The WSL finds a solution to a non-existent problem…
The WSL, as we learned from Gra Murdoch on Australian surf forecast site Swellnet, has changed the rules in an attempt to hogtie its biggest star and dual world champ Gabby Medina.
They now threaten disqualification for any last-minute interferences like the one he laid on Caio at Pipe.
(Watch Gabriel’s deliberate interference on Caio here.)
Missing was the bigger question: why?
And also: to what effect?
For a league that has now pivoted to be an entertainment/media organisation devoted to storytelling it seems a bizarre oversight – or is it sheer ignorance? – that the greatest story in its league remains opaque, and now under threat from zealous rule changes.
I’m talking about the Yin-Yang dynamic and rivalry between it’s two biggest draws.
Character is destiny, character flaws even more so.
For athletes in a professional sport over-aggression can be equally as damaging as submissiveness. For that theatre to play out we have the two greatest surfers of the generation, John John Florence and Gabriel Medina to witness.
Why would you rob fans of the potential dramas in a rivalry that could sustain the sport for a decade?
Imagine Shakespeare’s plays getting the WSL rewrite: “Ah look mate, that Hamlet is too indecisive. That King Lear, we’re going to need to tone down those passionate outbursts, he’s a bit too mad.’
One too aggressive, one too submissive.
The difference between what you expect to see and what you actually see is drama.
Take the drama away from heats, even the possibility of it and pro surfing becomes an incredibly tough sell for an audience saturated with digital opportunities for entertainment. That’s what made Zeke’s physical dominance over John so compelling. We suspected John John’s unwillingness to “go to the mat” in competition but until we witnessed his capitulation we had no idea how that would play out in real time.
Ergo for Medina.
Chas and David Lee Scales made the point in The Grit podcast after the Caio priority incident in Portugal that Medina is a shitty villain. In the sense that being a bad villain means he’s bad at it I totally agree. It backfires on him as often as it helps him. It’s cost him world titles.
In terms of shitty being inauthentic, I totally disagree.
His acts of aggression are spontaneous and ingrained as well as calculated and pre-meditated. There’s nothing manufactured about it. When he came to the Gold Coast as a newly minted twenty-one-year-old world champ and threatened physical violence against “enigmatic” Irishman Glenn “Micro” Hall Pete Mel couldn’t pull the mic away from him fast enough.
Which is what makes it so fascinating, you never know when the next Medina drama will unfold.
Something is happening here and I may not know what that is: that’s a Medina heat. That’s what keeps me watching.
It’s what makes the rule change so incomprehensible.
By removing an avenue for the Medina character flaws to express themselves you remove drama and theatre from the sport. You reduce the strength of the yin and yang polarity between him and JJF.
Why would you rob fans of the potential dramas in a rivalry that could sustain the sport for a decade?
Imagine Shakespeare’s plays getting the WSL rewrite: “Ah look mate, that Hamlet is too indecisive. That King Lear, we’re going to need to tone down those passionate outbursts, he’s a bit too mad”.
You want to witness a sport without drama and intrigue, minus any of the possible Game of Thrones dramas, watch the current Aussie QS events being held in two-foot beachbreaks. An endless grind of two turns and a closeout finish.
Whole hours pass of four-man heats separated by a point or two.
The difference between first and last practically unintelligible. Vaughan Blakey is doing a heroic job in the booth, should get the call-up to partner his brother for the big leagues, but the actual content of the heats is dull as cold dishwater.
As a guiding principle the WSL rule book should have a commitment to making the Sport more interesting over time, not less. And the deeper irony is that Gabs wasn’t even exploiting a competitive advantage via the rules that needed to be shut down.
It was a solution to a non-existent problem.
In the final analysis, by legislating Gabs aggressive instincts out of the sport they help him more than any other surfer on Tour.
They remove the possibility of those sudden explosions that came from nowhere and totally blow up heats.
It just makes a thirty-minute heat a more boring, stale and predictable way to pass the time.
I don’t see how that is good for the Sport.
What about you Medina haters, what do you see?
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If the goal of a surf contest is to judge surfing skills level among a group of surfers, and this alone is open to a never ending debate, rules like this are needed in an effort to ensure that waves get ridden by those who are trying to score points and win a heat and not allow cock blockers to stop the ‘action”.
Sigh- lost my virginity on that sand just up the beach by Kammieland.
This is what happens when you put VAL’s in charge. Take one of the best, legal things to happen in a contest and f_ck it all up. Boring
BTW – Kelly would have done the same exact thing as Medina, no question…
Here for another five days. Do it mate, on the top level.
Right on.
All pro sports leagues do the same dumb things.
Hot new aussie talent on the mic
Yeeeooo!
Rule 151.06(b)
With 5 minutes remaining announcement already given per current announcement obligations of Head Judge/Announcer, now surfers will be unable to rely their .own watch timer. They’ll be constantly throwing the above head clap hand sign like they’re announcing a viral infection which may or may not be Contagious.
And 5 minute lulls at the end of the heat is not only possible, but has often decided heats.
Time management is even more important now.
Dude time management is pretty much the only thing going on in a heat.
