Moana Jones Wong, the twenty-two-year-old Hawaiian who beat Carissa Moore to win Pipeline Pro. | Photo: WSL/Brent Bielmann

Surfing heavyweights throw support behind Pipeline champion Moana Jones Wong after WSL denies her entry to upcoming Portugal event, “If Barron Mamiya or any guy was in third place… you think the WSL would not include them?”

#WSLSHAME, #WILDCARDS SCANDAL, #WHATEQUALITY???

The surfboard shaper Jon Pyzel, whom you know as the stud who gives world champ John John Florence wings. has joined a chorus of voices demanding the winner of the Billabong Pro Pipeline, Moana Jones Wong, be gifted a wildcard to the Portugal event, which begins in four days. 

Pyzel reposted an Instagram story from Peter King, the outspoken photographer and former bandmate of Kelly Slater.

“Good point!” writes Pyzel. “What’s the story WSL?”

You might remember Peter from his #TourNotes series, candid, funny, and which was bought, watered down into a bad cordial and subsequently killed by the WSL.

“Wow. If Barron Mamiya or ANY GUY was in third place in the rankings, do you think the WSL would not include them?” wrote King. “What a joke. #radiosilence #WSLshame #WhatEquality??? Moana should be in Portugal. Equal pay but not equal play.”

Jones Wong, who won the Pipeline women’s event as a wildcard and who was subsequently given a wildcard into the second event at Sunset where she finished seventeenth, wasn’t invited to event three on the card, MEO Pro Portugal. 

The wildcard was given to Hispanic surfer Tia Blanco, the winner of ABC’s Ultimate Surfer.

Still, it ain’t just Pyzel and King throwing their support behind the Hawaiian Jones Wong. 

A few weeks ago, the baseball -bat swinging, send-the-king-of-the-Hui to jail hell-raiser Ian “Kanga” Cairns called on the WSL to gift Jones Wong a wildcard to compete in every event for the remainder of the Championship Tour season. 

“She has singlehandedly put the WSL Women’s CT on her back and she’ll make Margaret River, Grajagan, Teahupoo and even Super Tubos electric,” said Cairns. “To earn respect and to build a sport, that’s what Moana can catalyze in women’s surfing. Today’s waves have changed the game. Every young girl at BSR or Urbansurf now knows the pendulum has swung.”

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Facebook founder and multi-disciplinary waterman Mark Zuckerberg shares his secret for conquering giant surf: “I train hard so if I’m gonna go out in a 15-foot wave then I’ll make sure we have the right safety gear.”

Extreme sport type stuff.

Loathe him or dislike him Mark Zuckerberg has embraced surfing and surfing adjacents, these jewel in the extreme sport type stuff crown, with bottomless abandon. There he is, on Fourth of July foiling across a lake flying the American flag. Oh look now, there he is with best friend Kai Lenny tow foiling off a beautiful Hawaiian shore.

The world’s 5th richest man, and Kauai local, is passionate about our game and game adjacents shared some secrets to success recently on the very popular MIT professor, artificial intelligence thinker Lex Fridman’s podcast.

Zuckerberg, dressed in a black sweater and leaning into his iconic Caesar haircut, was asked about his own mortality and paused long before answering, “I do a fair amount of, like, extreme sport type stuff so I’m definitely aware of it.”

Fridman told him that he was “flirting with it” a bit, presumably death. Zuckerberg chortled then responded brave and confident, “I, uh, train hard. So if I’m gonna go out in a 15-foot wave then I’ll make sure we have the right safety gear, make sure I’m used to that spot and all that stuff.”

Fridman, still probing, interjected “But the risk is still there.

Zuckerberg, acknowledged, “You take some head blows along the way.”

Very interesting but will this peek give you a leg up next time 15-foot surf steams into your local?

Will you prepare better?

Flirt less?

Watch the whole interview here (surfing conversation kicks in around 1:48).

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WSL in legal stoush with Women’s Independent Soccer League over latter’s trademark registration!

The WISL is dedicated to furthering women’s equality in soccer, “a league created by women for women” and “an equality project.”

Earlier this month, the World Surf League (WSL) challenged the trademark registration of the Women’s Independent Soccer League (WISL).

The WISL is dedicated to furthering women’s equality in soccer. The league will operate as a secondary, sort of minor league for the National Women’s Soccer League, providing women a path to pro soccer.

The WISL is self-described as “a league created by women for women” and “an equality project.”

