International Surfing Association director says, "...the conditions are absolutely adequate!"
I think we have a very healthy balance, here on BeachGrit, of laughing at surfing and laughing with surfing and today is a wonderful opportunity for the former.
As you know, the Olympics will be held one year from today in Tokyo, Japan. Surfing is included for the very first time in history and, while there was early chatter that the Tokyo Olympic Committee would build a Kelly Slater Surf Ranch for the event, it was decided, correctly I think, that surfing belongs in the ocean.
Now, you also know that Japan’s ocean is good for many things like overfishing and nuclear radiation but that waves can be hard to come by, especially northwest of Tokyo, the chosen location. Oh it can get good, passing cyclones blowing crisp nuggets to shore etc., but also
And so yesterday Olympic organizers ran a test event with Japanese surfers to see how things might go. Shall we turn to proper news organization Reuters for more? I think we must and also that the World Surf League should have done a content deal with Reuters instead of with Rolling Stone. I think that would have been more fun.
Heavy fog and small waves on Thursday meant the start of the four-day surfing test event at Shidashita Beach, some 60 kilometers north-west of Tokyo, was delayed for an hour.
Organizers also had to contend with the more unexpected challenge of a sea turtle laying her eggs overnight, just 10 meters from the judges’ viewing area.
Once the fog had lifted and the first heats began, there were periods of heavy rain mixed with bright sunshine, a further indicator of the unpredictable conditions surfers are used to but present a challenge to one of the Olympics’ newest sports.
“We depend on mother nature, we depend on the natural conditions as they present themselves,” International Surfing Association Executive Director Robert Fasulo told reporters on the beach during a rare window of sunshine.
“We are very confident and part of the reason why we are here in this period is to see how the conditions are running during the format.
“I think that, from what we have seen, and we are on schedule, that the conditions are absolutely adequate.”
It sounds absolutely perfectly adequate to me too. I have no doubt that fans will thrill at the reported zero-to-one foot waves while squinting through heavy fog while trying not to step on sea turtle eggs. I am positively certain that the “smaller waves” providing a ‘”tight, technical contest” will inspire and elate.
Oh surfing, you silly, silly goose!
Commented on Disqus? Log out, tap the Disqus button, and your old name and comments come back. The box is ours.
Your comments are still here. Every one of them.
Twelve years of BeachGrit comments came across from Disqus. Connect and we will show you how many are yours. We get your username, nothing else.
Connect Disqus to reveal.
You know what, I just fucking might do that. I have a good feeling about it!
I love surfing and all its fucked up idiosyncrasies.
We love you too.
I think idiosyncrasies is a bit strong though.
I stand corrected! Sorry. Chiba’s the only place I’ve ever had good waves in Japan.
I do this but also paddle for every shit one earnestly haha.
They could always hold it , in that case , at Kanoa’s home break of Huntington Pier , Japan ?
as long as you surf better / faster than him no worries !
Just have the Olympic committee and TV Network play JJF and Dane’s ‘Dear Suburbia’ Japan section as the final, judge it as such, and hand out the metals accordingly.
In which case Dane deserves all three medals.
If you disagree, fight me.
JJF might have won the giant barrel fest at the end. I don’t know though, I lost track of who had the lead. They both had so many 10 point rides.
Dillon Perillo has some as well.
And we mustn’t forget the soundtrack by Bauhaus.
If you weren’t already convinced that “competitive surfing” is fast becoming one of the lamest things going since professional rollerblading, then ladies and gentlemen I present to you – surfing as an olympic sport.
Lets all hope Godzilla emerges from the mist and blasts all competitors, telecasters and officials with an Atomic Heat Beam killing them all and rendering the telecast of the event useless thus saving whats left of our pastime and lineups.
That Sam guy is getting in your head
Remember Vexy, it’s not the Godzilla you watch blasting atomic heat beams in competition that counts. It’s the atomic heat beams that you get blasted with yourself that are important.
I can’t guarantee I’ll remember that.
Wot?
Who are you?
Where am I?
All valid questions.
Party Pete don’t Panic ! The Beastie Boys will come to save the Day …..
Check out their dress Rehearsal for Tokyo 2020 Intergalactic Games
https://youtu.be/qORYO0atB6g
I found that more entertainment than all the wsl events put together so far this year.
It’s on the Chiba peninsula almost directly east of Tokyo actually. Maybe a fraction north of east.
Laughing at the Olympics is too easy I think.
Also on CNN, wolf attacks campers in Canada. Is nature angry at humans?
Humans are so fucking irritating if I was Mother Nature I would hate on humans so bad.
Well there’s no survivors so far.
So it’s fair to say she’s not a massive fan
Well… she should do something catastrophic soon so we know whats up.
