Also, shocking the masses, Kanoa Igarashi gives honest post-heat presser!
Three am or close enough PST, California sleeps, forty-seven-year-old Kelly Slater showboats into a frothy milkshake tube at something like pumping J-Bay on his Final Year on Tour and on his way to a clear win over Caio Ibelli.
An inside source at the former ASP told me J-Bay has one of the smallest online audiences because North America with its millions upon millions of fans sleeps. So J-Bay was cut from the schedule in 2010 as the tour teeter-tottered on the edge of the surf industry apocalypse, then reintroduced by a Paul Speaker in 2014 desperate to throw red meat to the base and stabilise the roster.
Paul went, Sophie came in; we kept J-Bay and lost Cloudbreak thus eviscerating the Grand Slam leg of the Tour which has always been the touchstone of world champions from Kelly Slater to Andy Irons to Gabe Medina.
It seems the Global South + Europe can sustain the event without the patronage of the imperial north and here we are: 16 over-lapping 45 minute heats in pumping surf at one of the world’s best waves.
Lumpy early with a wind that veered around to the devil direction. That seemed no big problem for the big dog Jordy Smith. He hacked and floated – three times- with an undeserved claim for a well over-egged 8.5 that seemed to both fuck with the scale and frustrate natural foot efforts to come to grips with the lineup. Jordy’s anti-aerial rant in the booth looked like a cute game of rope-a-dope in retrospect after he threw down a toy alley-oop into the breeze.
His easy win over Soli Bailey also set the tone of a day of mismatches. There were many. Early heats could blame devil winds and creases to make turns hard to stick and rails fluttery through carves but even when the surface greased out there was a lot of underwhelming surfing.
Gabe Medina, ranked nine, tightened the noose on Griffin Colapinto, ranked 27, outside the cut, with vertical blasts and fin drifts on the close-outs. A very successful formula.
But where was the natural foots advantage in repertoire, the Fanning power torque wrap? By the twenty-minute mark of the heat, as their priority started Medina had already kicked open the trapdoor and left Colapinto dangling in the wind.
He looks half the surfer this year.
With 45 minutes there was no lack of opportunity. Andino and De Souza rode eight waves each. Flores rode twelve. Andino scratched up two sixes. Both Flores and De Souza failed to find chemistry or rhythm – lots of flubbed turns, falling off, bad body language, obscene gesticulating etc etc.
It was great sport if very ordinary surfing.
Could Pip light it up? Pip could not light it up. Well, he kind of did.
Skipped out of the gates like a two-year-old at a barrier trial for a mid-seven and everyone held their breath. Then he fell asleep like a Persian cat sitting in the winter sun.
Mikey Feb was never going to win, I think we can admit that. Even Barton admitted he don’t quite have a CT level skill set.
But it gave Pip fans nervous moments before he slammed the door in Mikey’s face with a seven. Pip at fifty percent? About that.
It took eleven heats before a score was able to broach the high moat set by Jordy Smith. And two consecutive heats where natural footers finally opened up repertoire, turn angle, turn speed and control of the arc.
Seabass nailed a perfect one for a nine and got the Fanning power-whip on full power. Bourez in the next heat took a more vertical approach with massive vertical punches which he finished with a full whip. He floated and spiked a wave that quivered like half set gelatine.
It was incredible judges squashed the spread between him and Ricardo Christie to the extent Christie was still in the heat with five to play. Bourez smashed him.
Who was going to grab the day by the scruff of the neck?
Who was going to set the pace down in deepest, darkest Africa?
Not Kimba the white lion but Kanoa Igarashi the Japanese American. I hate to crib comments off the Grit live comment feed but sometime during the heat Superworm came on and called Iggy the best surfer in the World. And after seeing the Top 32 all surfing perfect J-Bay that call, ridiculous on the face of it, suddenly seemed very, very tight and right.
More Toledo than Toledo.
True!
He had the speed, the flamboyance to loose the fins or carve the arc and a faux-aggro mojo so ostentatious that in spite of its tendency to alienate we are now learning to love. He freely admits this mojo is not his but a product of his coach Jake Patterson and after donning this cape so many times it’s starting to fit. Iggy in the yellow jersey.
Iggy winning Pipeline.
Iggy taking the World Title.
All these things could happen.