The WISL was founded in response to the flourishing of Major League Soccer (MLS), the top men’s soccer league in the US. According to Soccer Today, “Our U.S. Soccer Women’s National Team is the most successful in the world and can proudly claim four FIFA World Cup titles. The men cannot even claim a final match and yet today there are three professional men’s leagues in the USA and several large lower-level leagues as well.”

In April of last year, the WISL announced its first club, the Los Angeles Force, which already has a men’s team.

As you may know, the WSL has long made gender equality a cornerstone of its image. In September 2018, it announced that it would award equal prize money to male and female athletes, making it the self-described “first and only US based global sports league . . . to achieve prize money equality.”

But, recent months have revealed cracks in the equality façade. Questionable decisions in the Pipeline contest, leading noted surf writers to question the WSL’s motivations and one female pro to claim, “It was a fucking joke and a disgrace to all equality in sports pushes ever.”

Then, current Men’s Longboard champ Joel Tudor, delicately as ever, pointed out the WSL’s alleged failure to pay its women’s longboarders at a rate commiserate with their worth.

“They use women’s longboarding to promote everything,” said Tudor.

The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board is currently hearing the dispute.

Will the WSL strike another blow against equality?

More soon.

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Filipe Toledo slashes Sunset to the bone!

Post-Sunset Pro and Pre-Portugal Power Rankings, “Filipe Toledo is the best surfer in the world on rail! There’s no real debate!”

Australian surfers crash to historic lows; Hawaiians dominate tour!

We witnessed a lot through the couple good days of competition at Sunset, including too many competitors riding shitty equipment, the continued ebb of Australian surfing, and the rise of the Hawaiians.

How does all that impact the rankings?

Find out!

36. Liam O’Brien/Yago Dora
Absent the entire year so far, neither has really contributed any surfing to the Tour. In Yago’s case, that’s a shame.

35. Morgan Cibilic
Funny how the announcers keep asking if one of the rookies could be this year’s Morgan Cibilic (saying both names is paramount!). Here’s hoping for them that they aren’t. Don’t want them shitting the bed next year.

34. Carlos Muñoz
Injured and out of Portugal. Get better, my friend. We would rather see you fall off Tour on merit.

33. Ryan Callinan
Poor Ryan, having to coax his battered, oft broken spiderweb skeletal system to perform in Hawaii only to be thoroughly destroyed by Deivid Silva… bummer.

32. Callum Robson
Surfing like a statue suffering a bad case of camptocormia, Callum lost to the once future-and-caveated-and-heavily-excused savior and fellow Australian, Jack Robinson, in the Round of 32. His existence on Tour is merely to function as further evidence of the ongoing and in progress slow extermination of Oz as a surf superpower. Queen Ozma is dead and cannot save them.

31. Imaikalani deVault
A terrible two-event start for the rookie. Suffering a severe case of the fallzies, otherwise known as The Michel Bourez Staple, Imaikalani wasn’t able to make it out of the Round of 32, after looking rather sharp in his Opening Round heat. Had to knock him down a few spaces for the uninspired/lame board spray.

30. Lucca Mesinas
Surfing frontside definitely a weakness for Lucca, who appeared to have been following a strict script on every single wave he caught at Sunset, the list of maneuvers just to be checked off: takeoff fade, bottom turn, flaccid cutback two feet under the lip (with pronounced arm movement), a non-lip hitting turn or two, and fall or pull out.

29. Jackson Baker
Jackson performed well in his heat against Jordan, surfing a longer board that looked like it was created with the input of old keyboard warriors who can’t fathom adequately riding anything sub-6’8”, but still lost. Still, looked pretty good.

28. Frederico Morais
A pre-event favorite (or every single person’s darkhorse), the Pride of Portugal lost to Jaddy. That’s damning enough. Hopefully home treats him better.

27. Leonardo Fioravanti
Another Euro with a disappointing result. I would say something making fun of the fact that he’s Italian, as that is one of only three things I know about him (the other two being that he is friends with Kanoa and that he sometimes wears his hat backwards), but saying he’s really more Luigi than Mario is not funny.

26. Owen Wright
A dead last place finish for O-Dawg. Why did they waste a wildcard on him? Another Wright mystery. Fuck.

25. Miguel Pupo
After a semi-final appearance at Pipe, Miguel tumbled his way back down toward the bottom. Not that he surfs like the guy or that he definitely has had greater competitive success than him, but Miggy just made me think of Miky Picon. I think it’s the losing part.

