Black blonde Connor O'Leary too!
Jingoism, in professional surfing, used to be
very much part of the joy of watching, cheering. Australians, in my
memory, made much better fun of Americans, who were slow and clumsy
in understanding how to employ Cockney rhyming slang (see: Yank =
Septic Tank = Seppo). South Africans were easy targets, French
surfers easier, Brazilians the easiest of all.
Those days are gone, now, with only Brazilians, lonely on the
World Surf League’s YouTube feed, shouting “WORLD SHAME LEAGUE” to
each other in the side bar.
Posting green and gold emojis.
Well, iconic British newspaper The Guardian surprised its
readers, yesterday, by heralding a return to “The Golden Age of
Australian Surfing” in the form of Ethan Ewing, Jack Robinson,
Callum Robson and Connor O’Leary. Surprised because the the hair
color of the first three ranges from towhead to dishwater blonde,
because we all now know that
white masculinity has actually destroyed surfing and
because any idea of a return to a “golden age” is generally colored
caucasian.
At least Connor O’Leary, half-Japanese, held down the diversity,
though he is still, at time of writing, male.
The Guardian,
anyhow, exploded out of the gate:
Against a backdrop of successive eras of champions, the past
few years have been a fallow season for Australian men’s surfing.
For decades they were a dominant force on the World Surf League and
its predecessor competitions. The reign of Mark Richards, known
simply as MR, in the early 1980s led into Tom Carroll’s two world
titles. A golden era followed in the 1990s and early 2000s, when
Mark Occhilupo, Mick Fanning and Joel Parkinson went head-to-head
with American superstars Kelly Slater and Andy Irons.
But since Fanning won his third and final world title in
2013, no Australian man has ended the season atop the rankings. It
has been an era of Brazilians and Hawaiians. Australians have still
been present – Julian Wilson placed third in 2017 and second in
2018, while Owen Wright has been a consistent presence and secured
bronze at last year’s Olympics. But in 2019 only Wright flew the
Australian flag in the year-end top 10, in ninth. Last year Morgan
Cibilic was the lone Australian to qualify for the WSL finals, a
new format to determine the title involving the top five ranked
surfers (Cibilic qualified fifth and did not progress beyond the
opening round).
In 2022, the Australians are back with a bang. A new golden
era of Australian men’s surfing beckons.
As the competition window for the final event of the regular
season opened this week at the Tahiti Pro, four Australians sit
within the top 10. Connor O’Leary and Callum Robson are ninth and
seventh respectively, while Ethan Ewing is third and Jack Robinson
in second place. Three members of this quartet are under
24.
Brushing toxicity aside, very fun though not as fun for
Americans, who only have Griffin Colapinto, Kolohe Andino and Nat
Young, ranging from dirty blonde to blinding, in the mix.
No “golden age” there.
The question, I suppose, how will Brazilian surf fans react?
Calls to riot on The Guardian’s King’s Place, London porch?
Filling comment sections under stories about Salman Rushdie’s
recovery with “CRY IS FREE!”
Our British journalist friends should brace themselves.