Joe Turpel called Kelly’s heat “vintage Kelly” and it was. This will sound even queerer than calling Kanoa the best surfer in the world but I’d suspected J-Bay was becoming a weakness for Kelly, with his penchant for chattery, skittery equipment and tendency to fall apart in heats.
It’s not strictly true that he’s turned a weakness into a strength. More, if you indulge my argument, that he has rediscovered an old strength and renewed it. Like a couple who, after twenty years of bickering, redo their wedding vows and find a new spice to the old ways (not me and my gal).
Kelly took some licks and gave Caio too many chances but by surfing the way he did he had upped the ante and prevented any chance of Ibelli finding a comfort zone. In the pressure thus applied Ibelli cracked.
Two magical things happened concurrently during the Kelly heat.
Kanoa gave a candid presser calling out the disingenuous calls of his fellow surfers who claim not to care or know about the numbers. He said he knows the numbers and it makes it easier. How could this manufactured pro surfer, I mean like from birth, or even before birth, become our lord and redeemer from the bland post-heat presser?
The second thing.
If this was manufactured – stroke of genius – they got De Souza in the booth to commentate Kelly’s heat. It was delicious to see Adriano soaking up the attention talking about his World Title while Kelly battled it out.
That too was delightfully candid. A little bit of cosmic rebalancing.
Italo played it by the Gabe Medina template. Big backside hooks, no bobble, no breaks in the turns. Fin drifts on the close-out section. A very easy win for him over Jack Freestone. Très entertainment.
Even if North America slept through it, the people of the Global South kept it down.
J-Bay Men’s Round of 32 Results:
Heat 1: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 15.67 DEF. Soli Bailey (AUS) 10.74
Heat 2: Owen Wright (AUS) 11.40 DEF. Joan Duru (FRA) 11.27
Heat 3: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 15.00 DEF. Griffin Colapinto (USA) 10.00
Heat 4: Ryan Callinan (AUS) 13.10 DEF. Yago Dora (BRA) 11.33
Heat 5: Kolohe Andino (USA) 12.33 DEF. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 9.80
Heat 6: Deivid Silva (BRA) 13.43 DEF. Jeremy Flores (FRA) 11.70
Heat 7: Ezekiel Lau (HAW) 11.60 DEF. Julian Wilson (AUS) 10.56
Heat 8: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 14.74 DEF. Conner Coffin (USA) 10.86
Heat 9: Filipe Toledo (BRA) 14.77 DEF. Michael February (ZAF) 10.40
Heat 10: Willian Cardoso (BRA) 14.03 DEF. Michael Rodrigues (BRA) 12.10
Heat 11: Sebastian Zietz (HAW) 14.94 DEF. Wade Carmichael (AUS) 11.50
Heat 12: Michel Bourez (FRA) 13.60 DEF. Ricardo Christie (NZL) 12.83
Heat 13: Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) 17.53 DEF. Frederico Morais (PRT) 13.50
Heat 14: Peterson Crisanto (BRA) 13.50 DEF. Seth Moniz (HAW) 11.66
Heat 15: Kelly Slater (USA) 13.57 DEF. Caio Ibelli (BRA) 11.90
Heat 16: Italo Ferreira (BRA) 15.16 DEF. Jack Freestone (AUS) 9.70
J-Bay Men’s Round of 16 Matchups:
Heat 1: Jordy Smith (ZAF) vs. Owen Wright (AUS)
Heat 2: Gabriel Medina (BRA) vs. Ryan Callinan (AUS)
Heat 3: Kolohe Andino (USA) vs. Deivid Silva (BRA)
Heat 4: Ezekiel Lau (HAW) vs. Adrian Buchan (AUS)
Heat 5: Filipe Toledo (BRA) vs. Willian Cardoso (BRA)
Heat 6: Sebastian Zietz (HAW) vs. Michel Bourez (FRA)
Heat 7: Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) vs. Peterson Crisanto (BRA)
Heat 8: Kelly Slater (USA) vs. Italo Ferreira (BRA)
J-Bay Women’s Round of 16 (H1 – 6) Results:
Heat 1: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 13.27 DEF. Silvana Lima (BRA) 12.50
Heat 2: Caroline Marks (USA) 16.67 DEF. Paige Hareb (NZL) 7.90
Heat 3: Carissa Moore (HAW) 14.83 DEF. Keely Andrew (AUS) 11.30
Heat 4: Johanne Defay (FRA) 16.00 DEF. Tatiana Weston-Webb (BRA) 12.20
Heat 5: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 13.33 DEF. Macy Callaghan (AUS) 11.93
Heat 6: Malia Manuel (HAW) 11.50 DEF. Brisa Hennessy (CRI) 8.97
J-Bay Remaining Women’s Round of 16 (H7 – 8) Matchups:
Heat 7: Courtney Conlogue (USA) vs. Nikki Van Dijk (AUS)
Heat 8: Lakey Peterson (USA) vs. Bronte Macaulay (AUS)
J-Bay Women’s Quarterfinal Matchups:
QF 1: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) vs. Caroline Marks (USA)
QF 2: Carissa Moore (HAW) vs. Johanne Defay (FRA)
QF 3: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) vs. Malia Manuel (HAW)
QF 4: TBD
scared of bait fish?