24. Nat Young
Natty powered his much fawned over (by Ross) powerful thighs to a shitty scoring Round of 16 loss to Seth Moniz. Along with his California compatriot in the next spot, Nat’s place on Tour serves as a reminder that the Eldorado State produces a lot more sand and gravel than gold these days.

23. Conner Coffin
With two seventeenths in Hawaii and being outsurfed by a professional receding hairline, Conner must not be feeling too comfortable about the cut. The generational wealth should help.

22. Connor O’Leary
He had his singlet ripped off in one of his heats… gnarly.

21. Jake Marshall
Discharging his opponents, which included John John, on his way to a quarterfinal finish, young Jake had Scott Bass involuntarily ejaculating his pants repeatedly.

20. João Chianca
After exciting everyone at Pipe, João fell back down to Earth at Sunset. I’m sure there is something else I could say…

19. Samuel Pupo
Surfed well against current commentator apparent masturbation aid, Ethan Ewing, young Sammy didn’t really prove anything, except for that he’s pretty good (could be argued he should’ve won) and reminding everyone of how absolutely rank claims aimed at juicing scores are

18. Griffin Colapinto
Another bad result for Griff, who could easily blow 90% of the tour out of the water just surfing, but instead opts to ride shitty equipment and follow the advice of whoever his dumbass coach on “heat strategy” on his way to losing earlier than he should. Trent at the Home Depot in Mission Viejo is licking his lips at the thought of further Griff failures.

17. Shadow of Gabriel Medina Inside the Mind of Italo Ferreira
Absent the canvas to boost and surf like his jittery, exciting self, instead surfing looking like Beau Emerton’s cadaver, Italo suffered yet another early round loss. While I’m sure he doesn’t give a fuck about what Gabe is doing or whether he would care for the comparison, I can’t help but watch every Ferreira heat through the lens of “how would Medina perform?” in the same conditions (answer: probably a lot better).

Without Gabe competing, Italo is far and away the best goofy on Tour and with no one else within sniffing distance of his level of excellence to measure him against as a relative equal, it’s hard not to view his performance through that perspective. Is this something I’ve latched onto a little too closely because I lack any other faux interesting thing to say? Probably. Hopefully the back-to-back defending MEO champ can snap out of it.

16. Matthew McGillivray
So many people to talk about and pretend to have a take on (or their ridiculous 9.0 scores), I can only say that to sum up my feelings here would be to reference the word, “doldrums.”

15. Deivid Silva
I don’t care what the heat scores may say (others may have had better totals, I don’t really know), but Deivid was easily the best goofy out at Sunset… the benefit of looking like a garden gnome on huge waves probably helps… just ask Tom Carroll.

14. K-Hole Andino
Another year, another disappointment for the narrative that K-Hole is a legitimate World Title Contender, which everyone realizes is a fantasy.

13. Zeke Lau
Nice result for the Don-From-Napoleon-Dynamite-Vibe Hawaiian, even if he was one of the pre-event favorites. A quarterfinal is good for his re-qualification chances.

12. Jack Robinson
“If only the waves were huge like the first day.”

Has a more excused surfer ever existed on the World Tour, one held in such unearned high esteem as to exist in a state of permanent absolution for his inability to perform? I’d argue no.

Jackie’s under-performances are always rationalized away, usually by people saying stuff like the above quote, nothing is his fault. Understanding that people really think this these excuses are reasonable I ask: if a surfer ALWAYS requires perfect conditions in order to do well and destroy his opponents, doesn’t that mean he’s probably not as great as you think he is?

11. Ethan Ewing
A very good contest for Andy, who surfed his way, in his usual overly polished fashion, all the way to the semi-final, to every single commentator’s onanistic joy! Beating Fil, whose turns I much preferred, in the Round of 16 on the strength of one extra turn.

10. John John Florence
With his loss to Jake Marshall in the Round of 32, I had to drop him a bit. Not as low as I probably should’ve, but I’m not worried about him. He’ll turn it around.

9. Kelly Slater
After a Round of 32 loss that saw him get an interference against John John in the overlapped heat, Kelly Slater cried in his post-heat interview about hating Sunset. No, he didn’t really cry about it, rather he just pointed out that he doesn’t like the place while assigning it personhood in a semi-serious-do-not-really-understand-how-to-deliver-jokes way.

8. Jadson Andre
Every heat Jaddy surfs on Tour is a gift to him and an inspiration to everyone watching, proving just because you’re not the best as what you do, you can still make something of yourself.

