Tainted?
The departed but never forgotten disgraced former World Surf League CEO Erik Logan ushered in two important changes to the Championship Tour season during his time and, like him, both are funny to look at. In the middle of the year, we have the mid-season cull wherein hard-working dreamers are sent to unemployment lines. While I imagine the lack of fairness haunts those in the salt mines, a few lousy wave-starved CT heats ending years upon years of surfing lousy wave-starved QS contests, the surf fan rejoices at the spilling of blood.
At the end of the year, we have Finals Day wherein those who survived “The Chop” and have clawed into the top five get a chance to win it all at a playful cobblestoned chest-higher in Southern California.
Yes, Logan’s brainchildren have made for entertainment, certainly, but have also undermined the long-established faith in professional surfing as an honest and true sport. The new Finals Day format, for example, has robbed Carissa Moore of a title and hung an asterisks on the bigger wave averse Brazilian champ Filipe Toledo.
Karma, as they say, is my boyfriend.
And this year, we have John John Florence rounding into as fine a form as we have ever seen, competitively, as he heads into retirement. He is currently in the Great Wall Motors Yellow Jersey and looking to stack points upon points with a first round victory in El Salvador over LOB and Rosie Perez, vaulting him past the elimination round.
Florence will, very likely, head to Trestles number one, which means any challenger will have to beat him twice. A tall order. A tall order, that is, for anyone other than small wave wizard Filipe Toledo. If the Brazilian champion had not vacated the year, opting for a well-deserved mental health break, and entered the top five, he would be odds on favorite no matter where he ended.
Which begs the question. Will Florence’s almost inevitable third championship be festooned with a many pointed star?
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What’s good for the goose is good for the goner, as they also say, and if Toledo’s championship is questioned due his terror of big, shouldn’t Florence’s also be questioned due his not beating the best small wave surfer at a small wave?
David Lee Scales and I discussed during our weekly chat and you should listen, mostly for the segment where it is revealed that the Grateful Dead was an evil CIA psy-op, but also weigh in below.
Does double J deserve an asterisks?
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Hard true !
JjF got 2 tittles robbed by WSL;
JJF is beeing surfing to his best competitive surf as never before to win this year but doens’t mean he will;
I would love to see 50 % of the world champ on lefts and 50% on roght to see how good JJF, EE, JR AND FEW OTHERS WOULD BEHAVIOR ON WAVES like INDO !!!
The last 5 weren’t designated yet;
Medina is the coldest, competitivest surfer on tour above Kelly;
Tittle and final 5 were created to make American surfer win BUT they stopped on Brazilian eager to win….and is nothing related with poverty…Americans like this new generation learned with Brazilian to have EYES OF TIGGER…so..
Most likely if Medina arrives on Finals he will bit everyone and he will win 4 tittle.
john has beat Felipe plenty of times and in waves of consequence. He can’t touch john and john john could possibly take him out easily At tressles
Cutting the competitive field in half and trying to give a sport like surfing a “1-contest postseason” has distorted everything. I think you have to go to Felipe’s world title years and look at the points going in to the “final” contest. Then you have to look at the back half of the season and see if he could have advanced against competitors that “turn on” later in the season…but were cut because places like Sunset Beach or Surf Ranch weren’t their forte.
Mid season cut – 2nd half comebacks or chokes can’t happen ? And yes the final 5 has all the appeal of a stale fart. Let the champion be decided in waves of consequence for the full season.
I don’t see him as nailed on to win at Trestsles. Saying that, done to death by now, but I watched the “eleventeen feet” section from Maps of Home yesterday.
How on earth have we ended up at this cobblestone pass?
surf adjacent corp offices
First they wanted it to be at the wave pool but that failed spectacularly. They tossed around the idea of Indonesia in September but wrong time of the year and even more important, wrong time zone for US telecast.
It’s all about divesting the damn thing to some other schmuck, and what better way to divest by having the “finals” in prime time California?
A week doesn’t go by without this Filipe’s world titles, Trestles, and asterisk in the same sentence. Filipe sucks in hollow heavy lefts? Yes. He doesn’t deserve to be world champ because of that? Maybe not… But his world titles so far had *nothing* to do with Trestles. He was number one getting to Trestles, and the one time he wasn’t, he lost the final to Medina. If there is an asterisk, it’s because of the hollow lefts, but nothing to do with the Finals format (at least so far). Am I missing something or it’s supposed to sound crazy because it’s BGrit?
I have to write that every week 😀
This is just the same thing that followed Damian Hardman: “Can’t surf well in Hawaii”. Yet here we are decades later and no one remembers the Hawaii comps but they do remember that he’s a dual world champ.
If they are gonna start throwing around asterisks then start with CJ, then PT, then quite possibly Derek Ho but it’s not nice to bring that up since he’s gone. Even the late 90s champs when Kelly was on sabbatical have to have question marks over them if we’re going to be honest.