I understand that. What I mean is that between start horn and 5 minutes announcement, the CT’rs relied almost exclusively on their wrist watch timer. Sure they could rely on that because there wasn’t a time sensitive Rule. “Less than 5 minutes”. Heat leader has mid 9 and mid 5. 2nd in Heat has a 6.0 and handful of junk 1.0 – 2.9’s. Leader could stuff 2nd w/ priority on a wave that screams high score 8.0+ potential right at 5:30 time remaining, because zero’d mid 5.0 leaves 2nd still with 2 scores not beating leader’s high score.
.you know what, fuck me, I feel like I’m stuck in a car with Bruce trying to find the airport trying to explain what I’m thinking.
Epic. Yeah they’ll probably have to set up a shot clock next to the priority LEDs.
btw that would be a sick rule, a shot clock. Get priority and you have to use it within a set time frame or it reverts to neutral.
What’s “Dude time”?
Is that like ‘Me Time’ or more akin to ‘Timmy Time’?
I think he means doodoo time
“Doo doodoodoo doo doo doo doo… ice ice baby”.
OR
“Eeuuuurrguuuuhh!!! Hammer Time!!!”
Perhaps someone is confusing the two songs?
I mean dropping the kids off at the pool time
Ala griff the doodoo doer
“Who was the first musician to say “Throw your hands in the air and wave ’em like you just don’t care” and on what song?”
“Sean McAleavy, musician
Answered Jul 11, 2019 · Author has 1k answers and 541.2k answer views
There are those who make the claim it was Bach. But it is fairly common knowledge that Bach was a stodgy party pooper who would never try and hype a party. Furthermore, his overindulgence of mutton and mead gave him a severe case of gout that discolored his fingernails a moldy black color and he kept them stuffed into the tiny pockets on his waistcoat. Newly discovered renaissance graffiti suggests it was Rachmaninoff who was responsible for the party cheer. It should also be noted that both the sayings, “I see ya tryna finesse” and “Woop Woop” are also attributed to Rachmaninoff.“
https://www.quora.com/Who-w…
“If you go flying back through time, and you see somebody else flying forward into the future, it’s probably best to avoid eye contact.”
“Sometimes I think you have to march right in and demand your rights, even if you don’t know what your rights are, or who the person is you’re talking to. Then on the way out, slam the door.”
“I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they’d never expect it.”
He remains the most interesting surfer to watch – for several reasons.
Re Manly, I totally agree on Vaughan D. And Richie Lovett is bloody good in the booth, too.
Vaughno makes Joe bearable almost
Did you notice that Joe T toned it down in their company? He didn’t quite feel the need to comment on every single maneuver.
He’s afraid of them.
Pottz is like one of those schoolteachers that gets the worse from their students.
I quite liked Joe with Vaughan, a good odd-couple. As you’ve said before, Joe is a very likeable guy in real life from all accounts, and it showed with V.D..
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Yes.
He sounds nervous with freestylers
Comfortable with a scripted loop
The first thing we should see on the WSL site is a live event!!! Not a slick interlude about some poor fucker who has no hope of ever competing on the world stage. Idiotic.
I’m gonna be an apple polisher. BEach Grit is by far the best surfing midia in the world. What a fucking good article. I would love to watch Medina in his prime clashing against Andy Irons or Slater in their prime. Like in the Roman Empire, people go to coliseum thristy of blood
In this the age of the asshole, the last thing we need is for assholes like Medina and Lau to flourish. It’s only really the Val’s who are interested in the side show and drama at backline. Thank fuck for surfers like John John who let their surfing do the talking and show us what we really love to watch
But we need asshole and pussies for the dicks?
Truer words were never spoken.
drama queen
Yep they just setting the scene of boredom and control for the World Wavepool Tour!
Oh unfortunately she lives for that rubbish haha! It’s very grand here!! But not Ben’s. We’re at the yellow house should you want to stop by, your most welcome!
I’ll bet you were a snotty little cunt too way the fuk back in the day
Haha, very true. Just posted up here at Rockies enjoying a can or two on the balcony while she is infatuated with gross American plastic surgery tv. I got squeamish.
Have another for me!
I actually am! Nursing two rather large eggs on my head from a lazy duck dive incident.
You need more spam musubi.
Yuck!!! Ass and lips haha!
Whistling / Screetching relatives should be given a little stage off the side and be
allowedmade to choose creative outfits with which to exhibit their particular flair.What do you wear at the school sports carnivals?
Last year was a peach-coloured, sequinned jump-suit with fabulous padded shoulders and flared hems.
It got pretty rippped and dirty doing my routine. The crotch is particularly filthy. I’ll post it to you if you like.
This year is undecided. Either; ‘Sausage-Lobster-Durian’ or ‘Gelatine-robot-wheeliebin’. I’ll probs end up “tossing a coin”, if you know what I mean?
Kids must be proud!
For sure. I mean, technically, as of last year, I’m not allowed within 1km of the school sports grounds, I think because the teachers were all going wild and couldn’t concentrate in the kids. But you know, that’s just an added challenge. I’ve arranged a special treat for them with a mobile video screen truck to roll up onto the field so they can witness my broadcast from a cul de sac in the neighbouring suburb.
Charlie’s got nuttin on you.
God I fucking love him, you all wanted individuals back in the sport and well…here is the ultimate one. He is leading the way for people to be cunty again and mix it up.
If the most exciting part of pro surfing is what rule will gmed break next I think we have hit peak boredom already.