Let’s face it. For surf fans, the Pipe Masters is not what it once was. Maybe it’s nostalgia? Perhaps it’s bitterness? Maybe a bit of both? But the preeminent event in surfing just doesn’t have the same season-ending gravitas it once did when it decided world titles like with Gabby and Italo, or Rob and Kelly. Or even provided the generation-defining drama it did with Andy and Mr. Slater. Remember when Gabs would ruthlessly block people just to win heats? Even when he had some of those heats in hand? It was a field of true “Masters.” Because it was the final event of the professional competitive season. And it still should be, as John John Florence deftly told us a few weeks ago.
“Pipe (would be) such an exciting place to have (the Finals),” he said of the WSL’s new-ish Final 5 format that now ends the season with a surfing Super Bowl. “Not that Lowers isn’t exciting. I think Lowers is a great wave. It’s just different, it’s a lot more technical. This is where personal preference comes in. I’m way more interested in heavy, high-risk waves. So when you watch the world title being won at waist-high Lowers, you’re like, ‘Oh, okay, that’s cool.’ But it’s not as exciting as 10-foot barreling Pipe when you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh!’”
Now, that doesn’t mean that Vans didn’t do an utterly fantastic job with this contest. It actually got rave reviews online and deservedly so. The three freesurfing heats fit the Vans brand to a T. Express yourself, and if your freesurf sessions were good enough in those three heats, then you get to face off in a traditional final. Pretty cool.
And unlike last year, Mother Nature provided. Big time. The two best Pipe surfers in the world won, without a doubt: John John and Moana Jones-Wong, who is certainly the “Queen” and has raised women’s barrel surfing to an entirely new stratosphere. But the field didn’t necessarily boast the best “Pipe” surfers because it was a Vans event. No Gabriel Medina or Jack Robinson. On the women’s side there was no Caroline Marks to challenge for the prize, no Caity Simmers. Yes, the two best Pipe surfers in the world right now won the event, but it just felt….incomplete.
From my POV, the WSL should stand down and give Vans the Final 5 event because of course the brand actually owns the rights to the Pipe Masters title, and in turn, the permit. In a perfect world for fans, the WSL and Vans could possibly run two separate events during that uber-traditional December time frame: a Final 5 and a Pipe Masters in similar fashion to the event Vans just finished. Something has to be done. Lowers is cool and all but…..
Still, like I said, Mother Nature provided. Yes, the highlights were “insane!” You can see that above. But can’t the surf gods help all of us who actually enjoy watching professional competitive surfing? Can’t something be done? Anyone, anyone?
