It’s no secret that there have been other waves firing away from this year’s Moche Rip Curl Pro, Portugal at Supertubos. The booby-trapped venue preceding Pipe has crushed dreams, scrambled world title rankings and thrown the race wide open after three rounds of competition in sub-par surf. Sure, it’s been contestable but it would be a reach to call it world class – even despite the number of times it’s drummed into us by Joey Turps and the gang.
WSL’s VP of Communications, Dave Prodan, delivered this response when Tracks asked him what possibility there was – if any – to go mobile and put the surfers in the best waves possible, wherever they are in Portugal.
“The WSL Commissioner’s Office, comprised of Kieren Perrow, Jessi Miley-Dyer, Peter Mel, Renato Hickel, Al Hunt, Travis Logie and Richie Porta serve at the discretion of the surfers and are entrusted with all the technical aspects for the sport from formatting to judging, rankings and scheduling. Portugal, and specifically Supertubos, has delivered world class waves in past years and, although the forecast is not as promising as it has been, has already delivered impressive moments this season.”
Uprooting the top 34, a production crew and staff and adopt a roaming venue would be logistically challenging, expensive and certainly no mean feat. No one is expecting the WSL to wave a magic wand but demonstrating flexibility towards venue locations may just keep us tuning in. After this year’s Drug Aware Margaret River Pro the WSL revealed North Point would be considered as a back up venue at next year’s event after much rallying from both surfers and commentators following a string of back to back swells that produced some of the best waves during the Australian leg of the tour. Most of the pros surfed à la carte North Point while the competitors dined on burgers at Main Break.
“There are certainly stops on tour that are conducive to having backup venues, France and Portugal being prime examples,” reiterates Prodan. “That said, the goal with going mobile is to execute a good chunk of the competition in quality waves. Watching a 2-minute web clip of a 45-minute session can be deceiving as tide and time wait for no man.”
That final point from Prodan is certainly valid. A scrupulously edited free-surfing web clip is never a true indication of how it really was – unless of course it’s raw and uncut. However, living through our favourite surfers’ social feeds hardly helps soften the blow. En route to the round three of competition Joel Parko posted this photo with a caption that said it all. “So hard driving past this on the way to the contest.. #ouch”. Ouch indeed.
SLATER AND MICK FIND IN PENICHE THE BARRELS OUT OF SUPER TUBOS from Surftotal TV on Vimeo.
