“Is it the surfers who have risen to the cheers of the Brazilian crowd or is it the judges who have been influenced by the Brazilian crowd."
Now that four Brazilians fill all semi-final spots in the Oi Rio Pro, it’s difficult to imagine that only one week ago threats of death and rioting cast an ominous shadow over the sparkling white sands of Saquarema.
If you’re coming in late, here’s the play: a few decisions had gone against Brazil’s heroes Gabriel Medina, Italo Ferreira and Filipe Toledo and that country’s fans were convinced it was a conspiracy, likely race-based, to kneecap the sport’s rightful stars, world champs Medina and Ferreira, and their understudy Toledo.
The hashtag #worldshameleague went viral and as the pressure built, fans stepped up the vitriol, calling for chaos at the tour’s next stop at Saquarema, as well as threats of violence should similar events occur there, ie, a Brazilian lost to a gringo.
“You have to make the biggest protest in history in Saquarema! Bring banners, balloons planes, boo all the time! Make them leave due to emotional stress!”
Saquarema fans already know what to do!!! Protest now!”
“Boycott! Prevent Saquarema!”
And, tellingly,
“I want to see if you guys will have the courage to continue this robbery in Saquarema.”
Well, well etc.
Ten seconds to in their round of 16 heat, Jack Robinson is in the same pozzy with Brazilian Mateus Herdy as he was with Italo at Bells, Gabby and Filipe at G-Land.
Against Italo, Medina, Pip, he does what needs to be done and clinically achieves number.
Outrage pours from the wounds of Brazilian surf fans.
The blood-letting stopped in Saquarema.
Even after commentators Peter Mel and Joe Turpel flouted their self-imposed convention and said icy-veined Jackie had squeezed enough blood from the bone, he was stiffed by one-hundredth of a point.
“Prefacing the event with threats of violence and riots has worked well for the Brazzo fans!” said one gringo on the WSL’s Instagram.
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“If the judges don’t act according to the crowd’s ask they wont be able to exit the judging tower at the end of the day, so no wonder the final 4 are brazos!!!”
“What, no brozzo tears 😭 today? 😂😂 Hilarious.”
“Is it the surfers who have risen to the cheers of the Brazilian crowd or is it the judges who have been influenced by the Brazilian crowd or is it the WSL who has been influenced by the negative Brazilian social media crowd.”
And, beautifully,
“If these judges are scared of rioters… they’re whiter than I thought. Welcome to the world of real sports surfing.”
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Brazilians are absolutely mad when it comes to sports! It’s always been like that, from football to F1, surfing, etc. Their fans are so passionate they can’t spot justice when it comes to their own fighting against what they seem to love calling “gringos” (any foreign nationality). If you watch wsl live on YouTube and read their comments, you’ll understand how crazy they are. They will cry for EVERY single result and tell you they where robbed as long as there’s a Brazilian in the fight. Doesn’t matter how obvious it is that the results where fair, they can’t see it.
Heck, they kill themselves in their own neighborhoods because of football. 🤷🏾♂️🤷🏾♂️
The WSL is so desperate to broaden its viewership it got exactly what it wanted, reality TV. Can they list phone numbers you text to vote live on heats to determine who advances so it becomes “Surfer Idol”?
Let’s face it, as soon as they made a single event, winner becomes world champion and the surf venue became trestles the label world champion became a total joke.
It’s so obvious they just muscled them in. Just look at the scoring, so damn blatant. Screw Brazil if they wanna act like that. So tired of all the crybaby crap this generation pukes out nowadays. Wants the point to winning a competition if you rigged it to win? Means nothing! You just made a video of you and your crybaby friends playing on the beach.
Robson got robbed just like Robinson but hey you won! Woohoo yaaaaa ra-ra-ra, ok now it’s Wednesday, what’s for lunch.
Riot de Janeiro
Bottom line is that the contest was tainted by the threats and behavior of the Brazilian fans. You can’t argue that. You can argue that it didn’t have any affect on the final outcomes (although you would be wrong) but you can’t argue that they tainted this contest. Unfortunately, that now takes away from the 4 finalists achievements. The bullying, threatening attitude and approach has a way of paying you back at times.
This was the best event out of the last three. Brazos surfed the best and Robbo/Griff should feel very fortunate for getting the nod in the last two events.
This is true, but the overall contest was tainted by the actions of the fans. G-land and La Libertad were a joke.
Looking forward to the elimination round at Chopes if it’s truly heaving next month… could truly make this current Finals Day look silly perhaps…
Playing tiddlywinks in Rainbow Alley with your finger up your ass would make this event look silly.
Just a glance at your damn face makes it so lol silly
Wow. Five judges. Take the top and bottom score away and average the other three. Not even the head judge is smart enough to do that math quickly. It’s purely subjective. It’s surfing. You get the highs and lows. You win some you lose some. It’s not a tennis tour with a prescribed scoring system. It’s not that hard. The vast majority of the time the better surfer wins the event. And the best surfer wins the title. So just relax. The Brazo’s have been poor this year compared to recent years – but for this comp they have stepped it up under hometown pressure. Good on them.
Would you really argue that Gab or JJF or Slater or Andy or MF or Parko or Occy or Potz or Curren or TC or anyone else was not the best surfer in those years they won……….
Is this what drives them to get those silly ‘only god can judge me’ tattoos?
When does Kelly slater surf?
He’s out with a chronic case of the Goat foot.
It was an Aussie judge that gave Jack his 6.8.
7.5, 7, 7, 7, 6.8
He might have lowballed him fearing for his safety, or wants to stay on the CT program as a judge. I thought jacks wave was enough to get the score, but it wasn’t, so we just move on and that’s surfing
Now I know I’m being pretty far out and crazy here, but maybe the Australian Judge just thought it was a 6.8
Even if the Aussie judge gave it a 7 it still would have not mattered correct? Highest and lowest get thrown out and the 3 averaged.
It was a nice wave but he didn’t sink his teeth into it. That was the difference.
Agreed, but it was also likely more than a whole point better than Mateus wave too. Much bigger wave, turns through the lip instead of under it, and a big finish on a very tricky end section. Basically gave the judges exactly what they had been asking for up until that point in the event.
Yeah, because the Aussie judge would’ve been the one fearing for his life the most.