It was another competition with less-than-deal conditions, but it was still pretty damn fun. Photo: WSL/Cestari
The Billabong Pro Tahiti confirmed what we already should have known: the defining characteristic of the World Surf League’s inaugural season is parity. There are five surfers who have a basically equal chance of winning the World Title, and only one of them has won it before. None are American.
It was another competition with less-than-deal conditions, but it was still pretty damn fun. Here are 10 things I took away from the Billabong Pro.
1. The imperfect conditions this year made last year look even more surreal.
Every time they flashed a replay of last year’s contest, I felt my jaw drop. How was that even possible? Jeremy Flores called this year’s run a “wave-catching contest,” but that felt a little unfair. I would point to Bruno Santos’s failure to convert in the dying seconds of his heat with Kai Otton in Round 5 and Kelly’s foamball bobble in the quarterfinals as support for my argument. Come to think of it, the skill Kelly showed when he manufactured an 8.33 on a head-high wave in that quarterfinal seemed to indicate that waveriding ability had as much to do with the results of the competition as the variable conditions. It was not merely a matter of being there when the best wave came.
Jeremy shouldn’t be faulted for being humble, however. And the ocean did freeze out some competitors, John John Florence among them. That being said, the unpredictable nature of the swell each and every day would have made for great viewing if the lulls weren’t so long-lasting. In a year full of bad luck for the WSL wave-wise, very imperfect Teahupoo was still one of the locations with better surf—probably third behind West Oz and Fiji.
2. From here on out, every time someone wins a heat, they will keep that result.
Mick, the last holdout, got his second 13th of the year at Chopes, which means that if a surfer finishes in a contest with in equal-13th place, they will be counting at least one 13th in their final tally. In other words, every single surfer has his back up against the wall. No one has been consistent. Also: even when you drop each of their worst two results, the title race is neck and neck (though Owen slips back down to 5th).
Gabriel Medina, barrel hunting his way to the finals, which no Americans did as well… the USA is the underdog now. Photo: WSL/Cestari
3. The mainland United States has 1 surfer in the Top 10 and 2 in the Top 22.
Only Kelly and Nat Young would requalify via the CT if the tour ended today. On the QS, things are similarly dismal: Kanoa Igarashi is in third place, but only Nate Yeomans, Michael Dunphy, and Kolohe are ranked above 40th. There’s no use in lengthy conjecture about why the business epicenter of the surf world cannot grow as many top-tier surfers as Australia and Brazil, though it’s certainly a fact that America’s best athletes are, by and large, not surfers.
I often have trouble rooting for the U.S. in the Olympics because I hate to root for the favorite, but I won’t have any such problem with surfing—especially once Kelly, who I can’t manage to think of as an underdog, retires. There are few sports where Americans can truly say we aren’t the favorite, but surfing is one of them. Let’s root for the little guy: Go USA!
4. While the Round 2 and 3 end-section maneuvers provided virtually zero points, they were a treat to watch.
Top performers on the end section included C.J. Hobgood, whose second layback made me literally scream with delight, Jadson Andre, who made me really, really want the tour to find a left pointbreak to surf, and John John Florence, who made his ankle boot look like a weapon.
5. We mortals would never question Kelly’s board choice, but…
Ronnie Blakey and Ross Williams both did at separate times in the quarterfinal, so I will at least mention something here: at least three times this year, Slater’s boards have looked a little wonky. In Tahiti, at Snapper, and especially at big Margaret River (his perfect 10 notwithstanding) it has seemed to me that Kelly’s boards have looked a little shorter and a little wider than they should be. He’s displacing a lot of water even when he’s just drawing a line, and it can have the effect of making him seem like he’s moving slower than he actually is.
The early-career exploits shown in the “Kelly Kut” really highlighted the difference for me. The longer nose of the board made his turns seem sharper and quicker, and I yearned to watch him ride something like that again. At least one reader agreed with me the last time I mentioned it. And the judges are watching the same thing we are. But who are we to question the King?
Looking a little wide and little short. Photo:Instagram@peterkinglajolla
6. Keanu Asing’s boards have always looked really wide under his feet.
So do Italo Ferreira’s. It could just be a function of their height—they’re 5’5” and 5’6”, respectively. I don’t know if I dig it, but the judges are digging Italo’s surfing this year. And, regardless of how his boards look, I must say Italo has been a treat to watch. Massive aerials over dry reef? Monster wipeouts underneath the ledge? He got rattled, came back, and made yet another quarterfinal. Kudos to Italo.
7. The AI award is cool because it encapsulates aspects of surfing at Teahupoo that contest results cannot.
I’m normally a harsh critic of these types of subjective, nostalgic institutions. And I do think that Billabong might use Andy’s iconography to sell merchandise a little too blatantly, but that’s not for me to say. What I can say is this: I actually care about who wins the AI award. It usually goes to whoever puts on the best show, and at Teahupoo, that’s just as much about emotion as it is about talent. It incentivizes competitors to huck themselves over the ledge on unmakeable waves and appreciates dedication in a way that the heat score totals often do not. CJ’s performance, given that it was his last event, clearly deserved the award. To me, Italo Ferreira put himself in contention as well.
8. The music they play during the replays is atrocious.
It sounds like a high school garage band covering Alien Ant Farm sans vocals, and it needs to stop. On the flip side, the reverb-heavy Polynesian steel guitar we get to hear coming back from commercials is nice (but it only makes the power chords worse).
9. Filipe Toledo is one lucky dude.
Not that either of his opponents—Garret Parkes and Brett Simpson—laid down, but Toledo had one of the easiest paths to Round 4 out of anyone still in the draw. At Cloudbreak and Teahupoo, Filipe has proven that his backhand tube riding ability is a cut below that of most surfers on the World Tour—something that he has acknowledged himself—and he’s lucky that he’s going to leave Tahiti with a keeper result. His high seed—which should only be solidified by Lowers—means that even if he heads to Pipeline needing a result, he should have opponents of similar caliber in the early rounds. Of course, his seed could be so high he’ll run into a local wildcard. In that case, he might be in trouble.
10. Will Martin Potter please stop telling us that Miguel Pupo surfs like Gerry Lopez?
It’s disrespectful. Pupo’s best result this year came at Snapper in just about the least Pipeline-like conditions ever. I am not trying to trash Miguel Pupo. There are merely better, more accurate ways to compliment his surfing.
