On April 1, the four-stop Australian leg of the World Tour gets underway. First stop: the Rip Curl Newcastle Cup presented by Corona.
It’s been a rocky road for the WSL, much as it has been for any other professional sporting outfit. The Coronavirus threw an enormous wrench into global cogs — the Sunset Open and the Santa Cruz pro were both cancelled or postponed, the Pipe Masters was suspended, and a handful of WSL employees inhaled those floating bits of world-stopping virus. Now, however, after a full year of COVID, the League has figured out a way to make things work.
Athletes tested and tested again. With their negative results in hand, they boarded a charter flight to Australia, shut themselves in Sydney hotel rooms for a mandatory two-week quarantine, and did their best not to go crazy.
So now it begins. The forecast for the Newcastle Cup looks relatively promising; not enormous and perfect, but definitely a decent run of swell. A few days ago, with their eyes on the horizon, the World Surf League enlisted Coco Ho, Mick Fanning, and Ross Williams to dig deep into the event.
For starters, they break down the hottest heat draws of the seeding rounds before segueing inot their favorite 10-point rides in Australian waters. Then they move onto other subjects, like a look back at the classic Slater vs Florence heat in Tahiti in 2014 and what changes could be made to the WSL rulebook.
Watch the Rip Curl Newcastle Cup presented by Corona on Worldsurfleague.com
