Did Kelly Slater get it all wrong?
A real and mostly undeniable truth that has hovered over the World Surf League née Association of Surfing Professionals for the last two decades plus is that the best surfers in the world are on tour. Sure, there are wonderful Ben Gravies and Jamie O’Briens and Clay Marzos and etc. but the cream of the crop, in prime, has surfed the tour for the last two decades plus.
Three decades plus?
Certainly fantastic specimens have grown tired, “retired” early like Tom Curren, Dane Reynolds, Bobby Martinez and others from greater Santa Barbara but doesn’t this iteration of competitive professional surfing feel… different?
Gabriel Medina, sitting champion, elected to sit out most the year in his prime before becoming injured and not seeming to care.
Former champion John John Florence, became injured too but instead of heading to much rehab, posted to social media, chose to sail the high seas while purposefully avoiding the next WSL stop in Tahiti.
Clearly cost to benefit has been weighed and for two still young surfing mega-stars the tour doesn’t matter so much.
What does this mean overall?
Will the next batch of prodigies chart different non-competitive courses? Building fanbases upon jaw dropping clips, film releases, art?
Or is this simply a hiccup?
Did Kelly Slater get it all wrong?
Please discuss.
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The WSL is blowing a major PR opportunity by not giving Erin Brooks the wildcard into the Men’s division.
I say let them ride whatever boards they want. The pros can do all kinds of different shite on twinnies and other retro shapes.
There’s no rule stopping them though is there?
There has to be. They’re all riding slightly tweaked versions of the same thing in comps. Nobody’s riding twinnies at Lowers.
Kelly is the goat of high performance competitive surfing, but his arrogance has no bounds! He’s become an expert in anything he’s asked instead of humbly declining to comment outside his expertise. We now live in this social media narcissistic environment which is destroying American culture.
Who’s ‘Kelly Slater’??
Kelly never gets it wrong.
I’d rather watch 10 mins of JOB, Ho or Reynolds than whole wosl contest, particularly this year with crap surf.
The answer is Felipe Toledo pulling off the unforeseen air reverse at waist high Trestles. This is the product. This is what the people want.
“FUCK ME STRIDER!!! WHAT WAS THAT UP-IN-THE-AIR TWIDDLY-DEE-DOO-DAH?!?!?!!!
HE ACTUALLY LEFT THE SURFACE OF THE WATER AND TURNED AROUND IN THE AIR!!!!
THAT WAS FANTASTIC!!!
I’VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING THING LIKE IT SINCE THE LAST HEAT FIVE MINUTES AGO!!!”
Historic, unscriptable, groundbreaking & massive!!
I don’t know about anyone else, but I CAN’T WAIT for 2ft scrappy Teahupo’o this week.
Settle your cunty heart, JP.
Fuck the Men. Do a write up on the women.
only conditions St Andy ever won in….. there were 4 waves in the semi and final, he caught two…. they named the contest after him.
And Adriano is a Pipe Master.
Event results are not the sole measure of the mark a person has left on a certain place. Plus that was back when there were 45 people on tour. With that many heats to get through you were almost guaranteed to finish in shit waves. But there were some insane waves in earlier rounds when he won in ’02. Same goes for one of the Gotcha Pro years as well, where he was a clear standout.
It’s 2022, so their will be another blackswan event next week (China invades Taiwan – or Lea Thomas contracts monkeypox). WSL admins & pros will get scared and homesick, then run-layered heats in 3′ Chopes rights and lefts. Jake Marshall is crowned Chopes Champ over Callum & wsl circus splits.
The next week, Surfline features 10 sec edits of JOB & JJF at Code Red IV Chopes swell.
WSL needs a Natural Selection style makeover.
https://youtu.be/lrg9Xmvks-w
maybe at Nazarre with rails and kickers to make it just a little harder
I read that as ‘rails and knickers’.
The KON does not compete
I just want to see good waves like the Krui and Nias events
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Hard to care when a lot of surfers on tour do not care. Pro surfing seems to be dying like I have not seen in my 37 yrs following it.
I think in business they call it The Great Resignation, changing priorities in the wake of covid. Could that be driving it or maybe just burnout?
With the top two surfers out and on walkabout god knows what will happen next season. The tours becoming worse. Woozl may as well scrap this inane Cut and Final Five after this year. Send everybody home like they have with the QS and broadcast the regional comps. Those that are top in their area qualify, say the top 5.
Have a finals comp at the end of the year with a big piss up, wet tshirt comp and bbq.
Crown a Champ. Dirk ecstatic. Job fucken done. AmIrite ? Ken oath.
Ahem… JJF is SAILING. Not walking.
Hahahahar
There’s always one …..
ah glory days!!!! all done in a day in as above in waves of tahiti nias anywhere perfect with the forementioned party post!! that cunt fisher DJing everyone off there head after and all streamed – that i would watch
There ya go !
Fucktard management. The tour was fine 4 years ago. And the Big Wave Tour needs to be resurrected and include a couple southern hemisphere spots Like Punta de Lobos and or other spots to give it continuity throughout the year. 2022 tour sucks for too many reasons for my lazy arse to list here.
The BWT was a freakin hoax dreamed up by a bunch of dicks on meth.
Any time the BWT was actually held in monstrous waves, the surfers complained that they were just being used for entertainment.
Motherfucker, what do you think professional sport is? You asked for this bitches!
Tonally the WSL have improved a lot. There’s less surfing dogs on their instagram now which is good. But the product itself is stale, and the judging has been rank for a while (heavy preference to backsiders, last minute waves always overscored, set waves being overscored even when surfed safely, guys being judged against their own ability instead of their opponents, single manoeuvre 10’s, no consideration for style in the criteria, etc), which is costing credibility even amongst hard-core fans. The solution is obvious – get the surfers in better waves more often. To do that they need longer waiting periods (even 2-3 days extra would’ve made all the difference at many of the events) and less heats. Ditch the non elimination rounds, slim it down, and put as many heats as possible out in good waves. Everything else matters less – judging fuck ups included – if we’re watching the worlds best surfers in pumping waves.
“What does this mean overall?”
It illustrates that amongst the vast majority of surfers and nearly all non-surfers not a single fuck is given about professional surfing.
Today I drove to Hilo for a surf, since Kona is in the midst of a flat spell. At the spot I surfed, there were longboarders, shortboarders, and spongers. Asians, whites, native Hawaiians. Males and females. Everyone got along, good vibe, nobody said anything about professional surfing or the latest woke garbage. This is what surfing is all about… not the WSL’s saccharine droppings.
Sam?
Put Moana Jones Wong in Pip’s heat and everything is forgiven.
They don’t need the tour. The tour needs them (especially Ke11y).