Backfire.
Being right certainly does feel wonderful. But days ago, there I was sitting on my stool, wondering out loud if the world’s greatest surfer Kelly Slater had set the stage, so to speak, for his grande finale.
Olympic gold.
Gazing out across the horizon, he would have seen a grueling Australian leg followed by weird International Surfing Association business all enveloping multiple long monotonous quarantines.
Did he not decide to get healthy by surfing on his broken-for-four-years foot, eat right, rest well?
Well, now look. John John Florence, heading into the quarterfinals of the Margaret River event drops out citing knee injury. Off Rottnest too. Certainly not headed to El Salvador.
Kolohe a further high ankle sprain away from waving sayonara to the WSL/ISA himself.
When Slater refused to go to Australia, I’ll admit I found it strange. He was sitting 3rd in the rankings, after a 3rd place finish at Pipe, and maybe could have put up more results at Narrabeen, Margaret (if Box), Rottnest.
A 12th crown not entirely out of grasp.
Likewise, I found Florence’s latest announcement strange. He is, also, currently 3rd in the world and surely one of three title favorites. Why not just keep battling it out? His Japanese prospects do not look good what with the 2ft closeout beachbreak certainly on tap.
Then, like a bolt of white lightning, it hit me.
The big names on tour just don’t care. They can drop in and out as they like and still snag a year-ending 5th.
That’s all that is needed, remember, to punch a ticket to Lower Trestles for the exciting final’s day dreamed up by the World Surf League’s Kansan CEO Erik “ELo” Logan whilst trying to re-create the excitement from a pre-Covid Italo vs. Gabriel 1 vs. 2 final heat of final event bacchanal.
In so recreating, though, ELo stripped his stars of motivation and by “stars” I mean Gab, Pip, Italo, JJF, Caio. They simply don’t need to go to every event anymore and can cherry pick at will.
Who wants to be the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors?
Best regular season record in basketball history only to run out of gas a few inches shy of the finish line, losing to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the finals.
Not John John Florence, that’s for sure.
I bet not Gab, Pip, Italo either.
Watch them each go down with one injury or another at some point during the year only to come raging back to a miraculous 5th.
Caio will fight the good fight, though.
Clocking in daily just like us.
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Bummer. Australian swim team is sponsored by Speedo.
Replace ‘Backfire’ with Dumpster Fire!
You can bet your bottom dollar that someone in the loop will eventually come to this conclusion: “Don’t underestimate ELo’s ability to fuck things up.”
Chas, you need to travel back to your rumor story that Dirk is out at the end of the season. Stick a fork in this thing, it’s done! The surfers know it. There’s zero chance that the Brazilians are going to pull up lame. The $100k pay day is over after this season and you can bet they will stick around to milk every penny till the bitter end.
He wouldnt, because just like the last time he was in the West no one other than school kids rode them.
Last time I was in El Salvador, some local crackhead pulled a rusty shank on me in a La Libertad restroom. I’m hoping this happens to Brett Simpson.
Something a little like that happened to me in La Libertad, I think in 2004. Was waiting on a corner for a bus to go north when a skinny shirtless dirty-faced dude came up and started yelling in my face and grabbing my arms and backpack. Luckily he was weak and wasn’t brandishing anything sharp and I was able to send him sprawling with a shove in his chest and some market ladies shouted at him and then the bus came. Come to think of it maybe he was just a local lonely crazy dude and I didn’t need to push him so hard – think he even went close to getting hit by the bus. Better to be safe than sorry though I suppose – and actually I had no idea what was happening and was shitting myself!
At last Chas, you’ve written something I agree with 100%! There is a really good reason F1 still uses a season to decide the annual world champion, instead of any kind of contrived “race-off”, or some other convoluted ratings formula.
To Elo & Dirk: when it ain’t broke (& is reasonably credible to the majority of fans), don’t fark with it!
Damn. This is so true.
Basically there is a WC 2nd, 3rd & 4th and 5th. Then everyone else is just the 6th best surfer in the world this year. Best result? Equal 6th* in 20/21’.
Getting paid to surf, and ignore quarantine silliness. I would say they’ve all won!*
Did anyone else note the overbearing parent getting into every photo shoot with his daughter the Hardy dude …creepout.
The new WSL format is the standard in professional sports, it’s a playoff system… Make it to the playoffs and then compete for the championship. Pros in all sports sit out select games knowing full well their team is likely to lose, who cares? The goal is to just get into the playoffs. Top guys missing events is to be expected. I’d rather see the tour cut to 10 people, fewer events in better waves, blah, blah, blah…. Been said a million times and clearly isn’t going to happen. Point is, this format isn’t exactly a crazy idea, it’s actually the standard. And now we are seeing the usual athlete/team strategies typically used within it.
Nah
“Nah” what? The only opinion I expressed was the insinuation that some top pros might purposely miss some events…. The rest is factual.
