Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach: Day 6
Four Quarter-Final heats run in super-tricky onshore 5-6 foot Bells.
Starting with the last and most controversial heat: Italo got stiffed. It was one of those poor decisions, that looked even worse the more they replayed it. Jack Robbo played a bold game, riding a super small board and trying to match Italo for end section hits; a game he should never have played but which, in the end, worked out as a winning strategy.
The talk was of meditation and some kind of preternatural calm but Robinson looked the complete opposite of calm after the heat, twitching wildly, pacing, and barely able to recite his cosmic utterances in the presser. Clearly in the midst of a major adrenalin dump he said Italo was “just another guy” before quickly trying to walk it back, “I'm humble, I'm good”.
Jack (Sloane/WSL)
Meanwhile, Ferreira had thrown a solid tantrum, and was in the judges tower as the sun set over the Otways, ducking the boom mics and camera guys as the 'Make or Break' guys caught the drama. Manufactured?
I don't think so. Like his loss to Connor Coffin last year at Narrabeen, Italo had cause for genuine beef with the panel. Will it matter come years end? Possibly.
Robinson still had to convert a tricky set wave on the buzzer, finishing solid before stalking the beach telling a camera crew, “I felt like I got it”.
It was an epic end to a crazy interlude in a Bells contest that now feels like it's been going for ever.
The Quarters opened with Owen getting thoroughly flogged by Ethan Ewing, who answered the questions about his own capacity to quiet the mental space within to decimate his opening ride. Judged a mid-7 without even going near the shorebreak it was a clear statement about what judges wanted to see.
Ethan (Sloane/WSL)
Owen's epoxy equipment, which had looked so solid in clean Bells Bowl, now looked as solid as a shitbox driving in the rain on bald tyres. It got hung up on turns, could not make it from A to B cleanly. Terrible, terrible handling when reliable handling was needed most. He'll need to seriously consider the strategy of persisting with EPS before they get to Margaret River, where hard offshore conditions are baked in.
Ewing must have been wringing his hands with joy watching the next heat where the two heavyweights of the comp, John John Florence and Filipe Toledo went at it. Any which way it went, the winner would likely have to leave something out on the Bells Bowl. Luck, a niggling injury, mental or physical fatigue...however it played out the beneficiary down the line will be Ewing.
The opening exchange, ridden as two succesive set waves, was total bullshit. Bullshit in the sense of completely maxed out action. Toledo on the slightly smaller first wave of the set, which had been the inferior wave all contest, found one that hugged the reef and let loose with four huge gaffs, each one different, each one building in speed, intensity, and risk on the last. Judges had no option but to go mid-9.
John had a bigger turn on the outside, a meat-cleaver to a multi-lipped bowl section. But the wave went flatter. The mid-8 set the spread for the rest of the heat.
John (Sloane/WSL)
There wasn't really much action after that. The waves went weird and neither surfer could get such a solid piece of action as the opening rides. It was noteworthy that Toledo after looking so spicy on a Dark Arts board (carbon fibre wrap over EPS core) went back to a traditional PU/PE construction to increase the handling reliability in the chop.
With both scoring 6's as back-up waves Florence was left needing a high-7 with ten minutes to play and badly flubbed his last attempt. He seemed genuinely unfazed in the presser and with Margaret River just days away, followed by a genuine Dream Tour run of contests, you can't blame him.
Another close heat went against a Brazilian goofyfoot in Quater-Final 3 with Miggy Pupo and Callum Robson. Robson is Cibilic 2.0: a no-name who has come from complete obscurity to the top of the tree on a platform of DGAF power surfing and ice-cold composure under pressure. That cold-blooded decision making looked to have backfired on him on the buzzer when he gifted Pupo the final wave of the heat while holding priority. Pupo speared it repeatedly, threw in a mid-wave claim to rouse his Brazilian support base on the steps and cleanly spiked the finish. He needed a mid-6 and I thought he got it.
Judges went for the Australian despite a very wide point spread between them. It did make me think if the panel had perhaps started celebrating Easter early and whether athletes could call for a breath test on the panel.
Three Aussies in the semis. That has to be the first time in...years?
Who rings the Bell?
Heart says Ewing, head says Toledo.
Who you got?
//STEVE SHEARER
Comments
if toledo surfs like yesterday he wins .......both those heats could have gone either way
these conditions? EE but h
We’ll that’s Ethan out.. Filipe v CR?
Jack Boginson
Bobby Martinez was wrong.
This ain't no wannabe tennis tour.
The initial exchange in the bateria between Felipe Toledo and John John Florence, going wave for wave and turn for turn was state of the art professional surfing, two of the best surfers in the world.
