And, oh yeah, No J-Bay, back to Barra in
Mexico.
For fun, at various points during the event, and
especially on Finals Day, I tried to put myself in the minds of the
various Tourism suits watching the action from the VIP
tent. V
Very much glad handing going on, butterfly prawns dipped in a
handmade seafood sauce, mid-strength beers served by cute
waitresses and buff waiters. Much joviality.
What price a local victory? For them, I mean.
Even with the most conservative estimate, a lot.
The claims made as return on the investment compound with local
media going into overdrive on a homegrown champion.
The technical term is “media equivalency”.
It’s one of those things we call in the sportswriting biz an
intangible. We can all feel them, but bringing them into the
material realm is eternally problematic. That intangible tailwind
was right behind hometown hero Morgs through the day.
Through the event.
The same tailwind behind Ryan Callinan produced a draw,
determined by a countback.
It produced a two-point spread in his semi against Medina after
the opening exchange.
A two-turn combo adjudged a clean seven against Medina’s five.
That kind of push, especially at the start of the heat can distort
the outcome but the only distortion we saw was to time and space
when Medina unexpectedly angled left off the back bank, the Ladies
Left as Luke Egan called it, pumped twice and sailed across a
cricket pitch’s worth of oceanic real estate.
Medina called for a three-pointer, judges threw a 9.57 at
it.
That was reality slapping the judges in the face, an involuntary
exhalation, the gallic pppffftttt for the tourism suits, the end of
the local dream as we prophesied y’day.
No disrespect to Morgs though, if he can back up that result
anywhere on the Aussie leg, he’s secured his career for a few
years.
The quarters were dull, hampered by lumpen surf with
inconsistent curves and few opportunities. It was the closest heat
for Italo, who had to swing many, many times on chubby lefts
against Deivid Silva before he got the tail high air for the
win.
The three-point claim wasn’t the biggest display of emotion.
Toledo claimed that, wandering around roaring like a lion
kicking soft furnishings after his win over Connor Coffin. He made
it look harder than it needed to be. After scoring some points in
the shorey he moseyed out to Connor on the back bank who had a
score from a single turn.
Priority followed him out there, which seems ludicrous.
An easy rule fix? Surely someone surfing an entirely different
part of the area should have automatic priority if the decide to
change locations?
Start afresh, surely.
The final exchange in that quarter looked to go Toledo’s way
easily but judges waited and waited cooking up a false drama that
eventually ended with Toledo’s excellent choice of furnishings to
kick.
Maybe a broken foot was what he needed to stop Italo in their
semi?
There was a moment in the semi, which Toledo had seemed to
control with a slender lead, when Italo roared back into it with a
multiple turn wave. Four big turns on the outside, something
playful and jazzy in the shorebreak to bring the crowd into it.
Maybe the crotch grab claim and straight stare at the judges which
was the hallmark post-ride celebration for the champ.
The replay in slo-mo close-up showed Italo grinning inanely,
during the ride!
This guy was having the time of his life. Not even a hint of
pressure.
What he did do, and all contest, was put the pressure on
opponent. None more so than against Medina in the final. A
relentless weaponising of pace. Never seen before, if my reading of
pro surfing is correct. Wave after wave, after wave. The
conventional wisdom is build a house and then wait for the best
waves in the heat.
Not so for Italo. Tail-high air revs on the forehand, big
whipped backside rotors. You could feel the gears grinding in
Medina’s brain as Italo kept catching, roaming the line-up like a
frothing dog. Catching anything that moved.
Don’t look, don’t look.
But he kept looking.
It chopped the legs out from under him. He looked shakier and
shakier as the final went on.
The opening exchanges were fierce. Medina went straight up on
the best wave of the final, then swung his board into a vicious
bottom turn that left a deep cut in the base of the wave, freeing
the fins on the top turn. It was a clear and clean advancement on
the basic building block of backside surfing.
For mine, the best meat and potatoes wave of the event.
Lowballed with an 8.6? A high nine if done by a local? Intangibles
we will never know.
Medina fell on an alley oop attempt that never looked right. In
the same way he did in the final at Pipe his mojo and skill set
seemed to dissipate as the clock wound down. Technically he only
needed a mid-ranger six. In our guts, we willed him to do it, but
it never seemed likely.
I’m not sure there has ever been a more one sided display of
dominance, can we use the term alpha?, than Carissa Moore’s charge
through the field. Derek Rielly called the surf a cute
two-to-four-feet, the ocean seemed a more generous benefactor to
Moore, sending her multiple well overhead waves that I’d have no
probs calling four, five foot. Shades of John John at Margarets
with the cut through on the carves, the total dominance over the
field.
Completely one sided final against Isabella Nichols. Over after
Carissa rode her first wave, though she would never admit it. I
think the girly diffidence has to hide a deeper sense of steel. No
one can be that good, develop the skill set at Pipe for example,
without a hidden beast.
Some of you may be wondering about the comparison between
Newcastle and Lennox or Newy and Bells. Newy smashed both of them.
They would have been royally skunked at the Ox, not a single banner
day, many heats run in terrible onshore surf, brown water and
rain.
Clean babyfood today, not even breaking at the Point. Bells not
much better.
If the suits do get their way and were to win a bidding war
against Bells to upgrade the Newy comp to a permanent CT then I
think we saw enough to justify the claim. Four CT’s in Oz, could
there be five next year?
One axiom I live by: The Woz will never let Tourism money get
between them and a CT, no matter how many rules they have to make
up as they go along.
Oh yeah, No J-Bay, back to Barra in
Mexico.
Can we have Dane as the wildcard pls.
