Soli Bailey, on his way to a giant win. Photo: NST
With the waves ridden at the first-ever Natural Selection Surf event long-since dissipated (and Milla Coco Brown and Soli Bailey taking huge wins), now we get to analyze the product. Did the event, held at a dredging, unpredictable right-hander in Micronesia, live up to the hype? If the live commenting on YouTube is any indicator, the answer is yes. And in a world where comments are currency, an overriding tone of positivity spells its own kind of success.
I wish I could’ve devoted more attention to both days of competition as they aired instead of viewing them after the fact. Normally, work would get in the way of watching surf contests. But I’m lucky enough to be in the throes of a family trip on Hawaii’s Big Island, so Barton Lynch et al called the Final through the speakers of our rental car after my brothers and I went snorkeling with our 78-year-old mom.
Man alive, it’s nice to hear Lynch’s voice again. Sheer stoke personified, his combination of enthusiasm and wisdom is unmatched. The rest of the crew in the booth came correct well, too. Lisa Anderson and Tanner Gudauskas dropped fresh, informed takes from surfing’s highest level while veteran NST commentator Ed Leigh brought his own unmistakable style to the broadcast. There were a few barbs tossed Leigh’s way from a small representation of internet haters, but Ed made the whole show feel very NST.
Day One in Micronesia showed shades of NST Snow’s 2023 Revelstoke event at Boulder Park — where everyone breathed a sigh of relief after nobody died — before the NST Surf Finals were held in a fading swell with more “rippable” conditions. It’s worth noting that not a single goofyfooter made it through to the Final. None of them could quite wrangle the runaway right-hander selected from the travelogue of Martin Daly, surfing’s most notorious skipper.
“Been wondering where that crusty ole bastard has been for years,” mused Harry Bryant. “And yeah he’s been hiding out in Micronesia.”
What finals day lacked in beatdowns, it made up in more technical, creative surfing. After dispatching day one standout Noah Beschen in the semifinals, Soli Bailey’s display of barrels, railwork and wave selection bested Al Cleland Jr.’s raw, caution-to-the-wind approach in the final.
We know this is why he won because viewers got to listen in on the judges’ deliberations, a welcomed transparency that stands in stark contrast to the WSL’s tight-lipped, controversy stirring approach to awarding scores. Speaking of scores, there were none in this competition. Guided by Head Judge Brad Gerlach, the panel — which also included freesurfer Ian Crane and the legendary Pam Durridge — went strictly off overall impression.
“As surfers, you always know who won the session,” says Crane.
The pitfalls of judging off vibes alone were almost revealed in the final between Milla Coco Brown and Kirra Pinkerton. The two surfers — both of whose names we should all take note — were evenly matched until Brown snuck in and out of the 60-minute heat’s only barrel.
The matchup in the semis between Eithan Osborne and Cleland wasn’t super cut-and-dry either until a mid-heat momentum switch tipped the scales towards the WSL’s newly-minted first representative from Mexico.
“We f@*king scored!” Al exclaimed, almost in disbelief, once the contest wrapped. “That was full force.”
With no established rivalries (yet) going into this inaugural contest, the scoreless judging ultimately worked. But if NST Surf truly takes root, both the audience and athletes might need to see some numbers. It’d certainly be tough to crown a snowboard champion without a numerical score. But the overall vibe of athletes surfing with one another as opposed to against one another seemed to resonate in Micronesia.
This event wasn’t live. The action went down about a month ago. And while that originally seemed like a strike against, the luxury of editing out downtime between waves condensed the contest into an action-packed shredfest that held not only my attention, but the attention of my non-surfing family (though they didn’t love all the time spent chatting in the studio).
With their snow event coming up in Revelstoke March 10-17, their bike event airing on March 5 and their ski event airing on April 17, the NST crew likely doesn’t have the bandwidth to storm the gates of traditional surf contests like a lot of commenters asked for. But with a well-received first foray into the surf world, it’ll be fun to see where NST Surf heads next, and which surfers will come along for the ride. It’s safe to say Kelly Slater, John John and Steph Gilmore would’ve enjoyed themselves in Micronesia.
Just sayin’.
