Popular Brazilian new king of Huntington; commentator as etymological expert…
A dozen or so minutes ago, the Brazilian Yago Dora won the Vans US Open of Surfing in two-to-three-foot waves at Huntington Beach, a humming surf utopia also famous for its proximity to multi-cultural precincts such as nearby Little Saigon.
Dora is twenty-three years old and is the son of super coach Leandro Dora, whose skills helped elevate Adriano de Souza and Lucas Silveira to world titles in 2015.
Also in the final was Australia’s (maybe) next big thing, Liam O’Brien, a three-time WQS event winner in 2018 and currently en route to a WCT qualification in 2020. Before the US Open Liam was rated at tenth on this year’s qualifying series.
Of course, the big news, beyond Yago’s ease at landing airs – indeed he appears so comfortable in the air you can imagine him doing so with a cigarette in one hand and a drink in the right as he examines the women on the beach one by one over the rim of his glass – was the LA Times’ story the day where it anointed Chris Cote the voice of surf.
“Cote is an etymological expert in this field,” wrote Jack Harris in his piece Frothy to Learn about Surfing? “He has been calling U.S. Opens for roughly 20 years and was the former editor in chief of the now-defunct TransWorld Surf Magazine. He helped compile the publication’s ‘Significant Surf Slang,’ a comprehensive catalog of jargon and phrases that became a prominent feature in its pages. He has a love for surfing lingo.”
Regular visitors to BeachGrit will already be privy to the genius of Chris Cote. Here, here and here.
Also worth noting in the piece is the elevation of the term, Surf Turkey.
“I’m still a surf turkey, even though I’m 32 years old,” Hodge said. “But you can tell someone that is a new surf turkey.”
Have you heard before?
Is it something you suck and nibble when you’re ruffled?
Cote has Milo Aukerman appeal and we all love Milo.
Well yeah but I think that programmed style gets you into the 10,000s. Then it’s kinda up to you. To break through, you have to become more of yourself. At the top end of the CT, all the surfers are very distinctive. It’s not like anyone’s copying JJF’s weird lil arm jazz at the end of his short arc cutties.
Better a surf turkey than a SUP goose or a boogie pheasant.
Yago , though I was not rooting ( US Open version of rooting ) for him , stuck huge moves ,at Clutch moments 3 heats in a row to take a well deserved win . If only those long period south swells didn’t have those doldrum like waits between the sets …….
As for Côté , the mid length white Skate Socking US Cheerleader……I’m sure he is a nice bloke but when he is together with Ross , I get this strange urge to throw things at the TV …. yesterday’s semi final , and they couldn’t think of anything to say about Liam O’Brien’s home , the sacred surfing and pro surfing site of Burleigh Heads . It’s possible they didn’t know about the recent single fin event even though Fanning Parko and Tom Carroll and a host of Australian greats turn up every year …. fair enough , But if Beaves and Butthead can’t remember that it is the birthplace of modern Man on Man Surfing , created by Peter Drouyn and the first edition , the 77 Stubbies , saw MP ( his swan song performance ) take down the future 4 time World Champ MR , in the final in Burleigh Barrels ( almost dream tour like ) then they should be sent to Matt Warshaw’s RE-EDUCATION CAMP at the Tsunami Wave Pool on the North Korean , Chinese Border ? Forced to skull a long neck of XXXX and recite a chapter of EOS before each Wave ……
James, although your passion for today’s competition is profound, obviously a consummate historian, you may know too much about the US open today than LT will review later. I”m sure LT was hanging on your every string.
Burleigh’s descent into ancient surfer’s memories speaks for itself. It was a goal, now it’s rainbow bay’s little sister. Well they call the sister a different name now that they ruined kirra, but…
It’s time you moved to the beach.
40 more days in the desert until my next surf in France mid September . We had a kid from my Old Boardriders Club in the 1/4 s , the 2017 CT Rookie of the Year and my best mates are highly involved and Life Members of the Club and its an opportunity for us to talk shit across the planet ,like our own personal BG , every time he competes .
