Let’s address the elephant in the room first. I’m back off the bench for this one! Okay, and now the other elephant. While my arrival in the West concerns literally no one, it’s a different Elephant everyone’s talking about. Am I right?!
Of course, I’m talking about Gabs and the WSL’s decision to award our current champ with a wildcard for the second half of the tour after months of riding Softboards (Yes, Medina has joined the bandwagon) instead of Cabianca blades.
As usual, when it involves the WSL’s favorite child, opinions point in all directions with a predominant slant toward the WTF axis.
Favoritism? Keyboard pundits worldwide (with some exceptions) think so. Pundits in the WSL corner offices think absolutely not. This is usually how it goes.
The point is, while Gabby is avoiding the cull from the comfort of his couch, still having an outside shot at winning the title, two surfers who completed the Final 5 last year are not. Connor Coffin, Number 4 in the world last year, joins Morgan Ciblic in a Battle Royale-type scenario at Margies, needing big-ish results to avoid the cull.
Of course, the mid-year cut is one other big, fat, mighty elephant in the room. Like Morgs and Coffin, nine other surfers on the men’s side and six on the women’s side are as anxious as about anyone to perform in the West to avoid the Challenger Series, GoFund Me campaigns, tapping into the soft board business or all of the above.
This is why the Margaret River Pro is a must-watch event for the first time in forever. Let’s be honest, as enticing as the vineyards around the area are, Main Break is not. Margaret River reminds me of the kids in gym class that get picked second or third last. They don’t suck completely. You’ll take them if you have to. But you wouldn’t be mad if you don’t have to.
Not entirely sure if this analogy makes any sense, I shall continue. I’m trying to say that this year, with all the elephants stomping around the room, the Pro in the West is exhilarating! And (early) Rounds, I usually snooze through call for popcorn and Dolby Surround ambiance.
If you need further proof of the statement above, go watch back to Heat 2 and 3 of the Women’s Opening Round. Ah, what the heck, just watch back every Heat of the Women’s Opening Round. If you are a fan of surfing, a lover of Aussie surfing, you’ll be pulling your hair out. I promise!
Heat 2 through to Heat 6 of the Opening Round of the women included one or more Aussies, all of which, (Tyler excluded) needed to avoid Sudden Death to even have a remote chance at being a member of the Dream Tour come May.
Steph, Sally, Bronte, Molly Picklum, India Robinson and Isabella Nicholls all live another day by avoiding that daunting Elimination Round. But, while ALL female Aussies avoid sudden death, it has been a pretty predictable affair with all but three rookies swimming around the cut line finding themselves in the Elimination Round (unfortunately).
On the men’s side, the trend of Aussies avoiding the Elimination Round continues. It’s great to see Morgan Cibilic and Ryan Callinan, who both were consistent in collecting scraps all year so far, impressed in big, wild Main Beach.
Although avoiding the Sudden Death Round definitely helps en route to avoiding the cut, both surfers need monster performances out West to avoid unemployment for the second half of the year.
One other guy who impressed in his early Round Heat was Italo Ferreira, who, despite broken bones and broken dreams at Bells, put on a stunner at Main Beach, sending fellow Brazilian Jadson Andre into Round 2 with some solid backhand surfing.
There were others. Zeke Lau is a big human who impresses in big surf. Ethan Ewing resembles AI on bumpy walls. Igarashi just does it the Igarashi way – smart, not overly exciting, but lethal.
And then we have John and Toledo surfing in a league of their own. So can we just sit down for a minute, close our eyes and appreciate how good these two gents actually are?! It’s fascinating to see that two surfers sitting at opposite spectrums of Heat strategies can dominate so consistently. Filipe is technical, fast and powerful, while John has that guillotine carve on speed dial no one else in the business even comes remotely close to. It’s a one-turn maneuver that is so mind-bending you don’t want to see anything else. Seriously, show me John’s 8.77 for the rest of my life over and over again, and I’ll die a happy man!
But the Margaret River Pro wasn’t all fireworks and chocolate candy. Just ask the GOAT, who was pretty vocal, to not run Round 1 due to rather lousy conditions. It was a pretty ugly watch at times – something you’d expect from Main Beach, but with so much on the line on both sides of the competition, I happily turned a blind eye to the closeout sets, overly exaggerated commentary and disappointing local wildcards. You cannot have it all!g
When we return, there’s a 100% chance that we’ll say goodbye to some of your favorite surfers (and possibly ours) as some names fighting the cull find themselves in the Elimination Rounds.
If this isn’t a dramatic way to finish an article, then I don’t know what is! Stay tuned!