the other women were in the water.
what a lame move by Logie.
calling off a contest when the players have all ready taken the field?
what a lame and frustrating “sport this is to try and folllow.
its like they intentionally fuck up
It is sad that BG currently is like the rest of surfing and so sexually frustrated. In this day and age there is really no excuse for not treating the woman (as Jen See likes them to be referenced as) the same as the men. Get the open thread up. No one else gives the woman much of a go except BG – so at least be consistent and give them a chance everytime. The WSL treats them like second class citizens already. Time to step up BG and give them their fair place at all times.
Count back to the third wave – when did that last happen?
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Last year . J Bay 2018 women’s 1/4 No 3 Gilmore 15.00 v. Macaulay 15.00
Gilmour had a 5.5 as a 3rd and Bronte only a .5 . Steph went on to win the event and world title ……
Good for Courtney’s run but this could end up putting Nikki in the shit with a lower seeding and she may end up outside the top 10 at the end of the season . Sport .
John Wayne might just pry himself out of the ground, reckon ya desrve a good haunting after that first sentence.
Its not about me……its about equity. Have you been asleep at the wheel?
What’s not fair?
How would you word it then? If the open slather comments are on when the men are on and then when the woman follow after….but fail to be around when the woman are on before the men
Should we treat everyone equally or not?
The open thread never turned off. Tuned out vs. Turned off.
It’s like women’s soccer asking America to pay equal to men in World Cup. We don’t run the World Cup. You have beef with people. Not People™.
Yes the threads are not turned off. But new threads are normally created at the start of the days competition. That was my point. If the mens had been on it would have been. As Phat would say “I am more likely to sleep while the woman’s is on” is probably true. But at least give them a crack.
What happens if it flops? Would that be BG’s fault for setting the women up for failure? If we’re aiming for norm ally, then let’s start where all BG ideas get a 2nd crack, Stab.
It does not matter if it flops initially ……its that the women are given a fair go. Women’s sport is changing massively at the moment. It’s incredible what they are doing across the board. Give them a shot is all I am saying. Sure they won’t all make a wave at Jaws on day one…..but they will in time……women’s surfing mostly bores me….but a few years ago I did not give a farrrrrk about it. Its coming on strong and we should get behind it and see where they can go. Its not that long ago that people thought Jaws could not be paddled.
I can appreciate your points. I’m just not following what an open thread on BG has to do with any of that. Jen See stepped up to cover the women’s comps, as best she can considering shes got lots other deadlines, I figure. You see that at Stab? Inertia? I don’t.
How no thread = no love for the Women’s Tour is beyond me. I was always bad at math. Good at statistics. That’s always confounded me.
Yah, I’m on the hook for like two other sports rn. O_o
I’m basically aimin’ to run a preview and a wrap up for each women’s comp. I’ll swing in a bit more than that, as it’s possible. Definitely not a sign of lack of interest, just like, god, there’s only so many hours in a day.
The start-stop, maybe it runs, maybe it doesn’t dynamic makes it hella hard to make surfing work around other deadlines. And then, sometimes just weird unexpected shit comes up in my job, like Idk, during Rio I had a print story shipping and they asked me to sort out captions, which I don’t usually have to do and ugggghhh, it took so long to id everyone and all that bullshit.
There was a time when a “deadline” wasn’t something you worked to meet. In the early 1860’s, the term was used to describe a literal line drawn within or around a Confederate prison for Union soldiers. Back then, if you met that deadline, you were liable to get shot. Never was there a soldier who saw it fit to meet the acquaintance of such deadlines, lest it was the afterlife they sought to meet.
