Full disclosure, I watched no more than 30 minutes of the Jeep Surf Ranch Pro presented by Adobe, which may render the following complete uninformed BS. Those thirty minutes included two failed attempts at watching over the course of the weekend that lasted no longer than two waves. Failed not because I didn’t have the time to watch or because I’m a purist wave-pool hater, I believe when the right man-made wave comes along a tour event in the pool will be highly entertaining, but because no matter how hard I tried I just could not connect with the event.
It was because for the life of me I could not find a leaderboard or any kind of schedule letting me know scores, who was up next etc. (Should this not have been displayed in between each ride in place of the ‘stay tuned’ vision of the empty pool?). It was because of the feigned surprise and excitement of the commentators every time someone got tubed. It was because of the utter predictability of every ride from surfers, who due to the nature of the set-up, were starved of practice-time and thus too scared to let loose on their actual competition rides. And the big one, it was because it’s obviously a very hard wave to perform contemporary performance surfing on. The unnatural pace and slope of the wave don’t allow for full commitment in turns, lest you get swallowed by the whitewater with no chance of escape. The only time most surfers truly get to lay into a move is on the very last section after the tube and by the time they get there their legs are made of lead.
However, Filipe Toledo, Gabriel Medina and Yago Dora are the exceptions to this. They have cracked the code of how to convincingly ride the wave. They may be the first in a new evolution of surfer that over time will learn to surf the tub like snowboarders ride the halfpipe, and perhaps we’ll just have to persist through a decade or so of growing pains while the rest catch up? For now, however, it is only Filipe, Gabriel and Yago who make it borderline enjoyable to watch.
They are the only reason I managed to watch the final runs of each surfer, and even managed to feel a twinge of excitement as Gabriel medina sat and waited for his final wave, needing a mid-range nine to take the victory away from Filipe.
Anticlimactically, Gabby fell halfway through the ride, leaving Filipe to claim his second win of the year. On the women’s side, Johanne Defay continued her year of good form and snatched the win from Carissa Moore.
Three full days of surfing for twenty minutes of entertaining action and half a twinge of excitement. Yeah, the Surf Ranch Pro is still a no from me. Would be fun as fuck to ride though, Ha!