In my humble opinion, ribiero safety surfed that last wave and it was over scored.
I was glad Connor got a chance to get the score , after a dismal heat , but did it have to be a bloody 2 wave set ? Thank god Brazil doesn’t play Cricket . Take that one Pommies !
Just having fun with ya Bicko… how long does it take to get your rhythm going after long lay offs? Do you swim a pool?
A kid in the Mexican jungles paddled up to me, audacious as it would seem and knew my name. He had moved to Colorado to ski, build a business…. he was sick of Malibu and I can’t blame him. He bought a house on a carpenters salary, impossible in LA. Every spring, dude would hole up in Mexico after 50 days of boarding in Aspen…. that was his threshold for snowboarding, 50 days.
He surfed like shit the first day, second day he was picking it up and by mid week, he and I sat out the back and traded waves. I left two weeks later and he stayed another month. His theory was, he could surf more in a month in the jungle than he would in Malibu in 5 years.
And you know what? He was right. John swam all winter long at the gym, that’s why I ask.
Running every second day , exercises , stretching and hours spent playing with kids and chores . Healthy diet and gallons of water , stopped smoking 7 years ago and drink about 10% of what I used too . It still hard to leave after every trip because I have to start all over again each time . The only advantage is that I I am not trying to learn anything , simply put into practice what I have done for the last 45 years . When I have a month everything really comes together after 3 weeks , paddle speed , timing but sometimes it all comes together on day one depending on the conditions .
Burleigh and most other north east coast points have been adversely affected by un-seasonal north-easterly winds. Which combined with the lack of south-easterly swells to sculpt banks, has lead to rock-running skills coming back into vogue. On the bright side, fin repairists stocks are up so ‘Yay for the economy’.
This just tells me you weren’t listening. We sang the praises of Burleigh as if we worked for the BH tourism board. My last memory of Burleigh Heads was having the session of my life, spending hours at a pub pool hall drinking with Matt Hoy, who eventually had to carry me to my front door covered in barf, good times.
I watched and listened intently to both the semifinal and final , sitting by myself in the dark just waiting for some mention of the legacy from the 77 Stubbies . This was a seminal moment in Pro Surfing ? But it didn’t happen during the momentum Generation or at Echo Beach and the finalist were both Australian so it is probably not relevant to the audience in SoCal ? Happy Skating Chris .
I know this might come as a shock to you, but singing praise and providing engaging commentary isn’t one and the same. I say that Hoyo story would have been good to bring up yesterday. Today it just rings hollow.
was a good show but I passed on the volume. those conditions were prime for attempts at 540’s and I just can’t quite bring myself to accept it as an appropriate name.
Bicko, not sure if it was during Liam’s semi or the final, but CC and RW were absolutely talking about Burleigh. And for some time. Echt!
To be honest I am being a bit pedantic and I really shouldn’t blame Chris for the WSL not having one Australian commentator for this WSL event . It would be a bit like you watching Denmark play Sweden in Football and being forced to watch the Swedish Television Broadcast of the match ? Along the lines of special relativity , it all depends on the point of view of the observer …..
Except, the Swedish commentators would be gracious and friendly; the other way, not so much. I miss sports on Swedish TV! And EuroPhilosophy (EuroSport).
Yes using Sweden , who have a great reputation worldwide for Diplomacy was perhaps not such a good choice . I should have used Rugby and Ireland v England or France v England or Wales v England or Scotland v England instead ?
I liked their Viking diplomacy better.
yago looks a lot like Borat in that picture.
Maybe Volcom will bring out the Yago Mankini this summer …. I think he could play that wonderful Latin Lover ,Gomez Addams , from the the original Addams family TV Series ?
https://youtu.be/Bx8ljxjv80A
http://www.burleighs.com.br
While I get the sentiment, personally, I’m not convinced skulling a XXXX is a punishment when there are other contenders like West End, Swan and Fosters available. Kweenslander! (I can’t spell that either).