It may be the standard in American-only “world championship” sport, but it’s a seriously dumb choice for surfing…
Name one other sport where every round/event has a finals series, but which still has a finals series/playoff after that?
I’m all for picking a new format if it makes sense and makes it more appealing to audiences (ie gets more sponsor money so that we get to watch a better product), but they could’ve chosen from any number of different sports to find an already working system.
What about a gymnastics/diving style leaderboard?
What about they draw up a whole season multi-round-robin so that each surfer goes head to head with every other surfer a set number of times per year, earning points for heat wins that go towards a ladder that determines the final 8 for the playoffs? (THIS is probably what you were referring to as the “standard in professional sports”, but it is not used by many individual sports)
What about they make it like boxing or chess where you can challenge other surfers to a showdown (eg 10 rounds/heats at an agreed location) in order to take title?
Or split the tour into different pools with the winner of each pool progressing to the finals.
Point is, you’re totally wrong and the WSL format is a million miles from “the standard”.
A “million miles from standard” because there are multiple rounds leading up to a single event winner? Seriously? Who cares how many rounds a single event has that lead to a winner? The winner is the winner, not hard to understand. Having a final series within a single event has nothing to do with what happens to the winners from that event moving on to an eventual playoff format.
The people that win the most or come closest to winning (i.e. accumulate the most points) move on to the playoffs… Just like the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, NASCAR. Within the playoffs, doesn’t matter how many wins you have, you can be beat in an elimination format (in case you missed it, Chad, therein lies the similarity).
So, the “point is,” it’s pretty standard (within American professional sports, my apologies Gary Dunne). And as for your other ideas, great, heard hundreds now and they all sound good. I’m not for the new format, totally agree with you, it’s terrible for surfing.
All I’m saying is the WSL format isn’t that unique. And we’ve seen how athletes use certain aspects of it to their advantage and how it can taint the experience for the fan (per the article, pros not showing up at events), that’s all.
Problem is someone like Felipe wins Brazil and Lemoore and someone like John wins pipe and Tahiti. Then the title is decided in 2′ Lowers?
Stupid idea they will shit can it next year
It’s so Funny. Cheap.
And Character Revealing
Said No one. Ever.
A good (though short) article thank you Charles, however I hope you don’t mind if I make one small comment about it.
The phrase, “there I was sitting on my stool”, sounds a bit ‘squishy’ (as well as rather odorous).
P.S.
Admittedly in such an unfortunately smelly situation, thinking of Kelly is quite natural…
Would like to see Main break on today and J2 surfing the box in the background completely unimpeded by said knee injury.
If the china/Dems had not released the bat bug so Trump and freedom would fall, we’d be enjoying a wonderful title race,
Instead we have a cunt of a situation all round, gee thanks dumb fake liberal cunts
The best thing about conspiracy theories is the way the get retro-fitted into a self-determined narrative.
Except that it’s not a conspiracy that the Chinese military had direct connections to the Wuhan Lab. Nor is it conspiracy that the Wuhan lab was developing coronavirus’. Nor is it conspiracy that China wanted Biden to win. Those are all facts.
You guys are classics. Needs more Rothschilds though.
Ultra-Hard Political Candy
Not at all. But those facts you are talking about, when linked together, could also be coincidence. Yes the military is linked to the lab, but so is everything else in China. The Wuhan lab is a world leader in virus research, so it would make sense that it would be working on the 18 iterations of coronavirus that have existed. There could be many reasons that China would want Biden to win, just as much as they would benefit from the continuation of a destabilised world if Trump was re-elected. It works for them either way and their responsibility is to their own citizens.
But that doesn’t prove that they released the virus intentionally. Anymore than the fact that the ‘Spanish’ Flu of WWI fame was a US conspiracy. (You know, given that the initial case, ground zero if you like, was an army base in Kansas).
Yes, it doesn’t prove they released it intentionally. That said, China’s debt-trap diplomacy, increased aggressive actions taken against countries in the South China Sea, history of committing mass genocide against their own people under Mao, and rabid determination to be THE global power to reckon with, leads many to believe China had the means and motivation to release upon the world a virus that would ensure drastic global economic decline, from which China stood the best chance to recover ahead of others.
The us army base thing is just one of a number of competing theories.
He’s talking about the Spanish Flu. The CDC has identified patient 1 in the US for the Wuhan virus. It’s not a theory.
I don’t think they had enough data points to plug into the analytics of determining the initial patient for the Spanish Flu.
can you post ,”the identified patient 1 in the US “…..??
The CDC confirmed him. 32 year old from Washington State, that travelled back from China.
I was talking talking about the spanish flu too by the way.
yeah Spanish Flu that originated in the USA/Kansas….
I’m guessing the Chinese military/ government has direct connections to EVERY lab or manufacturing facility in China…and Hong Kong, Taiwan and probably a few in the US.
Connections between every lab, and manufacturing facility and the Party is not surprising. A connection with the military is troublesome. Even more so since Chinese Officials vehemently deny it
So there’s no link between the Pentagon and the Government , Duh!