If you can't appreciate and applaud that exhibition - and the time, energy and money applied by the WSL and the folks at Rip Curl to make it happen - then perhaps you don't like surfing or it is time to get your eyes checked.
Out of 8 billions people in the world, 23,000 people watching the amazing epic 2 foot final on YouTube.
I can applaud the exhibition, but I can't applaud the judges going 1.2 higher for Filipe.
John's wave was bigger and his turns more critical, not as perfect as Filipe's wave. They could have given it to either wave, but at most it should have been a 0.5 spread, and that would have put a very different shade over the rest of the heat.
What a complete anti climax we have on our hands this Easter Sunday.
Kooked it!
From the initial exchange of waves, the judges must have concluded Felipe fulfilled the criteria for an excellent score better than John John - how they concluded this I do not know, but plenty of judgement calls have gone JJF's way in his career.
This time, it didn't.
Maybe brazzos will learn to not to claim average scoring rides?
Great write-up freeride
Just wondering about the big O's board..
I'm not certain it's epoxy - I think it is a stringered pu and that the black bands are paint - not carbon
Looks similar to the sprays that DHD has put out on some new models - like the 'sandman' which is pu but has the two black panels of spray
Happy to be proven wrong, just not certain it was an epoxy?
Jack's post heat demeanor ( pre heat sumoning the inner jedi was a little dramatic ) and interview were verging on bizarre, Was wondering why he stopped 2/3rds up the steps and began muttering to himself, my wife thought he had the stitch and needed a rest. Italo's tanty was a huge after heat vent and fair enough both guys pushed it to the limit and the adrenalin was pumping.
The most unexpected end to the day.
You may be right.
He rode epoxies at SurfRanch and these look exactly the same.
Will find out.
Ah OK
Thanks
I didn't check the last surf ranch out
I do want to see him get to chopes and G-land though
Don’t blame Jack. He wasn’t doing the judging or the constant judge influencing claims. I don’t think he showed any disrespect to Italo. That’s just the elite athlete mantra. He’s just another guy, it’s just another heat etc etc. Ofcourse we all know thats not the case but who cares?
He’s now a one in four chance. You’ve gotta like those odds. I hope he rings that bell then meets Italo out at double overhead Box. Pretty please….
Yeah - imagine that
I do remember Italo's first ever wave at the box tho
Just scraped under the guillotine lip with about 2mm to spare!
Would make for some epic viewing for sure.
I hope he meets Toledo at the box again.
And if Toledo can't at least get a little redemption in a decent performance and gets totally schooled out there by Robbo again,that should settle the debate once and for all about Toledo ever being a legit presence in the heavier hollow waves on tour.
He's been around long enough and becoming a veteran now,but still appears to be far from being an allrounded tour surfer,which any constant too 5 world title contender year in year out should be.
Ha ha yes I thought the same about Jack’s mid way stop on the steps . He seems to be the full tripper but glad he won.
I feel like there heat was almost a draw, the judges had to pick someone tho and I’d rather it be the cosmic tripper
Italos John macenroe carry on when he lost was pretty funny
Ferreira has form for this behaviour, jumped on his board last time. Making claims doesn’t mean a win. Close heat, judges have done a good job. As said earlier, Brazzos have to stop their silly claims.
Pretty sure italo put his fins thru Micks head in the change room!
I hope Jacks got good people in his corner, seems to have a gone a long way down a certain path and it looks a little rocky. Of course I have no idea and hope there’s no fire but I think we’re all seeing some smoke.
Marriage can do strange things to a man. Haha!
isn't he married to a brazzo
Yep. They will make beautiful babies one day no doubt. Good luck to them :-)
Over analyzing it me feels just an in the moment thing (he is a bit space cadetish, you want to hear his old man he is way out there on the spectrum) and Italo is so ADD he spits is at any loss let alone the quarters. Would love to have seen that dummy spit would have been a doozy.
Aren't we all on the spectrum?
I reckon Jack's deepdive into meditation and breathing suggests he has probably found the pressure hard to deal with in the past. Doing it so publicly puts a bit of a target on his back and builds an expectation he should be super zen all the time.
I agree in being a bit worried for him.
He certainly wasn't looking very relaxed in his semi when things weren't going well.
I wish him all the best. Great surfer in the right conditions. I hope the tour doesn't chew him up and spit him out. I reckon Kelly treads a safer path and keeps his esoteric shit a bit further away from his surfing.
Well i guess that hat placed over the camera then the cut back to the commentary booth denied us the chance to see if Italo's dummy spit would rival his one in narrabeen last year lol.
