"Trestles three years in a row? That's basically an
insult, a fuck-you to the pros, to the fans, to the game."
I treated myself by spending seven hours yesterday embedded
in the BeachGrit WSL Finals Day livestream
comments section, where I am more or less handled
gently, given my age and station—Aussie great Snow McAlister worked
the same angle, see below—by the gathered BG surf-hooligans who
pass as fans.
I’m very much pro when it comes to pro surfing, as most of you
know, not so much because I care about who is winning or losing,
and certainly not because I give a shit about surfing being
elevated somehow by dint of it being recognized as a “sport” (an
Olympic sport, in fact), but for the simple reason that it gives us
something to talk about.
If we talk about Fred Hemmings’ world title win in 1968, for
example, we’re that much closer to talking about Wayne Lynch not
winning in 1968, even though he was a mile ahead of everybody else
in the contest. That kind of thing.
Surf contests are occasionally worthy in and of themselves, as
discrete events, but mostly they just get us to another, juicier
topic, and I’m all for keeping the conversation rolling.
Anyway, a couple of thoughts on what happened and did not happen
at Lower Trestles.
There were some red-hot moments yesterday, but we most certainly
did not get a full seven hours’ worth of exciting premium-grade
surfing. We never will, as long as the Finals Day venue is
Trestles.
But hold that thought and let’s pause for a moment to consider
the Finals Day concept itself, because I’ve very much gone back and
forth on this.
The Finals Day format, as most of you already know, is basically
the idea of playoffs, which we didn’t used to have. A one-day
event, five surfers on the men’s side, five on the women’s side;
the top-ranked surfers from what I guess we now have to call the
“regular season.”
On Finals Day, the #5 seed goes against #4, the winner
takes on #3, and so on up the ladder until the #1 seed meets
whoever comes out on top of the previous three heats. That’s
the new format. Or not “new,” exactly, it’s been in place for three
years. Easy to understand. Every heat (except the final
pairing, which is best two out of three) is very much do-or-die,
and it makes for great viewing.
In the old format, the familiar format, it having been in place
for 40-plus years—but let’s not forget the IPS (now the WSL) more
or less superseded the one-event championship format
from the ’60s and early ’70s, which was pretty close
to the current Finals Day format; damn, it is confusing—the
champion was the surfer who collected the most points
throughout the year, like Formula One racing
There is a downside to the new Finals Day system. A big
downside, some might argue. Carissa Moore would have two more world
title trophies on the mantel if we were still using the old format,
and it is hard to disagree with the idea that surfing your way to a
massive points lead over the course of the year and then having the
title decided (and lost) in a two-out-of-three match held in
low-wattage C-plus waves is bullshit.
On the other hand, we’re talking professional sports here, where
the whole idea is to entertain fans, and while our entertainment
depends at least partly on fairness, the fact is the better athlete
or the better team often loses.
All the time, in fact.
It happens in the Olympics, the Superbowl, at Wimbledon, on and
on.
Under the old format, the pro surfing game—and the more you
think of it, and yes discount it, as a game, the better; as opposed
to regular before-work after-school day-in-the-life surfing, that
is—favored the better rounded, most consistent competitors. It
still does, to some degree, as you have to work through the season
to get a final five slot in order to have a shot at the
title.
But now, in addition, you have to monster-up and crush whoever
comes at you on Finals Day, with no safety net of already-earned
points below you, just 35 minutes to beat the other person in the
lineup.
The amount of pressure involved here is no doubt excruciating.
Some thrive on it.
Others do not, Carissa first and foremost—she’s been in the final
heat on Finals Day three years in a row, and even the year she won
(2021) she was not on her game.
So you could argue that is unfair. I certainly have.
But I’ve come around.
Finals Day is designed for the spectator, the fan, not the pros
themselves. It creates a guaranteed entertaining day of
viewing. In 40-plus years under the old
system, going back to 1976, how many down-to-the-wire nailbiting
world title showdowns did we have? Ten or 15, I’m
guessing, men and women combined, which leaves a lot of years—most
years; a big majority of years—when the last contest of the season
was by and large just a matter of reshuffling the numbers a bit to
get the finals ratings sorted out.
Not boring, but not dependably exciting. The new Finals Day
format is always exciting, and let’s give credit where it is
due—thank you WSL, and thank you Erik Logan, you did us a solid
there. Finals Day is the way to go.
In theory, anyway. Not in practice. Because the WSL never, ever does not
step on its own dick, and holding Finals Day at
Lower Trestles three years running is so aggressively and
spectacularly wrong-headed that I would at this point vote to go
back to the old format, with Pipeline as the last event of the year
and the champ picked by aggregate points over the season.
Trestles for the first year? Okay, why not, make it easy on
everybody I guess. Trestles three years in a row? That’s basically
an insult, a fuck-you to the pros, to the fans, to the
game.
Finals Day belongs in Indonesia or the South Pacific or maybe
Hawaii if you really need to baby out and stay close to home. It
does not belong anywhere near Lower Trestles, and keeping it there
year after year turns this thing into a low-stakes hostage
situation.
As fans, we’ve been frog-marched to Lowers. The pros, I’m
guessing—apart from Toledo who lives in nearby San Clemente, is
scared of big tropical reef waves, and knows Lowers better than you
know the opening lines of your favorite Taylor Swift song—hate
Lowers Finals Day even more than we do.
Lots of other minor complaints about what happened yesterday,
but let’s instead throw huzzahs to
Toledo and Ethan Ewing’s opening heat, which was a
masterful pas de deux of high-performance surfing, and also to
Caroline Marks who opened the day by putting much daylight between
herself and Tyler Wright and kept her distance and pace during two
heats against Carissa, and the goofyfooted pride of Melbourne, FLA,
will wear the crown well.
Read JP Currie’s excellent Finals Day
wrap-up here, and in fact I will steal his beautiful
denouement, which has to do with the ongoing and very lively debate
on the merits and demerits of the performances turned in by Toledo
and an emphatically healed Ethan
Ewing.
Some of you will be quietly seething tonight. All you style
puritans who believe, truly believe, that you remember one or two
turns which felt like Ethan Ewing’s look. All of you would prefer
him as your world champion. Not because he is clearly and
objectively better than Filipe Toledo, but because he’s more like
you. Toledo’s surfing, on the other hand, is so far beyond the pale
that we can’t possibly know what it’s like to venture
there.
And more of you still will have deep, aching reservations
about a double world champion with a mortal fear of heavy waves,
especially left-handed tropical reefs. I love that I can say that
to you without the need to explain it. Because you’ve all witnessed
it with me. And I could try and explain it to someone outside
surfing and they wouldn’t really get it.
They wouldn’t really understand what it means to have a world
champ who bears the weight of an asterisk from all those who know
and admire him.
So I say we should celebrate this little anomaly. It’s just
another weird little quirk of this game to enjoy. An in-joke in a
fringe sport, but one that you understand.
Because it’s your sport. Your odd little hobby that
mainstream audiences will never appreciate.
Laugh at it. Rage at it. Love it.
And thanks for laughing, raging and loving along with
me.
And thank YOU, JP, for not suing me for plagiarism.