Your qualification is editing a magazine that failed.
In his defence, though, haven’t all magazines failed?
Even those that haven’t , in the world of surfing , have that odor of decay and naphthalene ,synonymous with death , like an aging grandmother’s wardrobe ?
Good things about Chris Cote…. he takes a joke well, surfs ok and is irreverent with a microphone. Corpo Joe sticks to a sticky script, but is a pros pro ho. So I’ll take Chris. Too bad we can’t get Fish in the booth.
At least Joe understands what a 360 rotation is. Most 3 year olds do, too, but some people still haven’t gotten there.
Took us a good 14 years to fail, but yeah, still technically a fail I guess.
Cote is a cockweasle
What’s a cockweasle?
The Urban Dictionary is very useful
cockweasel
A person who shares both the properties of a cock and a weasel, thus forming a nightmarish amalgamation of the two.
“He stole my box of guns!” -“The cockweasel!”
A weasle that runs up ya trouser leg and bites ya cock, or sucks it (depending on payment…)
That was my nickname in high school.
Unsurprising
make a good name for a band.
Adriano looked like his usual determined self. Wonder if he can pegboard up the Q.S. and requalify without a wildcard. Hope he ruins someone’s dreams this year.
If Hodge is involved it’s definitely something you stuff!
Way to go, Yago!! Big victory.
Joe Turpel’s no longer the voice of surf? Hope he’s not off on another La Croix binge.
Chris loves to polish van dorens knob whenever he can.
I guess Joes on the outer for this event … prolly hard at work giving elo the business right now ….
And who is Cote’s sidekick? Nobody says after a ride ‘Wow’ better and with more passion and conviction than the ’89 World Champ, Martin Potter.
Sals always a starter when stuck.
Thought Ross was good alongside Cote tho.
..how was poor Sal’s Vulture gig at J-bay, interviewing the losers on “Finals Day” ? I suppose you have to start with sweeping up the shaping bay, then one day someone might hand you a blank….
I think with RedBull ,sliding back under the sheets with the WSL , we are going to see a lot more of Big Sal .
How did La Croix became so popular in the US? Was it the NYT story? https://www.nytimes.com/201…
What I got from that article was that he celebrated his sobriety stints with La Croix. Seems kinda gay. Celebrate your sobriety with a real drink. Black Folger’s coffee.
And a hand rolled pall mall
Bubbles and cordial. A ruse of the highest order.
Is there surf in Turkey?
Enough fetch on the Bosporus?
I predict much chest hair left on wax, gold chains lying on seafloor post-wipeouts, and consternation-knitted mono-brows as the VALs mount a new crusade on Constantinople.
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
I do like having you around again.
Shush, you’re making my nipples hard
Jeezuz, don’t tell him that. It’s not that far from Bondi to Merewether…
I could use the excitement.
Istanbul was Constantinople.
That’s nobody’s business but the Turks !
Indeed sir, where the Roman Empire lasted in the east until swallowed by Mehmed II in 1453.
https://youtu.be/vsQrKZcYtqg
It’s just that good isn’t it!
Pushed the refugees from the Byzantine or Eastern Empire towards the west and we ended up with the Renaissance , thanks to the rediscovery of art and architecture , literature , philosophy and science from the Ancient Greeks and Romans which Byzantine Scholars Fleeing the Turks brought with them , which lead to the scientific revolution , which eventually lead to Western Europe conquering the world …… Refugees Welcome …..If nothing else it make eating and drinking more exotically interesting ?
That’s nobody’s business but the Turks
They have this old bodysurf tradition in the Black Sea..
https://magicseaweed.com/ne…
Bloody Hipsters , no leashes …… just kidding that was wonderful !
