The circus has moved on. Just 1.93 kilometres up the road from Ehukai Beach Park for the second event of the year at Sunset Beach. Same posse, same scaffolding, same early free surfs, but a very different venue.Â
What Pipeline lacks in turns and power surfing, Sunset Beach is the opposite. The lineup is bigger than a footy field. Shifty, unpredictable, with a nasty current running through the reef that gets hit by swells from all angles. If you’re too conservative out there, you’re dead. If you trying to be a hero, you are dead too.
Not real dead, but the kind of dead that makes you pay the price in the form of monster cleanup sets and guillotine closeout sections if you’re out of position. So, don’t be a hero (or overly conservative).
Sunset, in a nutshell, is big, powerful with the odd barrel, but rail prevails out there, shaking up the odds for upsets and favourites in your Fantasy lineup. Good surfing helps for obvious reasons, but heat management and mental & physical fitness are just as crucial as identifying the best waves to make it far in the event. This ain’t no Surf Ranch, where the best surfer usually wins.
The second stop of the 2022 CT has all the elements for big boards and even bigger drama. However, four days into the event, without a single wave ridden and Slater Birthday memoirs still circulating my IG feed, it made me wonder if the Hawaiian season has already climaxed and if best-ever Pipeline will be followed by subpar Sunset, 18 years after its last appearance as a CT venue (for the men).
Turns out Hawaii is still climaxing. It wasn’t the perfectly groomed, sexy lineup producing poetry in motion à la Pipeline, but Sunset doesn’t have to be sexy. Instead, it seduces with Maverick-esque unpredictability and barbarity – precisely what we want to see from a wild, open face wave.
What happened on day 1?
This wave isn’t for everyone (ask Slater), but the early round of the men have shown us that big, strong surfers like Zeke and Imaikalani deVault, or basically, anyone whose first name starts with a J, feels right at home at Sunset. Jack Robbo, John 2x, Jadson Andre, Jackson Baker, Jake Marshall all survived the early cull, but It was one J in particular that stood out.
Jordy Smith’s open face turns fit Sunset to a T with his large frame, giant legs and an excellent 8-point ride, sending fellow South African Matthew McGillivray into Round 2 in the opening heat of the event.
The same fate involved the Greatest Of All Time, who went from legendary to rock bottom in 30 minutes. Kelly had a brutal heat against local wildcard Barron Mamiya who dominated the matchup, and Aussie rookie Callum Robson who got him by trashing a Sunset closeout to get the nod into Round 3. Meanwhile, Slater continues his unfruitful relationship with Sunset, fighting it out with the common folks in the elimination round, where he barely survived a wild surf off with favourite YouTuber Koa Smith to live another day. Oh my…
Heat 4 through to Heat 7 were kind of a blur. Not bad, especially Zeke’s last-second heroics, but nothing really that stood out either, apart from one notable exception; Imaikalani deVault’s 8.93 was, for me, the best Sunset CT wave, so far this year.
And then there was the heat involving John John Florence & Ethan Ewing. First up, a handful of mid-range scores don’t scream “spectacular”, – but the way JJF and Ethan surfed 10-14ft offshore Sunset on a rising swell does.
Is there a better surfer than Florence in big, wild, powerful surf? There’s not. Is there a more stylistically flawless surfer than Ethan Ewing in big, wild, powerful surf? Maybe, but not in this event.
Owen Wright would probably agree as Hawaii is officially over on a technicality for the Olympic Bronze medalist – who, along with Miguel Pupo, is responsible for the biggest upset storyline from day 1.
Speaking of surprises, wildcard Kai Lenny was a no-show due to illness, which is a shame, considering he probably would have air-reversed his way down the biggest set of the day on his 5’8 strap-on board. Who wouldn’t want to see that?!
The drama continued on day 2
Round of 32
Fun fact; 6 (out of 9) goofy-footers made it into the Round of 32. Viva La Resistance! Anyway, while the girls were still putting their feet up on day 2 of the competition, the guys returned to a more manageable, less feisty lineup at Sunset Beach. But make no mistake, waves were firing, and throwing overlapping heats back into the fold made for a pretty epic day of competition.
The first heat of day 2 already called for an upset as Connor Coffin went down to Caio Ibelli in one of the highest-scoring heats of the event so far (15.00 vs 14.26). Caio Ibelli has been impressive. The Gabby Medina stand-in has a Quarterfinal finish at Pipe and is also into the Quarters here at Sunset, which provides the plot for a great drama should Medina return at some stage this season. Remember, they have history – oddly enough from their 2019 Round 16 matchup at Pipeline. What do they say? Life comes full circle.
Day 2 is nothing like what we saw 24 hours ago, which evened the playing field for the rookies and wildcards. Unfortunately, Italo Ferreira realised this the hard way, coming just short in his Round 3 heat against local boy Barron Mamiya.
The curious case of Barron Mamiya. Slaying the world champ in dominant fashion is one thing, but Barron does not behave like a rookie surfing his way into his first-ever CT Quarterfinal. Cold-blooded, super smooth and looks to kill. He’s stoked too – at least that’s what he said 5 times in 2 minutes during his post-heat interview.
One other guy that has impressed in his first heat!! of the event is Filipe Toledo. Where did those turns come from?!
After advancing into Round 3 without getting his hair wet, Filipe dominated Big wave champ, Billy Kemper, for one of the highest combined heat totals of the day. Not bad for a guy who, according to some people, can’t surf big waves.
In other news, the demise of world champs at Sunset Beach continues. John John and Kelly joined Italo in the Red Bull Athlete’s Lounge (probably not) in an upset-riddled Round 32. Halfway through his heat with Matthew McGillivray, Kelly practically took himself out of the event by interfering with John John, who was part of the priority heat with Jake Marshall). When it rains, it pours.
But enough with the upsets already and back to some glass-is-half-full moments. Two guys, two Aussies, are making Sunset their own. Of course, we already knew that Jack Robbo excels in big, open face waves, but it’s Ethan Ewing who really put a stamp on this whole show.Â
I declared earlier that Ethan Ewing is the most gifted surfer stylistically in big, powerful waves, and the boy from North Stradbroke Island isn’t letting me down. His Round 16 win against Filipe Toledo was pure class. An 8.57 and a 9.67 in 8-10ft Sunset against an inform Toledo for the second-highest heat score of the day – are you kidding me?!
The same rule applies to Jack, who cemented his name as an event favourite with his Round 32 win against Callum Robson and his victory against Matthew McGillivray in Round 16. Too bad Robbo and Ewing won’t have the opportunity to battle it out in the Final together, as they find themselves on the same side of the draw, meaning they could end up in the Semis together.
Speaking of Finals day, the Quarters are set! Caio Ibelli takes on Zeke Lau. Barron faces Seth Moniz in an all Hawaiian matchup. While on the other side of the draw, Ethan Ewing is up against surprise rookie Jake Marshall, and Jack Robinson has to go through Kanoa Igarashi.
Here’s one more piece of trivia before we wrap this up. The resistance is dead, as we won’t be seeing any (male) goofy footers at Sunset anymore this event. But with the girls yet to make a splash and Surfline predicting “epic” for the second half of the comp, we are in for a whole lot of fireworks in the coming days, so don’t go anywhere!