How it morphed into some time thing is a bit unknown.
Ha ha, I had no idea! This is the best thing. My new excuse for blowin’ deadlines is totally going to be this. Well, you know, during the Civil War….
In all fairness the women’s does provide a fairly reliable platform for picking multies.
I am more likely to sleep while the woman’s is on.
is it true kelly has share in the WSL?
Nope – but the WSL has a share in Ke11y.
Re-watching the highlight heats posted here by BG, mt thoghts.
1. Italo, who i’vfe criticized in the past at times, is the on-form surfer of the event. He was disgustingly under-scored. He ripped the shit out of his waves and put the moves together so stylishly he looked like he was channeling Occy.\
2. Gabby the whiner’s air was a JOKE. It wasnt an air it was a lame, boring trick. Tricks are for kids and kooks. His radical final off the top on his second high scoring wave was so technically brilliant, that I can’t take anything away from that one maneuver. Brilliant. That, lone brilliant turn aside, the guy is fucking horrific to watch boring as shit and his style, to the extent, he had one, is so safety surfer,,,bleck
3. Kelly was underscored on his first wave. No doubt about that and I’m not on his bandwagon.
4. Longtom is master of the understatement when he says Jordy’s claim was underserved. It was downright offensive, even on the Brazzo claim anything scale. Anyone want to seriously challenge me that Jordy is consistently overscored on the WSL still? if you do, again, fuck off, Iove him as a surfer and freesurfing he’s one of the best in the world. But that gay claimed wave scores higher than February’s waves of Kelly’s first wave, c’mon, get off the crack pipe.
5. I know I bag on ADS more than anyone on BG–and for good reason. But, listening to him during Kelly’s heat–can’t say it didn’t humanize him to me in a big way.
6. Kanoa–world champ form? Joke. He killed in the heat but he’s also taking over the stink bug stance titele from ADS. He alternates between insane and weak from maneuver to maneuver. He WILL NEVER be a world champ.
7. JW=done.
8. Go Italo!
Uhh, it seems scoring surfing is almost impossible to do realistically, which may be its downfall trying to sell it to the average inland Joe.
Soli suffering karma from his prick of a dad and trying to ride the indigenous train, despite never dealing with any of their social woes.
Everyone knows Ace is the real bad boy of the tour. Guy parties until 6 / 7 Am every night I imagine..
According to Micro in a quick interview , his chargers , Ace and Conner are to busy discussing the possibilities of changing / saving the world to be involved in shenanigans …. ?
That quick flashy little fade after Iggy’s third turn on his 6.17 (or as BL unkindly said “That little chink back into the pocket”) was sublime.
It’s pretty fucken embarrasing looking back actually.
I think we just didn’t versus the US hardly ever, so got carried away.
Good call SSD
YA DIDN’T MISS!
Australian Grand Prix on Price Phillip Island, 1988?
Was staying in Lennox during a thunderstorm when Wayne Brady/Grady (?) won and the Aussie announcing booth went bezerk. Like full on mayhem, f bombs, good on ya Aussie, etc. Ebullient to the tenth degree. Story led every news report for days, every paper.
Announcer was crying at one point. Our landlord was crying. The guy at the bottle shop was beaming pride, tears dripping down his face.
My cousins who live on Prince Phillip Island mentioned it for years during visits.
I can barely cheer for America in the olympics. Loathe the USA #1 chant.
Australia has a genuine pride for their sport, their country. Americans have been divided to the point that there is no collective emotion. We’ve been lied to to the point of apathy. Some are “woke” and some are asleep, many are scared to display which side they support.
You guys see any americans holding flags for Chloe at Keramas?
The future of surfing is in South America and if marketed, Asia. I saw things this last trip that opened my eyes on Asia….. it’s a demo waiting to be pandered too. A demo that wants a seat at the party.
America is the old model that was never maintained.
Youll Be remembered in the history books though.
Like the Greeks Romans, Brits
And the seppo cunts
For becoming what we fought to destroy? Hard to imagine a nation “saving the planet” from fascism to becoming the corporate bully ourselves in just 50 years. All the warnings about the military industrial complex…. fell on deaf ears as soon as the nation became comfortable/entitled. Now we sit at the edge of another generational challenge and my take is, apathy will win until there is no fight possible. SCOTUS is doing their part and the Orange Clown/Senate is pushing it too.