“It’s an old bodysurf spot where there’s plenty of localism,” says Ozan. “If you’re from outside of the village you have to get permission to paddle out from the oldest bodysurfers. They’re a nice and respectful people, but they have certain rules which you must obey. You can’t hang around in the village half naked. You have to respect the older body surfers in the line up and you have to let them go for the big waves. Young ones have to stay on the side if the oldest body surfers are out there.”
Centuries old they reckon.
Awesome.
Correction – Before the US Open Liam was rated at tenth on this year’s qualifying series
He was actually 55th before this event – he is now 10th.
I presumed, and one should never presume such things, that the ratings wouldn’t be updated so quickly.
Well just have a peek at the lil number on the left, it tells you how they moved after the last event. It is highly instructive to see the nuclear effect of a 10,000 event on the QS rankings. ps the QS and CT rankings are linked to the results inside the WSL “cloud”, so updates happen immediately.
Is that true? I thought Al Hunt was still pecking the keys, remotely, in his Bateau Bay office.
Al’s retiring! It’s his testimonial year in 2019. He’s like Kelly except…bigger
Dd you think big Al could instigate live updates of the rankings whilst the comp’s are on? Its not that hard. I am sick of doing it myself. I watch for free – the least they could do is provide some live stats for me. Especially given that Ron Dog talks about it at times during the commentary. Maybe he could just start it at the 1/4 final stage to make it easier for him.
They could replace Chris Côté or Joe Turpel , with a robot , no one would know , and its WSL Algorithm could give a break down of all possible rating outcomes , at all events ? Sadly over recent years it has been almost amateurish at the last 2 QS 10000s in Hawaii and the last CT at Pipe . Let us know WHAT IS AT STAKE ! It makes it exciting ….
Could be a case of Mondayitis mixed with mild unconscious racism on my part but I feel like Yago’s been around for a lot longer than his 23 years. Good on him though, been ripping.
I think the heavy question is why isn’t he surfing like that on the world stage and why isn’t anyone doing it also. 2019 is the years of safety sevens, it’s total dogshit.
Well said. I blame Kanoa – he showed them that mid 7’s can win you a comp. Or maybe you can draw a line back to JW at the Pool last year – when if he had gone for a few 7’s he would have finished higher than trying to push it and falling.
I think it’s the CT pros, they come into that QS field and chew the scenery. In the CT they are under the thumb of the top ranked CT guys; their performances just don’t look or feel as strong in that company. Talk to the QS guys and they’ll tell you that stuff.
Did you like Liam O’s nice sharp tight arcs with a bit of flair? Griffin was asleep intheir semi, but Liam schooled him comprehensively, for mine. Whaddaya reckon?
I read arc as arse and thought…goodness…a dirty story this early in the morning?
It doesn’t take much to tickle the fancies does it? I kind of see you as a different version of ‘The Beautiful Mind’ guy.
He did, I couldn’t believe it! Burleigh boy blows up in shitty HB!!
Well, actually originally from around here, but yeah.
Mexico Victoria or Ireland ?
Hicksville Vicco. He is from deadset Hicksville haha!
Fanning II …. Irish background , Hicksville , Hungry ?
Was nice to hear and see all the young aspiring Australian QS surfers banding together to cheer on their mates . I could hear them from Germany every time one of them stood up and smashed the lip . Reminded me of the LMB generation without the Photographer ?
Could this be the Australian version of the Momentum Gen or the Brazilian Storm? If so what would you name it? I see you Cronulla man has moved himself up the ratings. But as NC said – its amazing to see the movement on the QS leader board after a 10,000. Wait to there has been a few more. Its a lottery.
I bloody hope so . Watching the final , Yago had a paid Volcom Posse of Riddle , Bemrose , his Dad etc and Liam , coached by Rainos Hayes ( through Billabong , I imagine ) had his fellow competitors . Very happy about the Elouera Man moving up slowly . In times of need , with funds drying up , the tribe has to band together to be strong , and save money ….? Saw your man Tehu Butler in among them .
