“But, I mean, shoot, they’re doing it, so might as well make the most of it.”
The World Surf League Finals window officially opens today, though the forecast is looking extremely bleak there on Fiji’s heart-shaped Tavarua. Surfline, the League’s official prediction partner is calling for tiny waves until September 2nd and 3rd though, even then, the swell direction is not ideal. The ten surfers left, five men and five women, will likely spend much time tooling around, playing tennis, avoiding the 11x number one Kelly Slater as he seeks to maintain relevance. A handful might be wishing they were somewhere else. Maybe even Southern California’s Lower Trestles, which just so happened to host the first three finals days.
Defending champion Caity Simmers possibly one of them.
Fox 5 news, in San Diego, interviewed all the Americans in the draw, asking: As you know, the Finals are in Fiji this year, a shift from Trestles, which is close to home. How do you feel about this location change?
Griffin Colapinto and Caroline Marks responded with gushing praise for Cloudbreak, Fijian cuisine, the peacefulness. Simmers, though, presented a different take.
“Obviously I love surfing Trestles, and I think it’s one of the most perfect places to do a format like this. If you were to do it anywhere, Lowers would be the best place. In my opinion, I feel like it’s pretty interesting that they did it here [Cloudbreak]–just because it’s such a hard wave, and it’s obviously one way, rather than two. It’s a very different wave and hard to surf, kind of. It’s just always changing. But, I mean, shoot, they’re doing it, so might as well make the most of it. Again, I’m not in first place, so I just want to learn about the wave and enjoy the place I’m at. And, it’s cool. We’re going to get to see the best surfers in the world surf one of the best waves in the world. That’s going to be really cool, and we’ll just see who wins. Hopefully we get good waves so it’s as fair as it can be, and then we just get to do what we do–which is just go up and down on waves, and through them and all sorts of things.”
Simmers is no Toledo when it comes to charging, having demonstrated a willingness to pitch over the ledge at Pipe and Teahupo’o, so nerves cannot be a factor in her disapproval. The one way, rather than two, nature of Cloudbreak cited though she has won Pipe and final’d at Teahupo’o. Can you think of any other reasons why Lowers might be “the most perfect place” to host a shootout?
Back to Toledo, imagine how sad the whole House is that he did not crack the top tier. A Restaurants title would have shut down every hater for good.
Bula.
