The fundamental requirement for success in this game lies between your ears. This rarefied power manifests in different guises.
It’s a human failing to dwell on the vagaries of the universe, things like weather or luck.
Given days like this, and there will be more, I’ll endeavor not to harp on about how poor the waves are.
When the Grand Dame of Aquatic Jiggery Pokery, or whatever JMD is calling herself this week, is faced with an event window like this, without promise nor hope, there seems little point in complaining.
What we have is what we have. Make the best of it or go home.
Make or break.
Poor pro surfers sent out to duel for their careers in an arena not fit for purpose.
Just when I was starting to believe that God had a peculiar kink for professional surfing.
Really, what he (or she or they) love more is a trier. Today, and perhaps for the remainder of the event window, it is the surfers with the greatest mental fortitude who will triumph.
Talent be damned. This is pro surfing.
And it’s a cruel game.
Not everyone is built for it.
Maxime Huscenot is likely not built for it. Not from what we’ve seen in two events. And not if you can’t catch two waves in an elimination heat.
In a very different way, Ultimate Surfer Zeke Lau is not built for it. Tonight he will question the universe and the WSL.
He will question the rotten luck of a terrible forecast for an event that should be his strongest in the whole calendar.
He will question the priority rules that led to his second scoring wave being struck off in his elimination heat.
And not for the first time, he will question his short tenure on the WCT.
The fundamental requirement for success in this game lies between your ears. This rarefied power manifests in different guises.
You could be calculating and analytical, like Slater.
Or on the path to Zen, like Jack Robinson.
Or perhaps just have the sort of dogged determination revered by Australians yet characterised best by Brazilians.
A trio of the latter, Gabriel Medina, Sammy Pupo and Yago Dora made the best of what was on offer today and advanced through their heats in first position.
It strikes me that these are three men you might bet on in any conditions, a judgement based on their heads as well as their talent.
“It’s not Sunset, it’s just an ordinary beachbreak,” said Dora after his win and in reference to his pre-heat mindset.
It was a statement that might be construed as criticism if taken out of context. But what it demonstrated was his flexibility when it comes to performing with a vest on. Who cares what the waves are doing, we’re here to compete.
One man you should never bet on is Kolohe Andino. Yet today you’d have been handsomely rewarded.
Andino surfed with a looseness that hasn’t been evident in quite some time in defeating Jordy and Leo in his Round 1 heat.
What caught my attention was the cognitive dissonance I felt at seeing Andino win a heat. The idea of a Kolohe Andino event win, let alone a world title run, seems like an impossible scenario in 2023.
How far our faith has drifted in ten years from America’s favourite son.
Strider brought his own, peculiar brand of idiom mangling to the booth. Some of it goes down like a brick shit sandwich, the rest can be quite endearing.
According to him, Calum Robson is “a steak and potatoes guy who lays bricks”.
Translation: good fundamentals.
Regardless, this sort of mumbo jumbo is preferable to some others.
Is it curious that Joe Turpel isn’t here, given they’ve moved just down the road a couple of days after Pipe?
Changes from last year’s programming are also evident in the fact that the Make Or Break crew have been less conspicuous. They’re certainly on the North Shore, or at least were, according to two of the producers I spoke with recently.
It seems there might be a glimpse of an ok forecast to look forward to tomorrow, and likely a very full day of overlapping heats.
Look forward to Filipe Toledo vs Eli Hanneman in Heat 9 as a battle between two of the fastest surfers in the water. And Heat 14, where Joao Chianca meets Yago Dora, is sure to be a treat.
Winning surfers don’t dwell on the weather. This game’s about more than that.