Well let us hope on both fronts. We will need another representative come Dec when Ricardo drops of tour sadly.
..and in retrospect, that acronym was perhaps an imperative?
It shouldn’t happen again !
I did a quick check around the Australian Surfing Media sites and not one thought it was news worthy that Liam O’Brien made the final taking down Kanoa , Freestone , Baron and Colapinto on his way to a well deserved second place at the Prestigious ( well they are continually saying that on the live stream ) VAN’s Us Open of Surfing ? Though surfing on the island of the extinct Dodo bird , Your brother at Cloudbreak and my best mate Glenn Pringle with Martin Dunn , and NZ blocking East Coast swell,were all were worthy of an article …. I don’t need these sites to see Kanoa , Koa Smith or Koa Rothmann or JOB … Surf Session in France , Carve in Europe and Stab ,Surfer and Surfline and a thousand other sites will post the same video ?
On the contrary we are currently benefitting from swell destined for NZ ! I would love to be back home hanging round a few long lefts this week.
But yes very poor that no one picked up on the news of the Aussie competitors performing well. I agree. Asleep at the wheel.
I think as Australians we pride ourselves on being humble . I learnt however, in France , if you want people to know or believe in , something or someone, you have to ram it down there throats . If we don’t tell the world how good we are (in this epoch where popularity eg Instagram numbers are more important than results ) then no one else will and we are shooting these kids in in the foot before they can make a start ?
The kid impressed me. Reminds of a young AI.
Shades of Ethan Ewing but with great heat strategy and ready to rumble ?
Contest seemed very CT light no?
Mate there’s six 10,000s and only one is at HB, if you were gonna ignore one and prioritise the next CT location (Teahupoo) what would you do? I wouldn’t go near it myself.
Yeah, but would it kill em to do all 6? Talking about lower than already qualified types. Seems like they should scrap a bit more. (non competitor talking here in case you hadn’t guessed. Could’ve been a contender though, ok that’s not true. anywho what were we talking about?
Edit ) somewhere
Those who don’t have 20000 points on the CT ,after Chopes and the Pond ,will all be in attendance for the last 4 QS 10000s .
Are you saying that there is a big gulf between the QS and CT folk and it just stands out more? Because you could also argue that there is a big gulf with about 3-5 of the CT guys against the rest. I was more saying that I think they don’t push it has hard as they can at times. At least with Gab, Felipe or JJF you get the feeling a 9 or 10 is a real possibility most of the time they take off. Italo sometimes. Kanoa / Kolohe / Ryan / JW / Owen (unless max Chopes or Clouds) / Connor etc. Jordy could give you an 8.5 – he is in the middle of both camps.
What I’m saying is the QS guys are a bit in awe of the 10,000s and the way it brings the CT guys down into their realm, the intensity of competition immediately skyrockets, every QS guy wants to be a CT guy and to be in the mix with them is the goal. The CT itself is another story, it really is a different level and is seen as such by everyone, be you a QSer or CTer.
Thanks. Totally see what you are saying there.
Rumors of Owen training for Chopes , at Cronulla this morning .
It was pumping up this way as well today…..all day. I am knackered.
Very jealous ! Go hard .
I think it’s the influence of The Surf Coach becoming too strong. All tactics and grind with no flare.
Otherwise known as the ‘take the 2’ approach championed by Wayne Bennet and the St George Dragons when they won their premiership.
Good take. Strategy over awesomeness aka Pottz who ironically did the opposite in his own career.
My thoughts exactly after i watched the QS in Ballito, Wiggolly Dantas was hammering the rights like a madman and then Jbay looked very safe in comparison.
It’s so backwards! And frustrating as he is actually one of my favourite surfers.
I like him too but someone around here’s not to keen on his paddling.
It’s excellent though! If you close one eye in real life he freakin motors along at a rate of knots!