After wild runaway success of television
series Make or Break, World Surf League seeks to expanded into
scripted surf-based drama, comedy, horror films!
By Chas Smith
Bright lights, big surfing.
Oh I write about our beleaguered World Surf
League, from time to time, and fun make about its various
trials and tribulations. How the Wall of Positive Noise has
created, on its backside, an asylum where the mentally unstable
have gone full mentally insane, but maybe just maybe, the
“leadership team” is all mentally insane like a fox?
Take, for example, the wild runaway success of Apple+
television’s unscripted doco-serial Make or Break. Of course it was
covered in depth, here, with very few fun makings as the show was
very entertaining.
So entertaining, apparently, that the production company
responsible for itself is now eyeing a potential slate of scripted
surf programing. For those who aren’t “Hollywood,” scripted means
non-documentary. Like dramas, comedies, horror films etc.
“It’s been a phenomenal few years for the Box to Box Films
team and we are thrilled at today’s announced partnership with the
World Surf League,” said (co-founder Paul) Martin. “This agreement
represents an exciting new phase in our relationship with WSL. At
Box to Box, we are passionate about telling stories of the world’s
best athletes and in the last year we became obsessed with the
world of surfing and the depth and breadth of the WSL stories and
history. We believe there are some epic stories both historical and
current which we are excited to bring to the world.”
“Box to Box Films is undoubtedly the hottest production
company in sports and their ability to tell unique stories is
unmatched,” added WSL CEO Erik Logan. “This partnership is a
full-league deal and gives the team there – headed up by
Oscar-winning James-Gay Rees and Emmy winner Paul Martin – the
unprecedented opportunity to mine the archives of the entire sport.
This type of access gives them a real opportunity to delve deep
into the league’s rich history and use their intimate storytelling
approach to take viewers inside the world, lives, and legends of
the best surfers on the planet.”
Ok, ok, ok so who do you want to see lightly fictionalized?
Whose story told and which actors telling?
Maybe TikTok sensations the Island Boys sharing the role of
Felipe Toledo in the buddy comedy Bigger wherein
Toledo’s character adopts a big ol’ lovable Great Dane who helps
him overcome his nagging fears regarding size and leads him to a
world title at double overhead Trestles?
Now your turn.
What cinematic glory would you like to see?
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Urgent rapid-fire post-G-Land and Pre-El
Salvador Power Rankings, “How in the name of God can you ask me to
stand by silently and watch you die?”
By Karl Von Fanningstadt
"Punditry is a plague, one that infests nearly
every aspect of modern society."
The first event post-cut, the surf world was abuzz with
excitement (slight interest) for the contest at
Grajagan.
It was never going to live up to the hype of the ’97 event, but
a contest did ensue.
Therefore, how did the men fare?
24. Jordan Michael Smith
Punditry is a plague, one that infests nearly every aspect of
modern society. Operating under a framework built around
ever-increasing hyperbole, experts myopically explain how whatever
they’re talking about is “unprecedented” or the “most” something or
other, which is usually a shortsighted opinion or wilfully ignorant
of what has happened before.
That expressed, Jordan’s career is one of the biggest
disappointments in surf history. The most hyped surfer ever when he
qualified, his biggest accomplishments were two runner-up finishes
in years he was nowhere close to actually winning.
It must have dawned upon Jordan out there in the lineup as he
was getting absolutely destroyed by Connor O’Leary in the
Elimination Round (after being crushed by Jaddy in the Opening
Round), that he will never win a World Title, Lifetime Achievement
variety (like Parko) or otherwise.
23. John John Florence
Another year, another knee injury for the most-talented surfer in
the world. How many World Titles has his knee cost John John
Florence? I would say about as many as the number Alex Ribeiro was
robbed of by sucking. Injuries are part of athletic competitions
and it’s not like someone took a bat to the guy’s knee or murdered
him, he hurt it in the act of performing his activity.
22. Carlos Muñoz
A late addition to these Power Rankings upon me seeing him in the
draw for El Salvador this morning, I’m just shouting him out here.
