"I really like what I'm doing at the moment."
The Margaret River Pro what with its mid-season cull, its wild and wooly waves, its happy, wine soaked locals is now officially in the books and wow. What a time. JP Currie will certainly recap the men’s side soon but the girls thrilled equally much, Carissa Moore taking down Bronte Macaulay in her semi, Tyler Wright dispatching Caroline Marks in hers, then meeting for the twelfth time in the final.
Iconic.
The day belonged to Carissa Moore, who continues to challenge Kelly Slater for the title of “greatest surfer of all-time.” She has beaten Wright nine out of twelve, in fact, an absolutely dominant percentage, and did so at Main Break with a selection of powerful carves and timely lip bashes.
The season thus far, though, is Wright’s who claimed the yellow jersey, climbing to the World Surf League’s highest peak.
Number one.
What made the feat even more impressive, stunning and delighting fans, is the fact that she has scaled that rocky crag laden with heavy emotional baggage strapped on by her father who made her surf when she was young.
You will certainly recall, days ago, when the two-time world champion opened up about the “different emotional and psychological abuse” she suffered at his hand, opening up to Dave Prodan on his usually tame podcast The Lineup and saying:
“I experienced that and I worked with a psychologist for years to understand my relationship with surfing and understand how that was born, how it was really unhealthy for me. I’m rebuilding a relationship with surfing because of the drastic and extreme circumstances that I was raised in…Look, this is not uncommon. Which is baffling for someone like me. If this is not uncommon, why don’t we have better solutions, better parenting programs, better informed industry? I’m not the first child this has happened to. I’m not the first child star this has happened to.”
Wildly impressive.
“I haven’t been in that [No 1] position for a long time,” Wright said after the final hooter sounded. “I really like what I’m doing at the moment. It’s been an amazing last few events. It didn’t go great for me in that final, but I’ve had a wonderful week, a wonderful Australian leg.”
The season goes quiet, now, for a month before those who survived The Cut are gifted a trip to Lemoore, California and Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch which may be flooded.
David Lee Scales and I did not discuss Wright’s feat of strength on our latest chat though we did dig deep into the issue of those who carry surfboards wax side toward body. I think you’ll be surprised by the conclusion.
Enjoy.
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I’m looking forward to bitching about other things adjacent to pro surfing.
O course Chas, being the shitstirrer that he is, will prolly double down on wooz, baldy and Tyler to keep the pot boiling …
Oh brah how I miss my sweet old tutu wahine in her Kaimuki house with the big
mango and plumeria trees and her poi dogs running everywhere.
Marg’s locals are just glad you’re all leaving.
She’s awesome.
When BG’s poking fun of the WSL and various write ups, and comment threads, are 1,000,000,000x more entertaining and engaging than the actual WSL product–despite the latter’s efforts to generate excitement and drama via produced docuseries, a cut, social media posts, a challenger series, changing the rules to allow a 50+ year old grandpa to remain on tour, and picking contest sites during wrong swell windows, or opting not to run at possible breaks (Box) when they’re going off–then that’s probably not a good sign of long-term viable health of said product. Excited to see continued BG pieces on the inevitable demise of the WSL, and predictions of what comes next.
… ditto. Last couple of contests have spent more time just reading comments than watching the show. At times, just nearly unwatchable. Some of the marg’s heats were won on the basis of basically 2-4 turns, total (2 waves x 1-2 turns per wave), in a 30+ minute heat. Like getting to halftime of a basketball game with the score 6-3. Not sustainable. And in addition to just dumb location / venue choices (like your point re Box) why not just make some tweaks to increase action … get rid of priority, or at least put a clock on it (3-4 mins max, and then it shifts). Score 4 waves instead of 2 (and if you don’t like 4 random waves averaging, double the score of the highest wave so you get 5 total scores for 4 waves ridden). Make everyone ride boards over 6-5 in one heat and under 5-5 in another. Fire the “head” judge (and all the rest) and just put 5 judges in plexiglass boxes without the ability to talk to or hear from any of the other judges when scoring so it’s truly independent. Something, anything… or maybe I should just watch more sunsets and dolphins.
Holy fuck. That’s the longest sentence I’ve ever read
I.try.to. stay. away .from. periods. According to Laird they attract sharks.
And wild bears. They can smell the menstruation.