Keanu Asing’s victory at the Quilsilver Pro France was a feel good moment of the European summer and everyone and his dog was stoked for the plucky little lad from Honolulu, Hawaii. Bitter sweet, however, was the fact that he needed a big result at the Pipe Masters, and his round two defeat at the hands of Kanoa Igarashi saw him with the distinction of being the only Championship Tour surfer to win an event and still get knocked off the premier tour by finishing 24th at year end.
On the polar opposite, Jordy Smith’s performance this year was inspired and showed the world that he is always there, always part of the conversation when it comes to the best surfers in the world. Surfing injury-free and mentally relaxed but confident for a whole year showed us what he has in store, and the Trestles win and Sunset victory were just small excerpts of what could happen going forward. Many people have forgotten about Jordy as a legitimate title contender, kind of, but he was never far away, and has been just licking wounds and repairing damaged ribs, ligaments and cartilages. In preparation for The Big One.
Portugal as a whole was one of the biggest highlights of the season, with the country becoming a surfing power nation and boasting numerous events across the tours. With a women’s Championship Tour event in the Caiscais Women’s Pro alongside the 10,000 WQS event the Billabong Pro Cascais, the country was on the map this year. Backed up by the 6,000 Azores Airlines Pro the country didn't need anything more to make it in contention with the biggest surfing nations in the world.
And then Nazaré happened. The heaviest, most gnarly big wave scene yet, Nazaré has redefined the way that big wave surfing and big wave event will happen in the future. By far the heaviest and biggest beachbreak in the world, Nazaré has so many different things in her make-up that it will take a year or two of figuring out before it is covered to an extent when an event will be a plug-and-play. The WSL safety team – Scott Eggers and crew – did a sterling job under unbelievably testing conditions, but their knowledge and skills were put to the test. There were some heavy situations, and a few battered and bruised bodies, but everybody walked away from the event in one piece, and world famous ocean paddler Jamie Mitchell won the event with some unbelievably large left-hand bombs. There was a time when we thought that all the big wave spots in the world had been discovered, and then we have this. Rumours of two new legit big wave spots, one on each coast of South Africa, have started filtering through and we have yet to find out if they’re real.
The Kelly Slater machine is always going to be a highlight of any competitive year, and 2016 was no different to others. Winning the Billabong Pro Tahiti, finishing 7th in the world and banking two 3rd place finishes as well as two 5th place finishes saw Slater have a year that most could only dream of. Then he announced the end of the dream, in that 2017 will be his final year on the tour as he chases that elusive 12th world title. We hardly believe that. If he were to win next year, or make a good run of it and finish in the top three, we do not think he’s going to retire on that, and why would he?
John John was destined to have a bumper year, but no one knew just how bumper. A win at the Eddie in monstrous surf was an incredible start to the season, and like Jordy, John John remained uninjured for the rest of the season and managed to bank a win in Rio as well as Portugal, and ended the year off with a win at the Vans Tripe Crown Of Surfing in Hawaii. Oh, and he also sneaked in two wins on the WQS, taking out the Hawaiian Pro at Haleiwa along the Triple Crown route. The world is his oyster right now, and John John has the rhythm.
Then there were these three 10-point rides that kind of summed up the year.
Kelly at Cloudbreak
Filipe Toledo in France
Jordy Smith in Peniche against Seabass along with one of his famous claims to go with it.
It was a great year, wasn’t it?