Cool to see ya, Carlos. Get a haircut!
21. Seth Moniz
Another injured surfer, Seth’s auspicious start to the year has
given way to garbage. If the Tour was a sitcom or a
direct-to-video/Netflix comedy movie, it’s perfectly possible that
we could’ve had brother Josh substitute in for Seth once he got
injured, surfing in his place while hijinks ensue and he is able to
pull one over on the WSL all the way to a spot at Trestles, where
it is finally revealed that he actually is Josh but they let him
surf anyway (he loses). Mildly funny (exaggerating here), the
show/movie would also be social commentary, covering the issue of
cross-racial/ethnic identification, the viewer to wondering how the
hell the white dudes at the WSL did not realize Josh and Seth were
not the same person, considering they don’t look that alike… wait,
what? Anyway, Seth is already qualified for next year.
20. Jake Marshall
Writer’s block incarnate.
19. Jackson Baker
It’s funny to think about the idea of perfection as it changes
across time. In the ‘90s, G-Land was considered a perfect wave,
really, the gold standard, almost every video featuring Machado or
Kalani Robb had a section of ‘em surfing it. Watching Jackson out
there at this last contest, doing half turns, pumping furiously,
bumping closeout sections on his backside, it’s amazing to see how
off we were.
18. Caio Ibelli
Despite the lacklustre contest, the WSL can count the mid-year cut
as a win. The new streamlined contest format makes things much more
enjoyable, as now there are no rewards for not winning a heat like
there are in the usual format, where second place is fine in a
heat, and the result is a quicker death for under performers we’d
rather not watch anyway. The only problem with the mid-year cut is
that there should be another cut following it, of at least another
four people at the end of the year. If you have to rig it so that
you get rid of the worst four from only the results from the back
half or some other convoluted way in order to oust Caio, you should
just do it.
17. Kelly Slater
A last-place for Baldo at small G-Land was to be expected. I’d say
we have three more contests until I’ll be excited to watch his
heats unless he decides to ride a 5’2” oct-finned bogger at J-Bay.
Nah, not even then.
16. Samuel Pupo
Beat Billy Goat Bob in the Elimination Round with a single digit
heat score at the buzzer, surfing like your garden variety local
ripper. If it weren’t for the last secondness of the wave, which
artificially boosted his score for the purpose of creating
manufactured drama, he should’ve lost. Unlike current Tour Golden
Boy, Jack Robinson, his luck immediately ran out instead of lasting
an additional heat.
15. Miguel Pupo
Very nice to see Thing 1 get back together with Thing 2 for the
first time this year. Fun. He mustn’t have been too enthused about
the surf. He probably would’ve done better had it been barreling,
which reminds me, before the contest, wasn’t Richy Porta saying
that the event would be tuberiding contest? Yeah, that was
that.
14. Nat Young
After I sang his praises in the last instalment, Ol’ Grendl has to
go and let me down at G-Land, losing to K-Hole on his backhand.
Speaking of backhand surfing, Nat should be fine the rest of the
year, able to harness the energy from his bulging thighs to
monotonously and powerfully hump the midsection and blast the lip
of every right he sees until Chopes and be rewarded with high
scores.
13. Barron Mamiya
As much as I love watching Barron surf, dude got smashed by an
on-fire Jadson in the Elimination Round. Rewatching their heat
against each other, I came to the conclusion that Jaddy has a surf
style oddly reminiscent of a mirrored aughties Kelly, all speed,
“functional” stance, spastically long arms, a teetering on
out-of-control approach, and power on top an eroding peninsula on
the cranium. No shame in losing to the greatest. Hopefully, El
Salvador is good and Barron’s able to light it up.
12. K-Hole Andino
Winner of the Heat for California: Mid-Tier Pro Division, K-Hole
pulled ahead of Nat in the ratings. Is there a 949 beer? If so,
K-Hole should advertise it.