7. Caio Ibelli
In the process of writing up these unsolicited Power Rankings, it is sometimes hard to come up with stuff to say about the actual surfing they do, as most of the time there is no real analysis to be had, as most often the guys suck or just didn’t surf well for whatever reason. Because of this, a lot of what I write seems shallow, like how I order people heavily based on simple results and how I might focus too much on making fun of someone’s looks or persona. What does this have to do with Caio other than that he’s ranked this high because he made the semis and is balding? I don’t know.

6. Jordan Michael Smith
Another Sunset favorite who didn’t do as well as he should’ve, Jordan is having a Jordan year. Ranked highly because he should do fine in cold water and be better over the next three events.

5. Seth Moniz
Another solid result for Seth, who eeked out a few squeakers to a quarterfinal finish that has him tied for second position on the leaderboard after two events. .

4. Barron Mamiya
The lack of exaggerated hype around Barron coming on Tour into the year, while understandable, considering his participation would come through wildcards rather than formal qualification, is surprising. Every rising star entering the big leagues, from Owen in 2010 to the Reincarnation of Andy in 2017, had more hype surrounding their entry to elite competition. Whatever the reason for this, it doesn’t really matter, he’s number one right now. He’s not ranked higher because of the uncertain status of his continued participation this year due him being only an injury replacement at this point.

3. Kanoa Igarashi
A nice runner-up result for the young American Japanese Portaguese dynamo. Maybe the local boy can produce some magic at the MEO.

2. Filipe Toledo
According to Pancho Sullivan in a story on the WSL website from 2017, “For the better part of 30 years Sunset Beach was surfing’s spiritual proving ground.” Its reputation as a proving ground carried through the contest, which confirmed one important fact about professional surfing: Filipe is the best surfer in the world on rail. There’s no real debate. Doing better in Hawaii than people expected he would, he should be able to surf his way to Trestles comfortably.

1. Makuakai Rothman
Easily the biggest winner of the contest at Sunset, where he became the best commentator the WSL has to call events, supplanting one-time Best Surf Commentator, Ross Williams, who probably at this point is too compromised (John John’s coach) to be considered any good.

Throughout the contest he was the only person in the booth who even attempted to analyze anything going on like in one instance that I remember (don’t know what heat) when he was explaining the different sections of the reef and how each should theoretically be approached, clearing the low bar set by others who usually can only say something stupid like “oh, this guy’s surfing well…”.

The WSL should keep Makua on, probably limited to the Hawaii leg to avoid his overexposure.

It will be interesting to see who the WSL has as part of the commentary team for Portugal. My hope is that somehow Ben Mondy can play the part of Rosy and have to take a post-heat interview with Slater. The GOAT surfer with the WOAT surf power rankings writer.

Delicious.

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Australian actor-surfer Simon Baker shucks $17 million Sydney mansion for three-mill “humble fibro beach shack” at surf mecca Lennox Head!

Hollywood star roughs it in the country after wild city life… 

The star of multi-season cable hit The Mentalist and director-headliner of retro-surf movie Breath, Simon Baker, has shucked his seventeen-mill mansion in Sydney for a cement block and timber beach shack a few hundred metres from Lennox Point. 

Baker, who is fifty-two, bought the two-bedder at 23 Dress Circle Drive, Lennox Head, for almost three-mill last year following the breakup of his marriage and the subsequent sale of couple’s Bronte house for seventeen-mill; a place they bought in 2015 for six-and-a-half mill. 

His Lennox joint, a sleepy eyed derelict, is one of the last remaining original houses in Dress Circle Drive, the modest holiday homes having long given way to the bulldozer’s blade and man’s urgent need for compounds and monoliths. 

“This is the ideal site to make a terrific new statement,” advises the selling agent. “It stands on an elevated 505sqm medium density allotment within strolling distance to the beach, cafes and all of Lennox’s amenities. This is a rare real estate offering that will bring fantastic rewards to those wishing to upgrade, knockdown/rebuild or develop the site and capitalise on such a tightly held setting.”

Surprisingly deft on a surfboard, Baker grew up in Lennox before treading the boards in Sydney, Los Angeles etc.

“You can’t deny the power of this landscape,” Baker told 60 Minutes while standing with reporter at Lennox Point. “It’s got this intensity and whether you like it or not it will have an impact on you.”

Be pretty cool, I think, if the actor keeps the joint as is, undies on the clothesline in the backyard, boards on the deck, various women hissing hotly as star and groupie both gallop for the finishing line while watching tranny porn on the ground floor chaise lounge.

 

 

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