“You don’t take a blade to a gunfight. You take a gun!”
A cavalcade of world champions including the former WSL colour commentator Martin Potter, as well as Tom Carroll, Shaun Tomson, Joel Tudor, Damien Hardman and Gary Elkerton have slammed modern professional surfers for their “weak” performances at Sunset Beach yesterday.
Despite the perfect waves and the hitherto unseen extravagance shown by starlets Toledo, Colapinto, Chianca and Robinson, the champs were seething, shivering with degrading dialogue.
In a post to his thousands of fans, Gary “Kong” Elkerton, famous in the nineteen-eighties for plummeting down the cobra-like west peaks that periodically close out the channel, wrote:
“I was hoping at the event this year someone might have the balls to gear up on the right equipment and go out and get (a West peak), very boring watching whitewater take-offs on 6,2s and 6.4s, sorry for the rant but that’s not the way to surf Sunset Beach.”
View this post on Instagram
Shaun Tomson, the world champion in 1977 and a pioneer of backside tuberiding at Pipeline replied,
“Keep choosing a 6 2 and you will keep getting clipped while you run out of rail and drive – no matter how good you are.”
Robbie Page, a tour standout in the eighties, spat “If anyone caught a real wave from outside I’d say it would get half the score for only surfing the inside point for those crew that surf in there. Fucken waste of Sunset. Get out the back.”
Over on 1989 world champ Martin Potter’s Instagram page an identical sentiment was expressed,
“Sunset is on at the moment, how times have changed, guys are riding 6”2 s this is a 7”6 it was my go to at Sunset and wouldn’t dream of riding a shorter board.”
View this post on Instagram
“Yeah Pottz…I don’t get it,” the world champion in 1983 and ’84, Tom Carroll, replied.
Kong swooped in here, too, telling his old arch-rival,
“Mate, it’s just blowing my mind the way 90% of these guys are trying to surf Sunset…. Taking off on the inside in the whitewater not even trying to get out to the peak hard to watch.”
As did Shaun Tomson,
“Some abominably bad board choices yesterday at Sunset. Even the hottest of the hot was taken out by riding a 6 2. You don’t take a blade to a gunfight. You take a gun.”
A lot of verbal histrionics, yes?
Where does this put you?
Did yesterday’s performances put a tongue between your legs or did you find it a mass of buffoonery, the old gag and sputter?
I just want to know where Hardman stands in this discussion.
They are correct its not how you surf sunset , but with overlapping heats and priority rules it would be a pretty risky move to sit at the point and try to snare a peak without scoring a interference, Slater tried it in 2022 and the judges wiped him out of the comp , you only make that mistake once.
Somehow I don’t think any contender close to the top 5, the cut, or anywhere in between would be enticed to hop on the 7’2 sled to reset the judging criteria. Fact is that the level of surfing is so much higher now that all these guys could make most waves wherever they are positioned, but they can’t surf to a score via the current criteria on a gun.
The other fact is that I really don’t know shit about sunset, am just a below-the-line punter.
What would Andy St Onge say?
surfing nude at black’s and surviving the cliffs w/JBOnd handgliding to meet me to close hussong’s cantina for 6 weeks in a row…no. sink like a cobblestone.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Last paddle out, first time surfing it: Mondos, ’97 w/ ex. Chronic vertigo since 2001. Comfortably numb on land. thx V
Times have changed maestro’s. It’s all about points scoring the way the wsl have concocted them to be, and their lackeys in the judges box following their rule book orders. And the bucks that will be gleaned thereof by the so called athletes if they comply. It’s big business these days, or an attempt at making it so. No nostalgic, way gone memories of days of yore will change the destiny of future surfing. Whatever that may actually be.
You know what I find amusing about the whingers in this thread? They’re coming on this thread and saying things like “the older surfers were actually better because they didn’t pump between turns”, but then a guy like Italo wins a world title simply by not pumping between his turns; or Matt Wilko of Kanoa almost do the same simply by realising how much the judges reward a well-linked combo of decent (but not necessarily outstanding) turns, and those same old timers bitch and moan about it endlessly.
You picked 3 of the worst culprits of pumping in the last decade… between turns- not so much- but double, even triple pump bottom turns, tick tacks, setting the fins, call it whatever you want BUT it’s not style or flow
! and that goes for the ladies too!
Arakawa Quads in now?
these ol’ pros are as whiney as we are…and make a great point. there were no cam shots of the outside point ‘cept from one or two sporadics from the drones. WSL shooting down their own UFOs?
Fuck off. These guys can’t whinge half as good as me.