11. Matthew McGillivray
Matty followed up his career-saving performance at Margs with
another solid one, convincingly beating Caio and Ethan on his way
to a quarterfinal result. While a good result, I mean, it’s not a
last place, a quarterfinal in this format doesn’t mean much, unless
you’re already in the Top 5, in which case, it’s pretty much
imperative to make. It’s weird that in the new framework, nothing
has been done about the points allotment. Last-place finishes
should be severely punished. Also, non-elimination heats are still
stupid.
10. Connor O’Leary
I’ve heard for years people clamoring for more rippable lefts on
Tour to even the playing field for goofyfooted journeymen, who in
most contests are forced to either surf on their backhand
(allegedly harder) in fat or slightly overhead rights. Funny thing
is, more rights on Tour is to their advantage, as they can
repeatedly bash the lip with the same top turn and be rewarded,
showing zero variety. Saying that, Connor is one of the few pleb
goofies who would do better with more lefts, with enough variety in
his turns to actually look nicer than a couple regular footed
frontside check turns. None of the last-second pixie dust enjoyed
by other surfers extended to him in his loss to Toledo in the
semis.
9. Gabriel Medina
G-Land was a missed opportunity for Gabe. Really, he should have
won the contest. If not for the favoritism to Jack by the judging
panel for his last-second wave, he would’ve. Only getting 6085
points from the contest instead of the 10000 he would’ve for a win
will make it a lot harder for him to make it to Trestles. He’ll
need two or three wins to get himself into the Top 5 before year’s
end. Let’s hope he does, so it blows up the Finals Day event
concept.
8. Callum Robson
A disappointing result for Frosty Robson, who lost to Snake in the
Elimination Round. His surfing can, especially in smaller waves,
appear burdensome, at times his body bent as if he’s holding
something heavy like a children’s illustrated atlas. Still ranked
in the Top 10, look for the judges to keep the Morgan Magic going
for him through J-Bay.
7. Ethan Ewing
Ethan lost but is still clinging on to a Top 5 spot. With John John
out, he can breathe a little easier about keeping his spot,
however, he will still have to fight with Griff, Kanoa, and Italo
for one of three places. Working in his favor is the fact that he
has the highest average score for all waves surfed among everyone
on Tour, averaging 4.89 per every wave taken off on (approximately
three-fifths of a point higher than the next Tour regular, Jack
Robinson). He can make it through some heats with clunker waves, he
just has to take off on some.
6. Italo Ferreira
Blitzing his opening round heat, it appeared like G-Land was going
to be a great comp for Ike to “announce his intent” on the World
Title in the words of announcer Richie Hat with a win. Alas, the
waves turned to shit and he lost to Connor in the Round of 16 for a
ninth place. Despite the result, I expect him to be able to push
himself through to Trestles, much more easily than his non-Jack and
Fil competitors. Why is he rated sixth? Because, out of the
potential rivals for the last three spots, I think he has a worse
chance of actually winning the whole thing should he get there not
in first position (unlikely at this point). All it will take is one
heat for him to go cold and he’s gone there… he does catch a lot of
waves, though… no, not talking myself back in…
5. Kanoa Igarashi
Back in the Top 5, Kanoa is going to try to have to up his game
and… sorry, I have nothing insightful to say about Kanoa.
4. Jadson Andre
Jaddy Boy had a great event, surfing like a small-wave, lessened,
third iteration goofy-footed Slater on his way to a quarterfinal,
where he lost to Titan Gabby. He was absolutely shredding (I had
him winning his opening round heat against Ethan). I would like to
say that I think he could’ve won the event had he gotten past
Medina, but I know he probably would’ve lost to Jack, if not
outright, then via some on-the-buzzer judging shenanigans.
Whatever. It’s here that I will say that I imagine my repeated
demonstrations of perverse infatuation with Jadson is probably like
those people who keep asking you “isn’t he so cute?” about their
nasty dog with the jacked up face and terrible personality. Again,
whatever.
