Good luck getting a wave at Lowers with this crew in the water: Kelly Slater, Mick Fanning, Filipe Toledo, Jack Robinson, Carissa Moore, both Griffin and Crosby Colapinto, Caity Simmers, Kanoa Igarashi, Koa Smith, Yadin Nicol, Yago Dora, Mikey February, and Jett Schilling. If you are counting, there are 20 world titles in that bunch. And if you include Caity Simmers taking a pass on her world tour qualification, you have 10 athletes with a CT resumé at some point in their career — most of them currently competing on the dream tour. You can even sprinkle a couple of Olympic medals into the mix.
Lowers is obviously no stranger to cameos from professional surfers, but it should be no surprise the second-ever WSL Finals would draw a lot of talent to the venue. That’s what happened here during the week of the competition, even if only 10 athletes were actually competing for a world title.
Of course, there was plenty of debate in the aftermath of the finals about whether or not Lowers is worthy of deciding a world title. But contributing writer and longtime surf journo Sam George argued this is still one of the best waves on the planet when it comes to high-performance surfing and progression.
“Take it from me, a surfer with both the authority and years of experience to make the following claim: they’re all wrong,” George responded to the haters.
He added, “strip away the fiberglass curtain at Lowers and what you’re left with is an eminently predictable, symmetrical peak with a long, peeling right wall and shorter, hollow left, both rippable from two to ten-feet, super consistent during south swell season and breaking in temperate water with morning offshores and regular evening glass-offs.”
At least on this week, a handful of world-class athletes chose to get their reps in at Lowers, world title on the line or not. And the best most of us could hope for with a lineup like this would be the very occasional leftover wave sneaking by the masses or…taking a seat on the beach to enjoy the show.
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