Nice to see the WSL uniting legends like that. Get ‘em on the broadcast! Better yet, where TF is the BK vs Potts vs Kong legends heat? Clearly a missed opportunity.
JS pumps most every turns, except the last one. Pumps in turns and when in drive / gliding the wave…
TC doesn’t, it’s all in, and only, one movement linking all manuvers, and that’s with speed, flow and style.
https://youtu.be/rxNdqwplnog
Pretty obvious that curren grew up surfing single fins on right hand point breaks. Those bottom turns!
The guy’s a marstro and in my opinion the greatest surfer who ever lived.
Hands Down!!!
My all time favourite surfer, and for me the great paradigm in all surf history, to surf competition and soul surf.
The greatest, always ahead all them others.
check my post above yours.
My group of guys were the transition from singles to thrusters. 70s thru middle 80s
TC was just coming into his own when the the twins and thrusters took over. He made Merrick and Ch Islands reputation. Sean helped a lot with that, lots of feedback between them all. Sean had good skills, but not much style for around here. People were….meh..(hasnt changed much here either, but I totally respect the guy, hes a good ambassador for the sport)
We got the improved boards, although still alot of funky thrusters for awhile. Bottom curves were wierd. Prior to that the single fins around here were hit or miss. A Brewer, Lightning Bolt or any board from the islands was somewhat worshipped. Once boards starting working, opened up alot of options in surfing.
I surfed with TC alot around here, when he was around and not competing.I think the NSAA comps really pushed him past everyone else here. I stole some of his tricks, hoping he stole some of mine!!! Im 10 years older than him.
His top turns were actually driving power carving turns, he would generate just as much power off the top as from the bottom, none of this blowing the tail out or sloppy fins out stuff. He would gather so much speed, burning it off with a miles long roundhouse hook to the top, carving off that. Covering acres of water and just looping around people on his waves like they were buoys just floating there. Mindblowing at the time. Still a pleasure to watch that footage of him at JBay, his first time there. You can see everything all on one wave.
Times change though……(dont get me going about when Slater started showing up to practice his stuff)
Boiapodcast, one of the best journalistic surfing programs in the world…
With one of the greatest surfing journalists in the world, Júlio Adler, and also the surfing encyclopedias Bruno Bocayúva and João Valente.
How many surfers today in the WSL have the ability to make a bottom turn like this and get out of it with a projection for a 12 o’clock off the lip, with the board almost totally out of the wave?
How many have the ability to make a round house cutback like Pottz, Curren or Carroll?
All guys in Sunset or Jbay (including JS “the specialist” in the wave) made the bottom turn in 2/3 times, pumping every bottom turn, even when in drive by the wall.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
WSL pros don’t have enough rail to draw lines like.like.like. that…chatter.chatter.chatter. 1/4 turn into a 1/2 turn then look for speed down the line. A West Peak take-off is a set up for a long line with one or two full turns/
There didn’t appear to be “bigger waves breaking further out” I didn’t notice them getting caught inside a bunch… not sure what they’re on about either…seemed mediocre Sunset a better part of the event.
I am normally all for honoring your elders but wtf do these old guys think the current crop should do? The waves were a little overhead. It’s not their fault. Generally, I agree that they could all do to ride a bit bigger boards but there were no waves on offer like the toughguy pics they posted.
Also, Shaun is a wanker.
he promotes recycled plastic sweaters w/ hoodies. but his bar miztfa at maxxin’ Makaha was epic!
Seeing Felipe’s kids tugging at his jersey made up for any shoulder hopping. Might have to start cheering for him vs Ke11y absenteeism! Appears he has a good connection with his groms. Nicey!
agree that’s nice but can’t get rid of the image of him sitting at chopes … and sitting … would still be sitting if ELO hadn’t flown him back to Trestles
‘Fil, let’s get a shot of you kissing your babies! No, not mine, yours…” In jest.
But the surfer’s are really patient with the young paparazzis…out of the flames and straight into the ottograph pits. turning the spicy heat down to a mild salsa.
“a substance or influence with an apparently magical effect that brings great success or luck”
I thought he was talking about some china white
me shivverin’
So has Instagram just turned into Facebook? A place where old people have a good moan or sell old chests of drawers?
You can buy a picture of someone’s butthole there but no chest of drawers. Yet.
Old people shouldn’t be allowed near the internet.
what’s an ol’ former fuddrucker burger cooker gonna do when the new world promotes b_t- fuckers? we stick to just watching…some have earned their way into chat groups…to avoid commiting mortal sins…and stayin alive.alive.alive.