Tragedy besets upcoming Cloudbreak event!
As part of a three-year deal with the Fijian government, professional surfing returns to Cloudbreak this August for the first time in seven years.
In 2017, you’ll remember, the notoriously well-hung goofyfooter Matt Wilkinson was swinging that giant rod, which could only be found at the bottom of a grove of luxuriant curls and whorls, at a world title, although a late-season slump would drop him down to fifth as Gabriel Medina and Julian duked it out for the crown at Pipe. (Gabriel won.)
What set the Fiji contest apart from others was the division of accommodation. The Australians stayed, mostly, at Namotu Island and the Americans at Tavarua. The Brazilians, for their were no French or Italians or Japanese back then, were roughly divided between the two islands.
Although single women were rare, occasionally bored wives and mothers, staying on the mainland, patrolled the sands looking for adorable masculine tits to explore and cocks to lap with their desperate aged tongues.
I have very fond memories of being straddled here, there and everywhere, spectators demonstrating their appreciation for the show with a little more gusto than would be prudent in this new puritan age.
Dawn surfs, sunset surfs, Guitar Hero in the Namoutu bar, wrestling competitions around the pool, throwing up Skulldraggers, Namotu’s infamous ten-shot cocktail, into the jacuzzi, being lost at sea on a windless night and silently readying myself for death before a light zephyr blew me and my biz partner back to the beach. So many glorious memories.
Anyway, no similar memories will be generated among pro surfers in Fiji this year.
In a statement, Namotu Island Fiji says the wave pool is out and Cloudbreak is in.
They say it’s been too long since the last winner Matt Wilkinson won in 2017 and even longer since Parko missed his heat to go fishing and got a little stranded.
They add those were good times and it wasn’t just the surfing that was an annual highlight in the series.
Namotu Island Fiji says this year the competitors will not be staying on Namotu and Tavarua as they did in years past.
They say there will be unlimited weeks scheduled for that
period so the competitors will be staying on the mainland.
They add regardless, the return of the WSL is a great thing for
Fiji and people are looking forward to watching it from the channel
again.
Which don’t make sense. Nine day waiting period. I think two weeks in 2017.
But.
A tragedy, yes, and further indication of just how far the World Surf League has moved, I believe, from professional surfing’s proud roots.