Save Owen!
It has been quite a week for professional surfing, maybe the most attention paid to our little corner of children who can’t read good by outsiders since 1976, but wow. Quite a week. It all got underway with the official release of Make or Break, a television show that might just may transform professional surfing into a sport watched by more than just thirty middle-aged men. Then came Margaret River and its mid-year cut. Possibly spurned on by the aforementioned Make or Break, mainstream media came swooping right down on the plan, decrying it as “brutal” and “thuggish” especially after surf darling Sally Fitzgibbons was marched to the guillotine and beheaded.
World Surf League CEO, Erik Logan, sensing a potential enraged public, opened up his shit hose full and sprayed The Guardian with, “The redesign has been met by the industry and fans with genuine excitement and we are already seeing significant increases in engagement and viewership. In redesigning the tours and competition framework, we focused on optimising the competition structures to create a dynamic, compelling and long-term sustainable format to compliment the incredible talents of the world’s best surfers. The mid-season cut is a cornerstone of the new framework and allows us to ensure that post-cut events can run in one optimal swell cycle, create a dynamic season-long narrative and drive fan engagement – all of which allow us to drive more revenue so we can continue to invest in the platform of the world’s best surfing.”
But alas, mainstream media followed the headless ex-championship tour surfers to Coolangatta wherein they were forced to compete alongside Adrian Buchan and Chelsea Tuach at the “challenger series” opener Boost Mobile Gold Coast Pro.
Well, Saint Sally inspired with news coming out yesterday that she would be given the “first half of the season” wildcard for the 2023 campaign and also making it into the semifinals where she lost to eventual champion Caitlin Simmers. Mainstream media, mollified there, turned its attention to poor Owen Wright, who, like Fitzgibbons, was decapitated at Margaret River but, unlike her, performed poorly at Snapper, bowing out in the round of 48.
Wright, also, was given no wildcards injury or otherwise.
Fox Sports declared Wright was “Brutally snubbed.”
Yahoo! Sports beat the drum of “unfairness.”
The Washington Post would have added, “It is undignified and beyond comprehension that a man of his stature, an Olympian no less, should be treated so barbarously” if it was not solely focused on covering the Trump presidency.
Logan is yet to respond.
But will this growing chorus provide wings for the Olympic bronze medalist like it did his countrywoman Sally Fitzgibbons? Will we see a tan, rested and ready Owen Wright ahead of 2023 ready to climb back to the top?
Also, does Rip Curl now sponsor 100% of professional surfers?
More questions that answers.
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The women are lucky that Simmers turned down a spot on this years tour, she was so much better than everyone in that Snapper event. No issue with Marks just being added back to the tour?
Oh yes, I know where you’re going with this…
Aboriginal flag on the blunny elastics!
LEAVE OWEN ALONNNNE!
EDIT: started with one n. It needed more.
It’s only me that misses me in the comments here.
Maybe Owen can convince Conner Coffin to teach him that secret turn that saved him. Oh wait….
A BeachGrit deep cut! (Regarding the cut)
Huh?
I attended yesterday trying to relive all the many great comps held at snapper
A place of culinary excellence no more 😉
Ladies surfing best ever in Welsh storm conditions.
What was the VIP tent like (I was in the pub with blocked view as usual? With the non buffed, non-wannabe’s and general cooly rabble – good)
I wish…quite the opposite. I’m good at turning gold into worthless paper.
Owen was gifted into CT’22 as a wildcard and failed to perform. That means he could not cut it in ‘21 (9 events) and first half of ‘22 (5 events). His only mark of athletic distinction in the last two years is his Olympic performance, which if we are all being honest should be include an * (*= strength of field (weak), conditions (shit), format (confusing AF))…So why exactly is he or mainstream media complaining
Elo is from Oklahoma remember
Pretty sure I cried when I was cut, too. I don’t remember but it’d be cool to one day be reunited with my foreskin.
I’d be sifting my stools to get a rebate on the gold flake. Like Jagermeister.
I cannot think of any other “sport” where there is such whining and complaining about the teams/individuals who failed to succeed. It would be like the team losing the nba finals crying after the game is over to have another chance even though they lost.
The pussification of
Americathe world continues.All judged “sport” has this shit.
No idea what you are talking about, but here’s another part of this “sport” that is a joke:.
The injury wild card. Can you name another “sport” where if you get injured they pat you on the back and give you another chance? Where you get rewarded for getting injured? Availability is the best ability, or at least that’s how it goes in all other sports. A surfer could bust their ass all year and be the first one to miss the cut. But their spot is given to someone who didn’t even compete. Does not compute.
Your example was a sport where you score points, which is clearcut (apart from reffing). Surfing, judges score you points, which is subjective and always leads to controversy and butthurtedness and therefore whining.
Injury wildcard seems pretty reasonable. The Gabby wildcard seems like a weird Kelly-ism that never got removed.
Yes. The Kelly-ism is that you can give up a spot on tour and come back and reclaim your spot (Gabe). That’s very different from getting a spot on tour after not qualifying AND not being injured (Sally). They just script it as they go along.
That could be arranged!
The lab is currently sitting on Greeb’s neoprene line until production blockages ease.
I’m sure Owen is a lovely chap but he has been broken over the wheel of his chosen pursuit, and while unfortunate, that’s the way the cookie crumbles.
Hopefully his sponsors can see him out to a green, non-competition pasture to live out his remaining career chasing waves and clips, should they feel that there is yet viable income to be milked from his lanky udders.
He’ll slip into his shiny loafers and return to his being a real estate developer. I see a Netflix series on the horizon for Mr Wright – “selling out – if you have you get a go – welcoming preppies to northcoast nsw”
EDIT: had Owen down as a Wilson, rather than a Wright.
I mean it’s not like he’s been barred from surfing full stop. He’s very well off compared to the majority of his countrymen, and will be able to post-up where ever he likes and live the high life for the foreseeable future.
He lives like a king no less than that. And here we are mired in these stagnant transition times where we can see the new on the horizon but the old guard are standing resolutely and crappily betwixt and between.
“No Wright Turns Left”
simmers has style which is so rare she was head and shoulders above at snapper
It reads “More questions that answers”. So I assume the question is also the answer?
Can we have a Chas translator to the comment section please
Media failed to mention that this is the second year in a row Owen missed the cut. He already had a free pass.
Who won the comps?
Owen is top 5 in the world in heavy water. The tour replaces him with little foam slappers. Missing the cut this year relates more to brain injury (interference and bad strategy/ wave selection tactics) than surfing that is not good enough.
“Brain injury “ that has no name?
My theory is that it was meth.
He was acting extremely amped and out and of character that year.
Huh
17th at pipe, 33rd at sunset and whatever bad result he got at Margs. The heat I saw he nearly fell off backwards on two seperate waves.