But we all LOVE the NFL, our teams fervently?
Short form Bex, the sheep are distracted blaming each other while the wolves steal brazenly in broad sunlight. And you have sheep supporting the theft if it bothers the other sheep. Petty.
Standard human nature
It’ll never change.
You can’t look at history and be surprised?
There is no end game for humanity.
His Pipe Masters win is all time!
Too funny, relax amigo and have fun. I’m going to try to be awake and have a seat at the bar tonight, provided good waves. I’m not patient waiting for my own waves, thank Laird for the overlapping heats.
his mind ain’t right.
and that was before the injury.
Totally.
No mention of Kolohe riding a dhd?
A little subtle payback for Mick/Biolos at Trestles, maybe.
He will be swinging by years end. Utter debauchery.
Pete covered it well (whilst you were probably out reloading the booze stocks). Apparently Kolohe reached out to MF for some board help…..and ended up with a few DHD’s as a result.
Lucky for me a big fart bubble woke me up at 3:00 a.m. and I turned on the webcast and watch the whole thing
I’m starting to think Pottz doesn’t know what the word “unbelievable” means.
I’m starting to think Pottz doesn’t actually remember what his own name is or what year he won the world title. That’s why Joe has to remind him every time.
I’m starting to think Pottz is old, fat and irrelevant.
You mean like Rick Toledo?
I’ve never seen them in the same room together so I’m going to assume they are the same person.
“imperial north”? Really?!
*Edit:
I wonder if we are seeing the first rattling of ugliness that only the Olympics can conjure from un-one worlders, wagons circling and country flags raised.
Have you dared to step this path LT? Country pride? Fcuk the rest of ya, ya best abide! Is it okay to cut your countrymen a break for the sake of Olympic gold? Kanoa will drag us there won’t he, I get the feeling. He’s what the Olympics want. I like it. But he surfz for Japan, so fuck off Iggy Pep, oddfrothet of bunk.
I don’t want to believe it will be the Olympics that act as catalyst for bringing the hate pro surfing lacks, but are we seeing it? Let’s get pissed off, in a completely anti-depressive way, cause it’s country pride you assholes competing against me, us, the here, and you there, not pulling for here, cause you there.
The imperial north label I see then as more the Olympics making hateful bastards of us all, cause it ain’t hate, it’s just your country sucks, and mine is great.
Oooh!
Incoherent ramblings are in your wheelhouse bex, don’t act stupefied
Thats true.
but i like the static.
Sheeeeeet. Dryer sheet.
Well in fact, despite its time zone, JBay began the whole online transition malarkey, in 1999 when Commissioner Gordon got a web broadcast going for the first time. No vision: just live scores and commentary, like radio sorta thing. It got 380,000 hits in a day. That’s a big part of why the brands all started going “fuck! let’s make our own tv!!”
380,000 hits, I wonder how it compares with today’s v diffuse viewership.
It’s all spread out nowadays.
Yes, vlogs and instagram. Ben Gravy surfing lake Michigan probably gets more views than any ct stops. It taps into why I started surfing in the first place. getting away from coaches, teachers and parents and discovering new spots with my friends on our own.
Snake won two CTs at JBay. He’s a huge advantage to his team here.
So here is THE QUESTION sports fans that escaped the Aussie panel last night.
Pederson Crisanto in his post heat interview bombed the surfing world with one statement…. (paraphrasing)….. “I feel comfortable at JBay because it is the same wave as my home break a right hand point break and it feels exactly the same to surf”
Ok, lets set the timer….. first person to Google Earth the location of Brazil’s JBay wins a signed autograph from E-Lo!!!!!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
1:19 – nothing wrong with that.
Killer fucking sleep cover
It wasn’t. That was some shameful shit.
All this monotonous contest surfing is grievous. I just had a fresh revelation as to what surfing really is all about. God bless Frank and his family.
https://m.youtube.com/watch…
Fuck yeah. He might be my new favourite human. What are his views on VALs?
so good
legend as of now.. best thing I have watcher per surfing in a year I think.
Came into surfing watching the Search videos. Shamefully, I’d forgotten how good Frankie is. What a beautiful surfer/man. And a nice portrait of him.