Professional surfing, at its highest level, can take eight entire days or two entire days to fully conduct.
The Importance of the Lexus Pipe Pro in Surfing
The Lexus Pipe Pro is off today, again, deepening the greatest World Surf League mystery. As the surf fan knows, event windows on the Championship Tour are generally ten days (non-pool). Now, the aforementioned “Global Home of Surfing” can, and often does, use many of the ten days, basically sun up to sun down, to run the required heats. Forty-seven thirty-ish minute affairs for the men, half that for the women.
Basically thirty-eight hours of surfing.
Now, and once more, this time can be spread over many sun up to sun down days or, as will happen at the Pipe Pro, can be condensed into two days.
How does the maths math?
Overlapping heats account for some time savings but not that much leaving, simply, the greatest World Surf League mystery flapping in the wind unsolved.
Professional surfing, at its highest level, can take eight entire days or two entire days to fully conduct.
Wild and maybe akin to the “geographic oddity” experienced in Oh Brother Where Art Thou?
Regarding the current competition, WSL Deputy Commissioner Renato Hickel said, “The swell dropped a notch from yesterday. Not much, it’s definitely clean, and there’s nice, running right-handers out there, but with the cards we have on hand with this new NW swell filling in tomorrow with the expectation to be in the eight-to-12-foot range and then six-to-eight-foot the following day, we made the option to give the surfers the opportunity to surf real Pipe and finish the event in awesome waves.”
Table of Contents
The obvious answer to the overall quandary of fitting contests into swell windows is to merge the men and women’s division and while we’re at it, the shortboard/longboard. This would heal the festering fight between the haters of S. J. Lowerson vs the lovers of same. (Would love to see an in-depth expose of the latter, Chas)
Cheyne Horan will dominate pipe in 2026, heard it here first
Most exciting activity with the most tedious competitive format.
Billabong Challenge was the epoch,I reckon.
Can’t wait for Natural Selection stuff.
The Quik event that Jeremy Flores hosted in France got lots of love last year. It helps that they had solid swell, though.
Is that cote selling blue chews? Can’t find my readers
Most boring pipe ever, but what you gonna do, most commenters on this site are real screwballs.
his mitts are not getting stiffer
Get rid of the women. Two separate tours. Now get me a HamSammish!
Their tour more interesting than bros this year!
if this is true nothing wrong with splitting the tours apart and we can test this theory
They can have their own tour. Would still be interesting. Running both tours at the same venue at the same time bogs everything down. I want my HamSammish.
Get da bread wit da cheese and da ham
WTF? I want more heats, more surfing, not less. It’s not the WSL vs Natural Selection. The WSL shouldn’t try and become that either. I want more heats year round. I’d rather have blown shoulder high garbage playing in the background than whatever’s happening on the news any given day. The WSL can run live in a 10 day windows and spit out some pre packaged thing like Natural Selection too, for people who just can’t handle waiting periods. How come Natural Selection wasn’t live? Still looking forward to checking it out, though I might have to turn the volume off to save myself from a deluge of “best day ever” and “best wave ever” claims. The Vloggers already own that market.
Dude overlapping heats in real pipe is as good as pro surfing gets.
Ya that works good at pipe. 40 minute heats pushing people to go on waves without priority. I like it. I was arguing more about being fine with the contest running bunch of days over a 10 window. I like that they have go with whatever they get in that time frame. That they have to wrestle with making the call. That’s a big part of surfing.
I was guessing Chas was preemptively creating a contrast between how the WSL runs a contest and how Natural Selection runs a contest. I just don’t see the 2 as adversarial. If anything more variety in surf contests and formats helps competitive surfing as a whole. I’m a fan, I want more all around. I liked the surf 100 format, but I don’t want that to be the only one. I’m looking forward to Natural Selection and the rest of Pipe.
No no. Jen See and I regularly discuss how WSL champ tour events are 8 full days but in a pinch can be run in 2-3 full days. How does that work?
it’s simply amazing
I just see it as the WSL trying to maximize their chances of getting good waves in a given waiting period. They have flexibility. I don’t mind if it runs in 8 days or 2-3 when I’m watching at home or on my phone.
Friday swell peaking 7ft at 15s NW, and 6.2ft 12s NE. Tide will not get above 0.4′ all day and much of the day will be around zero.
Are these conditions enough to both scare Felipe Toledo on the lefts and not give him his preferred rights? Asking for a friend who is trying to win some wsl gift cards ….. 😉
Island of sand forming over the reef. It’s amazing how transient the sand is day to day during changing swells. Will make for some beatings tomorrow on the exits.
What is this black stuff on my hands?
it came off Oprah’s face. or Ted Danson’s. or Whoopi’s! Trudeau’s even?
12 foot! I’ll eat my hat if it happens !
Xox
God I hope you do doggy, because it will mean pip has shart his shorts
Same! But gosh, unlikely!
Xox
Crazy idea: Skip the no losers Opening Round. WTF is the point
I disagree. If you fly half way around the world for an event you should get a chance to surf at least two heats. Someone might have a shocker of a first heat (only 30 mins) but go on to surf well later in the contest.
I understand where you’re coming from, but cutting the elimination round is not the answer you’re looking for. The problem of no swell is much bigger than those few heats.
What about only the winner of elimination round heats progresses. That should cut a heat or two from the window and make the round more cut throat.
Every other sport does it, the heck with them. Enjoy Tahiti or Portugal or wherever
How many times do I have to say this. Oceanic pro surfing is a dead duck. If I had some advice for the gamblers on here it would be to get your bucks on Erin to lace the opposition in AD. Start, finish, no hanging out for days and days with a load of drongos. God bless the new era. It’s coming, and it’s coming in a few weeks.
What’s she laying right now in your ‘book’ of the woods?
Renato better be getting this window correct. The curse of ELo is growing, seeking to amputate the everlasting glory of which he was amputated from. Oh, how the powerful created a conundrum that only they can heal.
Or maybe Pip gets shacked on a 12 footer, vehemently flipping off the cameras while being spit out. There are stories to be told. Chas and Derek will be the voices for the masses.
There’s a lot more combo swell from the NE than I thought there was going to be. Very low tides all day and sand making it even shallower in some places. Could be occasional doubling up bi-directional mutants leaping high and going super square. Hope so
I think I’ve watched 15 whole minutes of this competition so far. Makes me sad.
I ran some numbers. Came to no conclusions other than something is definitely wrong.
That is an excellent summary of Chad’s sharticle.
When the tour arrives in AbuDhabi, Pipe will wake up again.
Will you be there representing the LBGTQ++– community of Brazil? Can’t imagine that going well in the land of oil and monarchy.
Once again the surf gods are pissing on the WSL. It’s been non-stop tubes at the pipe all winter.
Most consistent winter I can remember, north shore Maui.
Would be amazing if the pool broke mid comp
Feels like a high risk decision. But I’m happy with the guarantee of the comp running over the weekend (my time), so I can take it all in from a stationary position on the couch.
Can’t believe they’d pass up a clean morning to at least get through the Men’s round of 32? Also why not run it all today and then do finals day tomorrow when it’s “allegedly” gunna be pumping, instead of finals day in conditions most likely similar to today? MAKE IT MAKE SENSE
Unfortunately it looks like they’re consulting North Shore Surfers not Montana river surfers.