J'Bay Open Round 3
24 hours is a long time in pro surfing. Just yesterday, as Parko relegated Ricardo Christie to yet another Round 3 loss with clinical point break surfing, the commentators did everything but chair him up the beach and hand him the trophy. As they played footage from his '99 win they set the scene, self-evident to everyone watching: "He's heading for the final", "His bad form is over", "The comp is his to lose."
Well, lose he did, in the first heat of the day against Big Wiggolly Dantas. It was a simple case of keeping the door ajar. Parko got off to a good start but didn't control the heat allowing Wiggolly to get his keepers in the back half of the heat. Left needing an 8.63 Parko took one after the bell, landed one air rev, fell on another, and the contest, much like his year, rolls on without him making any impact.
How many more wildcards should we give Dane Reynolds? When he blazes, he blazes white hot, but contests require consistency and he's won just three heats in two comps, two heats being non-sudden death. Today he looked simply uninterested in the morning sick surf and may as well have given Adriano a walk through.
If Parko's year went back to neutral, Gabs finally found gear. Against Wilko the reigning World Champ did the things we know he's capable of: he manufactured keepers from under Wilko's priority; corked out airs with consistency; and he surfed with flow and aggression. On the beach, Team Medina were estatic, or was all that jumping up and down and fist pumping relief? Behind closed dooors the pressure must've been mounting.
Slater and Andino surfed a tense heat. Tense because Slater has to make every result count from here to Pipeline, and tense because bugger all waves came through so priority was the main game. Rather than a shoot out, one wave sets put the emphasis on tactics. Slater had a tough call go against him but gathered his emotions to ride the heat out. Andino, clearly upset, gave his Biolos a volley of short jabs after the hooter. Heads up to the glassers at Lost. Not a dent to be seen.
Bede and Bourez duked it out with Bede in the ascension till the Tahitian rode the kind of wave that'd make coaches proud: "Don't leave anything on the park, son." Bourez emptied his tanks with a guts up wave that levelled the scores, and then he won on countback.
Last heat saw Filipe spin two clean alley oops for an 8.90 only to be beaten by luck. Alejo Muniz was holding priority when a one wave set, bigger than anything seen all morning, landed right in his lap. Toledo didn't do a thing wrong but took the loss with good grace, and at that point the Commissioner halted proceedings.
J-Bay Open Round 3 Results:
- Heat 1: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 15.50 def. Owen Wright (AUS) 15.40
- Heat 2: Kai Otton (AUS) 15.50 def. Italo Ferreira (BRA) 12.83
- Heat 3: Julian Wilson (AUS) 17.94 def. Fredrick Patacchia Jr. (HAW) 8.40
- Heat 4: Nat Young (USA) 16.87 def. Adam Melling (AUS) 8.03
- Heat 5: Wiggolly Dantas (BRA) 15.13 def. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 12.40
- Heat 6: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 13.17 def. Dane Reynolds (USA) 11.90
- Heat 7: Mick Fanning (AUS) 17.50 def. C.J. Hobgood (USA) 13.83
- Heat 8: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 19.07 def. Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 16.07
- Heat 9: Kelly Slater (USA) 14.16 def. Kolohe Andino (USA) 12.27
- Heat 10: Keanu Asing (HAW) 14.83 def. Josh Kerr (AUS) 12.33
- Heat 11: Michel Bourez (PYF) 15.67 def. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 15.67
- Heat 12: Alejo Muniz (BRA) 17.83 def. Filipe Toledo (BRA) 17.23
Comments
Those tricky conditions can be quite a handful for the bookies. I managed a good multi @ $18 picking Slater, Asing, Bourez and Muniz. It was nail biting in those last two heats....
wow multi at $18 what how much was the win? ...Asing saved the day got $1100 on his two wins
$360 back after that. A good win but I had some shockers in rounds 1 and 2. I needed this one! I'm still undecided about round 4. I want to see exactly what the condtions will be like before I hit "confirm".
Yeah that tripped me up to on Dane....I saw the conditions but didn't comprehend that Dane was in mindspace. Especially when strider said he didnt want the event to run today. Then it was over already. Still be clean when it kicks off and Wilson heavy favourite be a solid bet. Never tried the multi....epic win
pretty sad day when Chloe's meltdown was the highlight.
Sad to see the two best JBay surfers- Parko from this year, and Wilko from last year-bundled out in weak, waist high babyfood.
The old air reverse must have almost done its dash in terms of a high scoring one maneuver wave, even 2.
Everyone on the CT and QS can land air reverses super consistently these days.
I'm pretty over watching the surfers treat waves like a skate park.
If they get the solid swell next week as predicted the 2 best natural J bay surfers (Parko, Jordy) and the best J Bay goofy (Wilko) wont be there to surf it because they were victims of the small wave punt brigade. Except Jordy but he was clearly to injured to surf.
Parko was beaten by Wiggolly Dantas, he ain't part of the "small wave punt brigade". Fella is built like Occy and lays rail like him too.
