Rio. I know, I know. It’s the worst event ever! Fuck it off for Keramas! The waves are shit and all those long-suffering pros are going to die or, like, get diarrhoea!
Still, it’s nice to see some airs. Even if there’s only been a handful of them, and just one legitimate head-turner. But at least we’re aware it’s 2016 again, and that’s good, because after the first three events you could be forgiven for forgetting.
Turns have very much been the weapon of choice among the top 34 this season. Blame it on Mick, blame it on Adriano or the judges, but something has clicked in the collective psyche of the pros and they’ve all realised you can win a world title by belting the back out of it three times. Which is good for the old Pottz clichés of ‘Build a house, Joe’ and ‘Join the dots’, but when everyone’s doing it, when there’s a distinct uniformity to the way the best surfers in the world are approaching their waves, it can make for some pretty dull viewing.
To be fair, Bells and Margies are big, open-faced waves that demand a traditionalist approach, and this year’s conditions only accentuated that fact, but three-foot Snapper is a god damn snake run at your local skate park. Toledo more than proved that last year with his high-flying acrobatics. Hell, Taj did too when he won it back in ’01. But this year at the Quikky Pro, aside from a couple of average punts from Filly and John John (by their standards, anyway), everyone’s boards were kept pretty well connected to the face. And that works wonders for some—the Joels and Wilkos and Fannings of the world—but for others, for those who possess that radical new-school ability to launch themselves into the stratosphere, it just looks like they’re holding back. And nobody wants to see that.
Enter the Oi Rio Pro and the very un-dream-tour-like conditions that have presented themselves for the first two rounds of competition. You’d think a two-foot beach break with ample close-out sections would be the perfect canvas for guys to exhibit their new-school tendencies. You’d think they’d be the type of waves in which they could really set themselves apart. But no, Julian, John John, Kolohe and the like all chose to stick to the face on their scoring rides, and as a result, their heats were as boring as bat shit to watch. Now Jules and Brother are headed home with a couple of 25ths in the bag and JJF’s round 3 match-up isn’t really brimming with the appeal it ought to be.
Gabriel Medina’s round two heat in the same shitty conditions, on the other hand, was sensational. Taking full advantage of the fast, rampy close-outs, he launched a full rotation air reverse and a backflip, netted a 9.40 and a 10, and put on one of the most exciting performances of the year so far in the same half an hour stretch. If he keeps it up and everyone else sticks to a three to the beach formula that looks borderline archaic in such subpar conditions, he’ll win the contest easy. And he’ll deserve it, too. Because if the world’s best surfers and the world’s best surf fans (that’s us, guys) have to endure an event in the world’s worst beach break, then we want to see something worth watching, and in those kind of conditions, it’s going to require them taking to the air.
