reynolds but the Ghost of Kelly’s past.
Better than the ghost. A better ghost.
That’s it I’ve swallowed the Kelly Kool Aid – I don’t care about objectivity.
Kelly’s heat made the next couple of women’s heat a very tough watch.
So I went and paid a visit to my unicorn. I found one.
A non-surfing pro surfing fan.
Thirty plus Dad who works down the local hardware store.
“Where’d the eights come from?” he said. “Haven’t seen so many fucking eights all year long.”
Just breathe it in bruz, I counseled. Suspend your disbelief and let it wash all over you.
Caroline Marks smashed it but I could barely watch.
I’m coming around and I can see she is in the process of cleaning up the counter rotating arms. We’ll meet in the middle, this year.
What I could come around to is Sally Fitz, who is holding the most improved style and skill set on the womens Tour. It’s not Steph level but it ain’t too far off.
She took down Johanne Defay, easily.
Carissa still doesn’t quite look the Carissa of old. Head noise? It was shocking to see her husband on the steps. Somehow, the way the women surfers are treated and portrayed by the WSL seems to infantilise them.
That they might be active adults with hubbies and such comes as a weird shock.
Why? I don’t know.
Instead of being a dag, today was a great connector to a potential great day tomorrow.
I think a very big day for the Brazilian Storm, who have been rattled by WA and intimidated by the Box.
Lot of things have changed since they last surfed it.
I think a very good day ahead for pro surfing fans, even reluctant ones.
Margaret River Pro Women’s Round of 16 (Round 3) Results:
Heat 1: Courtney Conlogue (USA) 11.44 DEF. Silvana Lima (BRA) 6.33
Heat 2: Tatiana Weston-Webb (BRA) 12.50 DEF. Coco Ho (HAW) 6.30
Heat 3: Caroline Marks (USA) 17.60 DEF. Paige Hareb (NZL) 11.10
Heat 4: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 14.10 DEF. Johanne Defay (FRA) 9.20
Heat 5: Carissa Moore (HAW) 14.34 DEF. Keely Andrew (AUS) 8.17
Margaret River Pro Remaining Women’s Round of 16 (Round 3) Matchups:
Heat 6: Malia Manuel (HAW) vs. Brisa Hennessy (CRI)
Heat 7: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) vs. Bronte Macaulay (AUS)
Heat 8: Lakey Peterson (USA) vs. Nikki Van Dijk (AUS)
Margaret River Pro Women’s Quarterfinals Matchups:
Heat 1: Courtney Conlogue (USA) vs. Tatiana Weston-Webb (BRA)
Heat 2: Caroline Marks (USA) vs. Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS)
Heat 3: Carissa Moore (HAW) vs. TBD
Heat 4: TBD vs. TBD
Margaret River Pro Men’s Elimination Round (Round 2) Results:
Heat 1: Jack Robinson (AUS) 12.60 DEF. Jack Freestone (AUS) 10.83, Wade Carmichael (AUS) 10.67
Heat 2: Leonardo Fioravanti (ITA) 15.34 DEF. Michel Bourez (FRA) 13.00, Jacob Willcox (AUS) 11.23
Heat 3: Yago Dora (BRA) 14.66 DEF. Willian Cardoso (BRA) 13.77, Frederico Morais (PRT) 13.46
Heat 4: Kelly Slater (USA) 16.50 DEF. Caio Ibelli (BRA) 14.40, Adrian Buchan (AUS) 13.93
Margaret River Pro Men’s Round of 32 (Round 3) Matchups:
Heat 1: Italo Ferreira (BRA) vs. Soli Bailey (AUS)
Heat 2: Michel Bourez (FRA) vs. Yago Dora (BRA)
Heat 3: John John Florence (HAW) vs. Jack Freestone (AUS)
Heat 4: Jeremy Flores (FRA) vs. Sebastian Zietz (HAW)
Heat 5: Gabriel Medina (BRA) vs. Caio Ibelli (BRA)
Heat 6: Willian Cardoso (BRA) vs. Kelly Slater (USA)
Heat 7: Jordy Smith (ZAF) vs. Leonardo Fioravanti (ITA)
Heat 8: Conner Coffin (USA) vs. Jesse Mendes (BRA)
Heat 9: Filipe Toledo (BRA) vs. Jack Robinson (AUS)
Heat 10: Michael Rodrigues (BRA) vs. Seth Moniz (HAW)
Heat 11: Owen Wright (AUS) vs. Ezekiel Lau (HAW)
Heat 12: Kolohe Andino (USA) vs. Griffin Colapinto (USA)
Heat 13: Julian Wilson (AUS) vs. Jadson Andre (BRA)
Heat 14: Peterson Crisanto (BRA) vs. Joan Duru (FRA)
Heat 15: Ryan Callinan (AUS) vs. Deivid Silva (BRA)
Heat 16: Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) vs. Ricardo Christie (NZL)