3. Griffin Colapinto
Despite a slow start to the year, Griff has started to look great,
catching a bunch of waves, making heats he should, and always being
willing to play along with the camera crew letting them into those
inane conversations filled with empty coach speak and self-help
trite that “mainstream” audiences just eat up. With the potential
to win any event left, he can continue his upward trajectory in the
WSL ratings. Unfortunately for him, he’s capped out here in my
rankings unless he can bag a World Title.
2. Filipe Toledo
With his third final of the year, at a venue not many would’ve
expected him to play the role of favorite, Fil remains on top of
the WSL rankings. A frontrunner all year for me, with Gabe’s
earlier than expected exit and his runner -up finish, I was
inclined to put him at the top, but developments outside his
control, consisting of Pritamo’s ever increasing lust for Jack
Robinson, have forced me to place him at two. Three straight wins
are not out of the question.
1. Jack Robinson
Does the WSL have a judging problem? Watching the final three heats
of the contest at G-Land, all with last-second waves caught by
trailing surfers, you’d not be wrong to think, “probably.” Jack’s
scores appeared a little juiced, while Connor’s lowballed.
But why?
Is there some sort of directive to always give Robbo a boost,
unduly skewing the scores in his favor? Without any of the judges
coming out and saying so, that is impossible to prove, considering
the highly subjective nature of determining what good, or at least
better, surfing is. One person’s trash (cutbacks) is another’s
treasure, blah, blah, blah. A narrative can be, and has been, put
forth that sows doubt in everyone’s mind about the integrity of the
judging.
That said, I decided to look into the data to see if Jack was
potentially being judged differently than other competitors with
the hypothesis that he is probably being judged by a tighter scale
in terms that his wave scores will generally have a smaller spread
than would be expected.
To do so, I plotted every single wave ridden on Tour this year
(3438 in total) by score and the measure of dispersion (using
Median Absolute Deviation) among the panel of judges examining
each, all to get (Jack’s values highlighted):

Welp. I was really hopi… thinking that it was possible that his
points would be clustered below the trendline, meaning his scores
were tighter, but wuhhh… Cumulatively, he did have the third lowest
value of Actual Deviation Minus Expected Deviation, but he also has
ridden a ton more waves. The differences per wave are fractional
and I’ve wasted my time and I’m not equipped to explain any of
this.
It still makes sense to me that he gets a boost, though, mostly
just because of what was shown about the judging process in Make or
Break, where basically scores are shouted out by Pritamo, who then
tells the others exactly which maneuvers are better, meaning that
if Pri likes him, he gets a higher score. A fruitless expedition to
try to prove, though.
Anyway, back-to-back event wins for Jack have him sniffing Fil’s
fat ass, nose lodged firmly between the cheeks, in the race for the
number one seed at Trestles.
Good God.
I quit.
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World’s favorite professional surf
commentator Barton Lynch stops shaving face, sprouts most
magnificent beard since John “Grizzly” Adams!
By Chas Smith
Pure man.
Each of us, here, have opinions about facial
hair. We see men, or women, walking down the street
featuring goatee, mutton chops, a handlebar, amish beard and wonder
how it might work but are often too set in our ways to deviate.
Derek Rielly, for example, has been rocking the Don Johnson 5
o’clock shadow impeccably for as long as I have known him. I have
carried versions of the director, or pencil, mustache for the last
decade. The world’s greatest surfer Kelly Slater always and forever
clean, zero hint of sprout from tip of head to Adam’s apple.
Barton Lynch, the world’s greatest surf commentator, usually
appears before us in the booth as fresh as a baby, rosy cheeks,
sparkling eyes but look at this most glorious transformation. At
this best style transition surfing has seen in decades.
I have not seen a beard so fine since John “Grizzly” Adams
graced television screens in the late 1970s and don’t know how/why
Lynch’s sometime employer, the World Surf League, is not demanding
his services each and every contest. Paying him double, in fact,
for a beard like that is pure magic and would certainly rescue
sagging viewership numbers.