I'm also starting to get bored of the high scores given to some airs these days. It's funny how quickly it starts to get obsolete... they use to give 10 pointers for airs that these guys now land two times on a wave
Would have loved to see Parko get through, he is amazing to watch when the waves get good her but ha wasn't victim of the airs, the waves were just crap in his heat and Wigoly got the best moves done.
Wilko, well yes he got done with Medina's airs but in the end he probably needed another good wave anyway. It was good to see Alejo beating Felipe with that amazing wave he got
Chalk and cheese between the waves on Monday and Tuesday.....correspondingly, chalk and cheese between the best J Bay surfers scores on Monday and Tuesday.
Parko must be gutted after such a massive high on Monday, to then have to surf that shit that was served up to him Tuesday morning.
Gonna have to pick the eyes out of the conditions on Sat/Sun to get the best of the swell/winds combination.
Is it just me or do they seem to be over scoring most waves? It could just be me getting tired of seeing the same manoeuver being repeated all the way down the line. It almost becomes the more moves the higher score.
Yeah, agree. Judges need to rehash their scaling (again). They're still throwing 9s out like nobody's business and giving themselves nowhere to go.
I think the WSL will be happy though. Owens double 20s got plenty of mainstream interest. Maybe we'll start seeing more 10s thrown around too?
Does anyone want to defend the judging of Munoz and Toledos heat?? Toledo did 2 alley oops, the second one was high, tweaked and landed perfectly. Maybe 0.001 of the surfing population could do it, yet it was outscored by Munoz who had a larger wave (nothing about that in the criteria) and did traditional moves that the best surfer from every beach in the world could do.
EDIT...Judges analyze the following elements when scoring waves:
Commitment and degree of difficulty
Innovative and progressive maneuvers
Combination of major maneuvers
Variety of maneuvers
Speed, power and flow
So there's nothing about wave size but there is 'innovation' and 'progressive maneuvers' and still Toledo lost???
I scratched my head at that exchange too, but I think Alejo got him on 'variety of maneuvers'. Every wave has its focus - Pipe the barrel, Trestles the airs etc - and I reckon at a drawn out lineup like J'Bay the judges reward multiple moves over single moves like Alejos.
That's wot I reckon...
Fellas lets not get carried away it was only a 2 foot wave. I don't care what he does on 2 foot I don't tune into WISSIL to watch the worlds best hopping around in midget waves. Alejo nailed it he deserved the win. Any time it gets over 2 foot Felipe is in trouble.
Yeah i was a bit WTF on that, Munoz wave was for sure a bomb but i didn't think his turns were very critical looked like he was playing it safe knowing as long as he didn't fall just surfing the wave would get the score. (maybe i will go watch it again)
I think they take the actual wave to much into consideration on days like yesterday rather than the actual surfing which brings luck more into play rather than the actual surfing skill.
Edit: watched it again, it was probably a fair call but both waves IMO were over scored but i guess thats just in the context of the day, i think if the two airs Flipie had done were different and the wave a little bigger it would have been a different result.
One judge even gave him a 10, couldnt believe it!
Of course wave quality is going to come into it! Alejo tore the bag out of that thing and covered every criteria you just listed (in my opinion) and Felipe only the 'progressive' ....if you think anyone could have surfed that wave that well I think you need to go and have another look, every move was perfectly timed and critical As f@&k! So much better than two alley oops
Please point to the part of the criteria that mentions it.
And I'd say 95% of the top 32 are easily landing alley oops anyway, they're not that good, although felipes second one was rad, still I think scores for both waves were on point.
I would have thought it was under the 'common sense' clause..... Gotta be in the fine print there somewhere!
I was ok with the scores in that heat too. Alejo ripped that wave to shreds and alley oops are quite a bit easier to do than a reverse. Isn't the criteria still biggest or best waves for the longest distance in the most critical section with speed, power and flow and also innovation? I personally love the way Toledo goes about his work but I really think he's got to get a more patient act. He's always blowing up on the crappers which limits his scores just a bit although it didn't seem to matter in brazil. All his aerials seem to be on only waist high or chest high waves. Could he repeat it on a 6 footer?
"and alley oops are quite a bit easier to do than a reverse."
Really? So why can face dwellers like Kai Otton, Nat Younh and Brett Simpson do reverses but not alley oops?
Fair call! I shoulda said some guys find them easier. I guess as others have said earlier some of the aerials do seem to become obsolete over time but solid rail turns stand the test of time
You're right Free. The best surfers did get eliminated, Aussies Wilko and Parko - It's WSL man. Why don't they make it so the best surfers always get through??? Answer that one! They did not need to run in that rubbish when great waves are coming. It's so wrong but at least Dane got dusted so thats hopefully the last we see of him - NOT.
A tough forecast/decision coming up for keiren!!!
Yes, decent swell coming but winds super tricky. Looks like on hold Saturday for a possible late run, and then similar Sunday. Monday looking decent but too late.
Pretty flat out there this morning by the looks.
Will they extend a day then? Although I thought Monday looked smallish again?