And i think they stuffed up today running the first mens semi.
They waves were getting less consistant and smaller during the Moore/Hennessy heat,and they should have known through decades of previous experience,dropping swell and rising tide equals less consistant waves.
Why couldn't they have just gone on hold for an hour to confirm if the conditions would hold up or not?
So then we got a heat where the most in form surfer of the event still standing couldn't buy a half decent wave,and Toledo wins with 1 wave with just 2 stock standard air reverses that looked much more like on a wave he caught at his Brazilian event win than on a wave at Bells.
It looked like another howler of a call from JMD (she's had a handful now in her time),and it could be time for a performance review.
If footy refs or cricket umpires make too many recurring incorrect calls,they're replaced.
And pretty quickly,they're not still in the games for a couple of seasons and counting.
Love your writing Freeride.
Very anti climactic today.
I though Jack Robbo was going full mayor Adam West from Family Guy yesterday.
To settle claims of nationalistic bias made by a number of Brazilians re yesterday - does anyone know the make up of the judging panel in terms of: Judges from what country/What country's judge gave what scores? Is that info even available?
I don’t understand why surfers are even allowed to go into the judging booth and intimidate judging panel.
Agreed. Those judges need better security. No fair to have angry surfers barging in. Sure lay a complaint of you've got a problem.
Good footage for a doco though if you let them in.........
First comp I've watched in a while, pro surfing is a joke.
Most of the fan base doesn't even care about surfing and are more interested in stroking the pathetic wank of nationalism.
I wouldn't even be upset at this point if the WSL collapsed, any vision they had died long ago, the surfers are presented like performing monkeys and the desk talent take the centre stage as the main identities in the whole circus.
Good name. Took me a bit to see it!
Performing monkeys are pretty entertaining. It may be cruel but it’s always funny when they dress them up like people.
hahaha yeah you gotta sound it out.
Maybe the surfers prefer to just show up and surf, but if there's no personalities and just generic drivel it makes the whole thing meaningless (to me anyway)
First one for me for a while as well, and I only saw bits and pieces. My admittedly jaded take: Judging is just as dodgy as it ever was, at least since Parko was robbed blatantly by Medina at Snapper. In my old school power surfing view, Defay and Ferreira were robbed, plain and simple. And in the latter case, I am no fan of the Brazilian claims. But when scores from judges differ by a point or more on a single wave (and despite the dropping of 2 scores), you have to ask yourself, is surfing an activity that fits the sporting definition? The late great Greg Noll didn't think so. But while WSL has $$$ to spend, many surfers will see it as a career opportunity, rather than a pastime. The elite lifestyle, aspired to by many thousands of surfers globally, is totally unsustainable ecologically - a classic example of our collective overshoot, despite the greenwash nonsense sprouted by WSL. If they were serious about climate and ocean health, they'd wind it down and stop flying, or selling plastic merch, or if it's true, building a road into G-land. But instead the carbon footprint of our elite would rival a small global South nation. Not that any of that will deter them of course, and there, in a nutshell, is the dilemma.
I think Mig Pupo required a 5.95 or better on his last ride. Personally, I thought it was close but not a 6. They would have been checking against Robson’s earlier 5.87. Think they got it right, and quite over surfers claiming after a ride, like they have the slightest idea of ‘the scale’ the judges are using in the event. The Russian judge giving a 6.5 looked like a bit of a FU to the other judges, as it dropped last. May as well have put a 10 up there.
As for Jack Robbo’s win, I’m ok with it. Bigger waves, which somehow Freeride seemed to think didn’t matter, which they do in every other comp, but check the end section efforts. Robbo’s were genuinely balls to the wall 50% chance of making it hacks into mountains of foam. Italo’s end sections were fast dynamic, and, erm, safe. Virtually no chance of falling off, therefore not ‘critical’. I’m not sure that being fast makes for high performance, critical surfing. It’s good, even great surfing, but when the other guy is doing bigger and more critical, less safety first, that’s the difference for me.
Just my take on it. And sure, I’m just rationalising what my gut already told me.
But thanks for the write up Steve. A significant part of the circus for me is the comments on the page while watching, props to everyone who gets on there, and Steve’s write up after. Adds so much more than the actual commentary.
Anyone know where we can view Jack Robinsons post heat interview against Ferreira?
I can't speak to Jack Robbo's clean living lifestyle and meditation etc (that's completely foreign to me), but I was in the water with him a number of times over the past few weeks. Very well behaved in the line up. Waits his turn and no hassling. Even saw him hoot one of the local girls into one yesterday morning before the semis kicked off.