The toledo food poisoning thing had me thinking
– if an actual big wave spot shouldn’t be included on tour, say jaws or nazare. You know, just that there are no asterisks hovering around. The king of big and small stuff. Boring to watch, yes; elevated sportsmanship, definitely
– on the other hand, is teahupoo over the reasonable size / heaviness threshold, is it a big wave spot? Should it belong on tour as it is? Slab tour?
What does an asterix actually mean though in modern society
She’s a teenage golf phenom.
I’m not kidding…her first name is Asterik.
Some guy from Gaul?
doomsday clock is ticking down cubts! xoxoxoxo
Tainted? https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
lab results, pending…further analytical review…
‘Taint your balls…
‘Taint your asshole…
There’s physics at work here. Pip has enough strength and mass to win heaving Teahupoo. Been proven smaller men can do it. But JJF is a big guy, and a weak day at Trestles just doesn’t have the juice to allow him to compete with lighter surfers.
It’s as if you raced the whole Tour de France, collecting points over various types of 20+ stages, and then the last stage was a super steep climb, winner take all. Flyweight Sepp Kuss is a great pure climber, but it would be ridiculous if he was awarded the TdF crown in this way. Same deal with the Trestles one-day all-marbles final. Nonsense.
I really hope you’re heaping sarcasm upon my sarcasm thereby making Super Sarcasm!
**
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
very well recieved DHMS…i after e unless of course….
I’ve known John all his life and I won’t say it to his face but on his turns he rarely puts his arms in a manner that looks good. Amazing talent and nuts on carves, airs and big waves. Not a clean style though, at least to an over 50 year old like me. Anyone agree?
Late 50’s….and a BIG Buttons fan. But, Mr. Florence derives his sickness from skating, and I applaud skate skill. He’s a technical surfer. He has flow, but it’s all got a skate feel to it.
I was just about to post this. He will not win at Trestles where his left arm does the Nazi salute on all his frontside turns. It’s quite noticeable, almost like Lakey’s gammy arm.
In good waves like Jbay or backdoor pipe (or pretty much anywhere hollow or powerful) he is just so strong that it gets buried. But in slop, up it goes like a jack in the box. It’s only really on rights.
All the top brazzos, plus quite probably Ethan and griffin will be too good for him at Trestles. But if it was say 6ft Rincon…
https://youtu.be/-iegYa6wTe…
I had never payed close attention to that. Now I can’t unsee it. Thanks! lol
His turns are levels above anyone else on bigger waves though, Margaret’s ect.
If Medina is at Trestles, Florence gets smoked.
ComeCome on, brazo. Medina has already admitted John john is his hero and the best server on earth so. Medina only wins cause he’s super spazzboy. Competitive and the judges don’t gauge style John john is smooth A true soul surfer with massive amounts of style. Gabriel is not stylish at all
If we’re gonna give out championships for being smooth it’s Ethan by a mile.
Taint that the truth
Pip wouldn’t have made final 5 this year. There. I said it. Legit title. What.
It’s a simple formula:
Being crowned World Champion at Trestles when you’re too chicken to charge Pipe and Chopes = asterisk.
Being crowned World Champ at Trestles without Pip, but able to charge Pipe and Chopes = no asterisk.
Be done with the fuckery – dump Trestles and the Final 5.
Starting from next season, finish year at Pipe.
Start and finish at Pipe.
I thought about that but man the locals are cursed enough as it is.
Indo!!!, somewhere…
No.
You sure? Gotta beat the best to be the best. I didn’t make the format but Toledo clearly the best at Lowers.
Dump lowers
Again, I didn’t make the format.
But you luv Elo
Maybe pillow talk
dat rigger sellin pillows and 100 percent Egyptian cotton….ban him and the vessel he sailed up in…cnn
promotational brochures and a start time~ Who in our water world has the potential to rock n roll?
The 2024 World Surf League Championship Tour is well over halfway finished, now, and it is clear that the women are the story of the year. Opening with blistering performances at Pipeline, taking their talents to Snapper (on the Challenger Series, sure, but the Molly P. barrel) and then, of course, Teahupo’o with mesmerizing performances from Tati Weston-Webb, Brisa Hennessy and Vahine Fierro.
Bravos all around though… if I might nitpick… there are no “female John Daly’s” in the crew.
Yesterday, one of those rare gems was discovered in golf. The English linkswoman Charly Hull, currently 8th in the world, was signing autographs outside the U.S. Open earlier in the week, looking relaxed and ripping a grit. John Daly is, of course, famous for maybe being John John Florence’s dad and also smoking, drinking, etc. whilst golfing.
Bunging a banga is the correct vernacular
Chas wrote dat…in case we missed it the first go ’round…