A wonderful shift!

Now, describing the United States of America, Australia and Brazil as “toxic” may be unfair but is it unjust? Likely, though the three countries have completely dominated professional surfing at the highest level for decades upon decades and anywhere we see complete domination for decades upon decades we also see unfair power balances i.e. toxicity.

No?

Well, the sludge might just be draining away as a surfer from Indonesia and a surfer from Portugal bested all-comers at the just-wrapped Great Wall Motors Sydney Pro presented by Rip Curl, the second stop of the freshly minted Challenger Series.

Rio Waida (Indonesia) and Teresa Bonvalot (Portugal) took the wins for men and women in an exciting final’s day.

Waida (above) beat “Headless Horseman” Ryan Callinan and Bonvalot out-dueled Nikki Van Dijk in fine enough conditions causing the World Surf League’s Senior Vice President of Competition, Head of Tours Jessi Miley-Dyer to jubilate in an almost antiquated, much-missed, globalist way.

Per Instagram, Miley-Dyer wrote, “Incredible to see some new faces and flags on the top of our podium here at the Challenger series in Manly. I truly believe that surfing is a global sport, and that our next generation will come from all over.”

She emphasized the post with a strong arm emoji, the Indonesian flag and the Portuguese flag.

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A post shared by Jessi Miley-Dyer (@jessmileydyer)

Many congratulations all around and thrilling to wonder what country may shine next. I, personally, would love to see a surfer from Mexico dominate or one from South Africa not named Smith.

Do you think, anyhow, an Indonesian surfer may receive a wildcard into the upcoming Championship Tour G-Land event or has it already been spoken for by Ultimate Surfer Zeke Lau?

More questions than answers.

And, among other revelations, Kai says, "The big-wave tour sucks" and "I want to surf like Ethan Ewing."

Seven years ago, Bill Finnegan’s Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Barbarian Days threw me under the bus of a two-day obsessive read. 

I’d dived into Finnegan’s work in the New Yorker before, including an excerpt from the book about his time as a kid in Hawaii (read here) and figured the memoir would be gently entertaining but not especially adventurous.

I imagined a writer with a loosely knotted bow-tie and a drooping moustache. A delicate New York gentleman, a flabby enthusiast.

I’d only penetrated three chapters into the book when we suddenly camping on Maui waiting for Honolua Bay to break and, shortly after, camping on the empty beach at Tavarua for a week and surfing a new discovery called Restaurants.

Finnegan entered my heart a little later when, via email, I asked how surfing could be reported better.

“What I do read is way too advertiser-friendly. BeachGrit seems to be an exception… Surfing is an unusual journalism niche because the interests of the surf industry, which very largely finances the surf media, are fundamentally at odds with the interests of most surfers… They want to ‘grow’ the sport. We’d like it to shrink, reducing crowds.”

The relationship soured, I believe, when Longtom wrote a stinging critique of his essay on Slater’s Lemoore pool, also for the New Yorker. 

Did you not ask about the business plan Bill? It really comes across like you were too busy admiring Kelly the “beautiful boy” whose looks have not deserted him.

Sorry Bill, your book was fab but the essay blew goats. Too much Slater Kool-Aid, not enough fact checking. 

Anyway, in the latest issue of the New Yorker Finnegan examines the life of Kai Lenny, the daring twenty-nine-year-old multi-discipline surfer from Maui.

We learn that his wife Molly is the sister of Dusty Payne, who was dismissive of the relationship with the SUP-riding Lenny, that he believes the big-wave tour is a joke, takes vitamins via an intravenous drip, he’d like to surf like Australian Ethan Ewing and he counts the world’s richest men as pals. 

Kai is discreet about his thing with tycoons. They want to be around him, tech titans especially. Sergey Brin, one of the founders of Google, wants to come out on Kai’s support boat at Mavericks? Sure. “He’s supercool,” Kai says. In 2019, he spent some time on Richard Branson’s private island in the Caribbean, where he taught Sir Richard to kitefoil—we know that mostly because Branson posted video on Facebook of the two of them. But Kai’s most elaborate billionaire bromance has been with Mark Zuckerberg. They went foiling together on Kauai, and the paparazzi caught Zuckerberg looking extra silly. Zuckerberg later described Kai as “magical,” and then introduced his big metaverse gaming play with, among other things, a cringe­worthy virtual-reality skit about foiling with Kai. Even so, Kai has nothing uncharitable to say about him.

Read, or listen, here. 

Chilling.

Kelly Slater. But also, do you have any further thoughts or feeling regarding the World Surf League’s much-derided (by the mainstream media) mid-season cut wherein any male championship tour surfer ranked 22 or lower, and any female championship tour surfer ranked 10 or lower, was told to pack their belongings and make their way into Margaret River’s picturesque vineyards where a surprise guillotine was waiting to lop off their heads?

Any last impressions?

Well, blood orgy over, the bodies were shipped across the Lucky Country to Snapper Rocks, Callum Robson, head still attached to shoulders, poked the corpses with a stick at the first “Challenger Series” event. The bodies were then rolled down to Sydney for the second “Challenger Series” event though something strange is happening. Something eerily similar to the very scary Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

The headless are riding again.

During the nightmarish round of sixteen, melon-free Morgan Cibilic was bested by young Kade “Ichabod Crane” Matson but Ryan Callinan disposed of Alex Ribeiro, Deivid Silva ate Jordan Couzinet and Leonardo Fioravanti stabbed Ketut Agus between the eyes.

Each horseman feasting on the hopes and dreams of children (save Alex Ribeiro whose hopes and dreams are aged and gamey).

The waves at the event were said to be “two foot and bumpy” with Silva telling reporters, “I have won this event before (2018) and I feel I can win again. The ocean conditions are very hard but these waves are really similar to what I surf on my home beaches in Brazil so I know I can surf well here, my equipment is specialised for these waves so let’s go for these final days.”

Unnerving.

With enough Challenger Series points, it is thought that the living cadavers may just return to the Championship Tour, itself, and frighten the likes of Connor O’Leary.

Chilling.