Jordy is your 2016 Hurley Pro champion. But did his win help the WSL escape dealing with fans’ calls of poor judging? Photo: WSL/Kirstin Scholtz
It’s official. Jordy Smith just won what has arguably been one of the most polarizing surf contests in the history of professional surfing.
The center of the controversy? Some questionable judging. In one heat, wildcard Brett Simpson edged out Matt Wilkinson by .24 of a point, much to Wilko’s dismay. Julian Wilson also narrowly lost to Alex Ribeiro. But the most controversial heat of all occurred between Gabriel Medina and Tanner Gudauskas, wherein Gabriel got an 8.3 on a wave Ross Williams called, “a 9, minimum.” The surf world collectively lost its shit, and a handful of other surfers weighed in, including Kelly Slater.
The internet proceeded to produce such rally cries as “You Can Script This”, and more plainly “#corruptjudgewsl”.
Tanner went on to win his Round 4 non-elimination heat, and beat Stu Kennedy in the quarterfinals, but narrowly lost to Parko by .10 of a point in the semis. Simpo and Ribeiro were both eliminated in the quarterfinals by Jordy and Parko respectively.
In other words, three of the four quarterfinal heats included a surfer from the heats in question, and one into the semis. Had things gone differently, it could have just as easily been three of the four semifinalists.
Now, I’m no conspiracy theorist. And, to be frank, I don’t think there’s any foul play involved. Lowers is a difficult wave to judge, and there are always close heats, it’s just unfortunate that there were so many in this contest. But can you imagine what sort of rumors would swirl if, say, Tanner ended up winning?
It’s sad, really. Tanner’s an incredible surfer. Personally, I wanted him to win the whole thing. But, the level of controversy surrounding these few heats alone has been enough to promote dialogue about how to “fix” judging. I can’t imagine how surf fans would react if they thought an entire contest were fixed.
And all of this fails to enter the realm of conspiracy surrounding the world title race. Shouts and murmurs abound that Gabriel’s loss gave Kelly a nudge to make the whole thing more exciting. Is the WSL pulling the strings to contrive more drama around the world title? Unlikely. But still, people are talking. And that’s not good.
Jordy was a safe win for the WSL. And to be clear, he totally deserves it. He was surfing incredibly the whole contest. And I don’t think his win was ordained in any way. But things could have quickly gone from bad to worse for #corruptjudgewsl had the outcome been any different.