CNN is good for dramas
Yeo
Just turned it on and it sounds pretty bad out there.
Sounds like you need some of Rupy Murds merde and a good lie down.
That’s disturbing.!!
So much merde
Makaha shark attack? Leemore GOAT, what’s up bruddha?
https://www.cnn.com/2019/08…
Out of 23 Neanderthal samples, 50% showed bony growths, ranging from mild to severe, in the ear.
How, exactly, did such a high percentage of Neanderthals get surfer’s ear?
I bet they shredded Nazare’.
I wonder if Clay Marzo shares a higher percentage of genes with Neanderthals than the average modern human.
It was fucken cold where a lot of Neanderthal people lived. Surfer’s ear is a reaction to cold.
Neanderthals and Marzo both disdain neoprene…..coincidence?
Neanderthals had bigger brains than modern Homo Sapians , the only extant human species , and Marzo , the Surfing Genius, his Brain is wired slightly different to the rest of us . Possibly when the cognitive revolution kicked in , 70,000 beers or years ago , the surfing species that felt the cold and invented wetsuits and cold water wax had an advantage in The Ice Age Open and qualified for the HC or Holocene ……. or as stone aged hipsters like to call it the Hollow Scene ?
So you are absolutely confirming it as FACT that Neanderthals surfed?
I’m running to the papers with this one.
Expect Daily Mail reporters on your doorstep soon.
Yes well one look at me and they’ll be convinced.
You’re too skinny for that.
Dress me up in rotten furs and stick a stone surfboard under my arm, and you can use me.
… you could also try to convince the reporters that Neanderthals surfed with some fake evidence.
..steady on, Mike. I do love being a cunt myself, but…
There’s plenty to admire Neanderthals for compared to modern man. Neanderthals buried their own with flowers, we do gofundme campaigns. Neanderthals created meaningful art, we have Duchamp’s fountain. Neanderthals cared for their elderly, we isolate the elderly in nursing homes. Neanderthal dna isn’t an insult, it’s an advantage.
…well I suppose if you put it that way.
That’s amazing. Link????
I hate it when its a marginal surf at best and the car stacked with boards happens to witness the best wave to come through in the last 30 mins. That really annoys me.
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
BTW I’m not claiming this is good. I just posted it cuz it’s got ‘fog’ in the title.
christ what’s next, Foghat.
Don’t tempt me.
Fog-get ahboutit.
i like Lindisfarne , always have, but my brain scans show a walnut in there
Gotta love some actual learn’n.
Mind you, English was good enough for Jebus so we should make it illegal for anything else to be spoken or even talked about.
And this is why them pesky Mescans shouldn’t be allowed into ‘Merica.
https://www.theguardian.com…
I’m athinking this’ll be one of my go-to options for going out in style.
Dude, ¡this event was held a month ago!
It’s just somewhere in ‘foreignplace’
“Yeah whatever. It ain’t ‘Merica so it don’t matter.”
– the majority of viewers in Kuckknuckle, Ohio
Chas is making the argument for wave pool competition.
It’s foggy and 1′ here and we do other things, that’s what I assume this highly anticipated new audience will do too after all the teary eyed athlete profiles with emotional swing musical compositions. It’s just not a bio if you can’t live through the athlete’s overcoming obstacles and distress to rise to the level of Olympic athlete.
Not having a wavepool backup is idiotic. Japan has spent billions on the Olympics. Another 20-30 mil for a wavepool is a drop in the bucket even if it is never used again, which would also be idiotic. The Olympic committee should require a wavepool backup for all locations subject to extended flat spells like Japan.
But what about Surf Ranch tech being totally retarded, financial-model-wise?
Then it can go the way of the Brazilian venues. But if the initial cost is the price of having the Olympics, then the financial model greatly improves for continued operation. Japan could also use tech other than Surf Ranch.
are you kidding me? the whole Olympics is ultra-hard totally retarded, financial-model-wise. What do you think would get more use afterwards, a Surf Ranch pool or those indoor circle cycling venues?
And now the 4 turn up and take out their phones and post a photo of if , then wonder why next week that there are 44 or 444 other blokes / chicks / not sures who have discovered “ their “ secret ?
I believe the GPS location of the shot is published too.
Remember that guy that “discovered” the Gabon left point, posted his shitty surfing on youtube and was bummed at the “blow ins” from Volcom Europe a week later.
That 10 seconds of fame social media promises bring a lifetime of pain to your secret locations.
Or how MF left his location / historical services on (from his Rip Curl Watch) and shared with everyone where his secrete wave was. That made me laugh.
That watch is so fucking lame. Know a guy who wears it every surf and posts on Fuckbook the data…. unbelievable.
At some point, humanity will figure out how to use technology as a tool instead of technology making humans tools.