How’s the “C” old f’r?
where did you get your facts from , please post a link….LOL , here we go again LOL?
OAN, Tucker’s white power hour, Newsmax, Parler, Q…
Every time you have requested a link, I’ve provided you with information that backs my assertion. So, yes once again here’s a link to back up my point.
https://www.opindia.com/202…
Psst. Facts make the sheep get unruly, and the wool doesn’t grow as well…..
And quite a few end up being for real
I must have missed the Italo and Gabe Bach Anal event. Sounds like something you had to pay to watch.
which symphony?
We need a claim final!
Master Claim x EMO Claim
We need to live to see this epic final show!
Japan versus South Africa in the final
It is a lot of travel for an asterisk.
Who will surf against Colapinto in the quarter finals with JJF out?
Hopefully, Kanoa, as he had the highest losing score in the round of 16.
He’s been very entertaining lately.
In the past they gave a bi-round to the surfer meaning griff straight to the semis.
Yup… Griff to semi.
In your opinion, does JJF deserve the QF prize money? Sure, he reached the QF, but he didn’t technically “earn” the money by surfing in the QF and losing the Heat.
The prize money is for reaching the quarterfinals, not completing in them
I wish I got paid for just reaching the work site.
I wish I was the greatest surfer in the world!
He doesn’t look like he’s having the most fun in the world.
They should buy him a realllllllly nice ice pack.
If he has not left yet, all he has to do is put the jersey on, walk into the water at the start of the heat and then walk back out again. Hell Curren did something like this in Japan when they put the surfers out in shit surf and he deliberately didn’t catch a wave. But definitely they’ve done a walkthrough in events when the other competitor has injured themselves before the heat.
Is this a question you really need an answer for or are you just bye curious?
Caio is already the People’s™ champ
So, these guys are making millions and playing the system.
Smart.
JJF doesn’t seem to have the need to prove anything to himself anymore when it comes to surfing.
I don’t think he cares that much about a world title.
Promoting his company is his priority and the Olympics are the ultimate platform for that.
The exposure the WSL provides is insignificant in comparison.
you reckon?
Surfing could be a pissant little novelty at the Olympics that is quickly forgotten.
The chances of it gaining traction in 1′ beach break slop are pretty low, but it will get a few more eyeballs than usual for a tiny window. That will be good for the sponsors. Personally I’m hoping there is a bombing swell, say at Cloudbreak, with the rest of the best world surfers cutting sick to compete with the Big O’s.
Fuck I hope you’re right about that
Snowboarding was a pissant little novelty too before it was in the olympics.
Olympic sponsorship rules expressly forbid this. No sponsor stickers allowed on boards. I think it’s possible that he’ll be allowed to have a pyzel sticker on his board (IIRC) but the uniform that he has to wear at the event will be made by whoever sponsors the US olympic team. Not sure where this sits with his actual wetsuit / boardshorts worn in competition, but big Florence Marine logos all over them will be a no no.
“ U.S. Olympic and Paralympic athletes will be able to thank personal sponsors, appear in advertisements for those sponsors and receive congratulatory messages from them during next year’s Tokyo Games under guidance released Tuesday by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.”
That is no big deal. This issue has been around for about 20 years with the massive sporting labels trying ambush marketing until the IOC put a stop to it.
The only murky bit is where the sporting equipment (which includes running shoes, tennis racquets and so on) may be of a different brand to the major sponsor (think Nike / Adidas, etc). That’s why I think he’s actually allowed to have a pyzel sticker on his board.
You’re not looking at the big picture though. It’s about more than sticker placement (*see below for more on this tough). JJF has already made it clear that he is not just marketing to surfers – he’s marketing to all sorts of ocean-adjacent outdoor sports. Did you see the pics of him sailing 18ft Skiffs in Sydney? He can use the Olympics and the profile that will give him to leverage all sorts of connections, get involved in other sports, and generate marketing material. “Pro-surfer” clout is not enough to make a sailor or fisherman or hunter or kayaker or triathlete or hiker or van-lifer buy his products, but “Olympian” is a universally understood marketing tool that will broaden his appeal. If he has smart people in his ear he will be able to bank off it big time.
*I think there is possibly some loophole that lets manufacturers
print branding on surfboards as long as the exact same model is available at retail. So in a few months we’re probably going to see a whole lot of “Signature Series” surfboards hit the shelves featuring
each athletes logos glassed-on. Medina is already riding boards that have all his logos under the glass.
Well good, maybe, but how many millions do you have to have before it’s enough.
Well, time will tell, the Olympics aren’t that far off.
Please say hi to Matt and Leroy, and if you happen to see Bear, say hi to him too.
Matt did, does, have a ‘boss’ cutback.
You can never have too much money. The more money you have the more giving you can be. Imagine how many people you could help with a 100 billion dollars.
Bear is living down at the pier. You should go see him.