It’s a morning where there is much to celebrate for Australian fans of professional surfing. As the froth settled on the final event of the Challenger Series, Liam O’Brien, Jackson Baker and Callum Robson had all claimed positions on the 2022 Championship tour. Meanwhile, Connor O’Leary reclaims a position on the CT, bringing the total number of Australians on tour to nine with Morgan Cibilic, Jack Robinson, Ethan Ewing, Ryan Callinan and Owen Wright (wild card) retaining their positions on the CT. Curiously, it also looks like there are nine Brazilian surfers on the CT tour, which makes for an interesting head-to-head match-up.
While the new recruits could rejoice in their promotion there were those who missed out. Kalani Ball and Jacob Willcox were achingly close, while we also wave goodbye to Wade Carmichael, Mikey Wright and Jack Freestone.
All three of the new Australian surfers on the CT are power-based natural footers. While each has an aerial repertoire, they will all need to dial it up a notch if they want to rumble with the likes of John John, Toledo, Medina and Ferreira. Australia will certainly have a strong presence on tour, but hopefully they can feed off each other’s energy to produce at least one world title contender.
In the final of the men’s event John John allayed any fears that his long absence from competition had impacted negatively upon his performance. Apparently John John, historically a notorious non-trainer, has embraced cycling and cross-training in an attempt to get his body right for competition. In truth, John John was the stand-out surfer of the event and in the final he sent a resounding message to his rivals on the CT. John John comboed the field with an 18.03 heat total that included a perfect ten. The ten involved two air-reverses seamlessly linked with a cute tube ride. The result and the performance screamed ‘I’m back!’
It has to be said that the new, challenger series was well-received by fans over-all, adding another layer of exciting competition to the WSL package. Outside the Australian qualifiers, the other new and returning faces on the CT are Zeke Lau, Jake Marshall, Samuel Pupo, Nat Young, Imai Kalani deVault, Luccas Mesinas, Joao Chianca and Carlos Munoz. Munoz, the last qualifier to drop in, has one of the best stories. The popular Costa Rican surfer with the famously flamboyant hairdo has been toiling on the QS for years and has missed out by the smallest of margins on a number of occasions. Hopefully Carlos can bring some Latin American flair to the CT.
