Try to sleep tonight.

Fans of competitive professional surfing, or not fans maybe but those who watched ABC’s much-lauded The Ultimate Surfer just last summer and fell in love with its winner Zeke Lau, went to sleep thrilled, tonight, realizing their hero has made it into the quarterfinals of the US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach which just so happens to be the most popular surf contest in the world.

The premise of the aforementioned The Ultimate Surfer program was to find just that, the “ultimate surfer,” a surfer so good as to rip that crown off 11x World Champion Kelly Slater’s head and wear it, proudly, 12x at least.

Lau won, was given wildcards into the 2022 Championship Tour season, which he didn’t need because he qualified by his lonesome, then apparently lost those wildcards as we was beheaded in the World Surf League’s brutal mid-year cut.

Fans of competitive professional surfing, or not fans maybe but those who watched ABC’s emotionally successful The Ultimate Surfer just last summer, became extremely sad, then, wondering if Lau was not, perhaps, the promised savior.

Now that he is in the quarterfinals of the world’s most popular surf contest though?

Headed up against Jacob Wilcox?

Sorry, Liam O’Brien?

Christmas morning tomorrow.

Imagine he wins.

Imagine he wins the whole thing.

Will you riot?

Surfing, in any case, for the win.

Tensions high.

Geopolitical waves smashed into the Santa Monica headquarters of the World Surf League, last night, as Democrat Nancy Pelosi touched down in Taiwan for what was billed as a “visit.” As you might know, the island nation, officially called the Republic of China, is very much claimed by the other China across the straight, officially called the People’s Republic of China.

A little history lesson for those of you, here, whose parents pulled them out of school in order to follow a competitive professional surfing dream.

Taiwan and China were both part of the same Qing empire until Taiwan was absorbed by the Empire of Japan after defeating the dynasty in 1895’s First Sino-Japanese War. Following Japan’s own defeat in World War II, Taiwan was returned to China which, at that point, was called the Republic of China. Except, civil war raged in that land, the Chinese Communist Party bashing up against Chiang Kai-shek and his nationalists. The CCP, fronted by Chairman Mao Zedong, was beating the the nationalists good and so Kai-shek up and fled to Taiwan in 1949 with much gold and many people and the two have been angry with each other since. The People’s Republic of China claiming Taiwan as its territory, theoretically. The Republic of China (i.e. Taiwan) claiming it is independent and chill.

Pelosi’s visit, in any case, inflamed tensions with China, People’s Republic not Republic of, which began conducting military exercises close to the island. According to Bloomberg, “The exercises threaten to disrupt shipping and airline routes in Taiwan, one of the world’s most-crucial suppliers of computer chips. Several airlines are planning adjustments to their flights, while pilots of Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. were advised to carry 30 minutes worth of extra fuel for possible rerouting in Taiwan.”

What’s worse, they may disrupt the Taiwan Open of Surfing set to get underway this November 13 and carrying with it 3000 points. The World Surf League has already lost the Quiksilver French Open, this year, due a lack of “financial support” and the loss of this second, important event would be devastating.

It must be assumed that CEO Erik Logan and Senior Vice President of Tours, Head of Competition Jessi Miley-Dyer are burning the midnight oil and working the phones, using their clout to preserve the fragile peace.

Viva them.

Many tears in Surf City.

Kanoa Igarashi, Olympic silver medalist and the face of competitive professional surfing, suffered a shock defeat at yesterday’s US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach, California. A “monster” hurricane swell had whipped up the brine up to 6 – 8 ft (Surflines) as fans nervously chewed fingernails, fiddled with worry beads.

Igarashi, currently number six in the world and just outside the Lower Trestles exciting “Final’s Day” draw, fell to Cole Houshmand and Tristan Guilbaud only mustering a combined score of 10.36.

“I don’t know, my head just wasn’t in this contest,” Igarashi told The Los Angeles Times afterward. “We have a really big event coming up next week, so for me, it was kind of hard to lock in this event. I just surfed a pretty bad heat, honestly. The waves were really hard today. I wish I would have stayed in, because the next few days will be good, but it is what it is. It was a tricky one. If I had made the finals here, I wouldn’t have been able to surf in it anyway. It was kind of a loss-loss situation for me, to be honest.”

The journalist, Matt Szabo, likely scratched his head at what “loss-loss situation” could possibly mean though must have chalked the incoherent babbling up to devastation.

The “really big event coming up next week” is, of course, the OuterKnown Tahiti Pro presented by Landfills.

While Igarashi was very sad not to win the “most popular surf contest in the world,” World Surf League announcers were, certainly, lightly relieved at not having to parse the one-time Huntington Beach local’s true “hometown.” As you know, the 24-year-old was raised in Surf City though laid claim to Japanese heritage ahead of the Olympics and now maybe lives in Portugal or some such.

Whew.

In other utterly surprising news, Kolohe Andino also loss-loss’d.

Many tears.