Or is his hirsute the reason that he has not been invited into
the booth of late? Too much pure man in the day and age of
borderless gender?
Much to ponder.
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Newly minted singleton and world champion
surfer Gabriel Medina celebrates Lovers Day in Brazil by
passionately kissing augmented reality girlfriend!
By Derek Rielly
Watch sultry video of Medina and not-real gal
here!
June twelve, I suppose you know, is the Dia dos
Namorados, Lover’s Day, in Brazil.
Like V-Day in the west, gifts of candy, flowers and rechargeable
sex toys are handed to the primary lover in one’s multi-ethnic and
gender diverse stable.
And it falls on June 12 ‘cause the following day is Saint
Anthony’s Day and Ant is noted for blessing marriages and so on.
February fourteen ain’t so good in Brazil ‘cause it’s carnivale and
everyone is guts and throat deep in cock, pussy, ass.
Anyway, Gabriel Medina, three-time world champ, newly single
after his one-year
marriage to Sports Illustrated model Yasmin Brunet ended earlier
this year, took to Instagram to dispel any worries he might
be lonely on this very special day by exchanging kisses with an
augmented reality lover.
Currently single, Medina, who is twenty-eight, has been linked
to a variety of celebrities since the breakup, including
TikTok star Vanessa
Lopes, model Gabriela Versiani, Jade Picon and
actor Isis Valverde.
Phew!
Brunet, meanwhile, told fans the special date would be “my first
single Lover’s Day
in ten years”.
The just-turned thirty four year old was in an on-off
relationship with Evandro Soldati from 2005 until 2020 and Medina
until earlier this year.
Clearly Kelly couldn’t get past the chorus either.
It’s a mark of how irrelevant Athlete are/were that I couldn’t
figure out who the song was by for ages. All I knew was the chorus,
over and over, and I didn’t remember El Salvador was actually the
song title. I was sure it was part of a song by Gomez, from 1998’s
“Bring It On”, which would’ve been vastly preferable. But at least
it reminded me of that album.
Leaving high school, world at my feet…
I do wonder, sometimes, if it’s just nostalgia, or if things
really were good then. They were different, certainly.
But objectively I’m not sure it was any better. And in many ways
it was almost certainly worse.
But so it goes with aging. We yearn for a past that may or may
not have existed.
There’s probably no point in trying to have a discussion about
music with you lot, though, is there?
I never understood why the US and Australia always seemed about
ten years behind the scene, but there we are.
Not so in New Zealand, apparently.
(They were 20 years behind).
Except for one man.
Did you know that everyone’s favourite omniscient and benevolent
moderator once had dinner with the greatest drummer of several
generations? Owing to an ex girlfriend who worked in the music
industry, as I understand, our own Negatron once shared drinks and
football banter with Reni from the Stone Roses.
Well past peak Roses, of course. But nevertheless, for me that
shits over most celebrity interactions I can imagine.
Aside from journeyman Moroccan pro, Ramzi Boukhiam, sharing
spliffs, a hot tub and potentially bodily fluids with Rihanna. That
tops anything – or anyone – Slater ever did.
Anyway, El Salvador.
I’m genuinely excited about a brand new location. Less so the
forecast, which is, once again, sub-optimal.
Though that depends on who you believe.
Magicseaweed say 2-3ft, maxing out at 4-6ft on
Wednesday/Thursday.
Swellnet says “a great run of swell is due through the first
week of the waiting period.” (But they tell lies, as we know.)
Surfline are calling 8-10ft for Wednesday and Thursday.
All agree the wind’s potentially quite shit.
Who to trust?
If the waves do show, this event could be very, very good. As a
right point that offers hollow sections, we should be able to see
most people surf to their strengths. Theoretically.
You’d be hard-pushed to look past Filipe, but if you did, look
to Italo to get some redemption for a lacklustre season so far,
especially if the wind offers a little push for airs.
Otherwise I like the chances of Ethan having his first CT win,
or Jordy having his first in a long time.