The Final Five: Kanoa Igarashi and Steph Gilmore
Fifth Place: Kanoa Igarashi and Steph Gilmore
The last chairs in the Final Five couldn't be occupied by surfers at more diametrically opposed places in their career journeys. 34 year old Steph Gilmore with seven World Titles, and much closer to the end of her career than to the beginning, barring some kind of Slater-style reinvention, while 24 year old Kanoa Igarashi still seems to have a teenage energy about him.
Both their years have featured some moments of brilliance, which have been their highlights, whilst the overall performances have been just off the pace.
Pre-heat intensity at Bells - Steph was beaten by Carissa in the Quarters (Ryder/WSL)
In Steph's case she carried an unbeatable pointbreak repertoire and style to a win at Punta Roca in El Salvador and looked to be in winning form at J-Bay, beaten by an in form and very well favoured (by the judges) heat from Tyler Wright.
Bizarrely enough, some of Steph's most important heats were two incredibly mediocre performances, one at G-Land and the other at Teahupoo. A pair of 5's at G-Land and a pair of 3's at Chopes were enough to generate Quarter-Final finishes in the post-cut Women's Tour.
As she alluded to in her post heat presser at Teahupoo, having these barrelling lefts on tour with a skillset not up to the task is a strange thing for her at this stage of her career. The 2022 roster, bears little resemblance to the one a decade ago when she was winning World Titles with ease. Steph has not adjusted well to the addition of the left-hand reef breaks and if the WSL CEO is responsive to fan pressure, as has been the recent historical trend, then a Finals Day at Cloudbreak would be even more deleterious to her hopes of a record-breaking 8th World Title.
Trestles suits Steph, especially in the head-high range. Apart from her disastrous showing there last year, if we go back to 2017, the last time Trestles was on the tour roster, she was shunted by eventual winner Silvana Lima in the Quarters despite an excellent heat. The year before she put a beating on Carissa Moore in the Quarters, then racked up numerous excellent rides before narrowly losing to Tyler Wright in the Final. That was six years ago. Does that form hold? There's been no great evolution in Steph's surfing since then, but then again, there is unlikely to be a need for it.
Sublime frontside style at J-Bay (AVG/WSL)
None of the women above her are likely to bring a progressive element into heats, with the possible exception of Carissa Moore. A single completed air would see Steph shipwrecked on the shores of non-progression, but that single completed air is incredibly unlikely to occur.
The much bigger issue will be her general athletic conditioning. Since her 2017 move to LA to broaden her interest base and get closer to the music biz, there have been question marks over her commitment and conditioning. She'll need to surf at least five times on Finals Day to win an 8th World Title.
Possibility of a World Title: No Chance
Kanoa keeping emotions in check at Teahupoo (Poullenot/WSL)
There's no mystery to Kanoa's progressive repertoire, which suits Trestles perfectly. The bigger mystery is why he continues to be so unliked by surf fans. The mouthful of marbles diction doesn't help endear him, but 'Make or Break' showed a young man working hard for a dream and providing for his family while doing so. Noble, stirring stuff, that for some reason won't stick.
An Igarashi World Title...hmmm...it wouldn't carry the same size asterix which we're supposed to affix next to Toledo's name due to inability to deal manfully with Pipeline and Teahupoo. Kanoa surfed strongly at Pipe, defeated by winner Kelly Slater for a fifth place finish, and likewise beaten by winner Miggy Pupo at Teahupoo for a fifth place. Very respectable display of charging.
Unflinching in the eye of big Chopes (Poullenot/WSL)
Kanoa's Trestles record: not bad. 2017, the last year it was on tour, he made it to fifth, beaten by Toledo, who is highly likely to smoke him again should they come up against each other. Unlike Gilmore, Kanoa has progressed his surfing, competition skills, and his conditioning - by vast amounts. He could, by virtue of youth and conditioning, surf his way through five heats to victory. Kanoa's biggest obstacle is a tendency to “sulk” and surf a poor heat - à la Narrabeen last year against Conner Coffin, and to a lesser extent against Mick Fanning at Bells his year. Both bad losses.
Possibility of a World Title: Tiny chance
Kanoa and Steph will surf against fourth place finishers Italo Ferreira and Brisa Henessy. The waiting period for the WSL Finals Day starts on Thursday September 8th
Comments
The mediocre performances may be the survival instinct engaged in heavy surf situations. A compromise. Great competition waves go unridden; streamed live around the world.
The professional women surfers could consider lobbing for a change in the locations of their WSL competitions.
Has the WSL PR circus become too big & bloated to run two world comps?
I may be wrong but I’m pretty sure they wanted Tahiti on their schedule?
Does anyone seek out Igarashi’s surfing for inspiration or entertainment? I’ll watch it in a heat and will watch if he appears in a clip but that’s where it ends. He always surprises me with his ability which is a form of damnation through low expectation in itself.
Can’t say I’ll ever google Kanoa Igarashi surfing on its own merits.
The fella rips the bag but he’s not worthy of world title status no matter what rankings say at the end of the year.
World title possibility: Yes. World title deservability : no.
BTW , the whole “ providing for my family” narrative is never meritous when we are talking about pure surfing inspiration and truly becomes trite when the surfer is already a multimillionaire who never has to wrk a day in their lives.
in any sport "providing for my family" is too often synonymous with "donning blinders and relentlessly chasing the dollars"
like those hard done by golfers who reluctantly jumped to the LIV tour to keep bread on the table
gotta do what ya gotta do
Well said ..
I nearly choked on my weeties not long ago when Sergio Garcia said he had to look after his family that’s why he joined the head choppers …
The dudes got a private jet FFS….
Surfing pales in comparison but they’re all a bit privileged to reality ..
My pick is for a toledo & italo final with toledo taking the win & title , steph & carrisa in the final with carrisa taking the win & title . My fantasy has been dreadful this year finishing in 11,265 th place so my finals pick are probably not even close.
Just love that pic of Steph ... how's the scale of that wave!
Ditto - I caught myself mind surfing the drop and where to next ..... solid wave
Brock Little would have called it 2 foot Hawaiian
That photo is a trophy she will treasure more than many others in years to come.
Steph’s wave at Kermas is world class - male or female.
Steph has more chance of winning the lotto.
Sorry I know this is harsh, but she's just totally unconvincing these days.
Sadly, Carissa will win. She's so syrupy sweet hearing her talk gives me diabetes. Her favorite hobby is scrap-booking...FFS! But she is the best surfer by far.
If Joanne Defay wins it will warm the cockles...of my heart...but it would take a miracle.
As for the mens - if the Aussies bow out I will be barracking for Italo or Kanoa. Anyone but the cowardly lion...
Pretty much all commentators on this site are Aussies.
Presuming you're one too,why are you going for a Brazzo and an American surfing for his ancestry rather than his real homeland instead of Robbo and Ethan?
That's some serious traitorish shit goin on there lol.
Kanoas “mouth full of marbles diction” could be down to the fact that he speaks about 50 languages fluently or gets elocution lessons from the same person as Sally Fitzgibbons! Still rips though
4 & 5 ain’t got a hope in hell of winning the day…3 is a long-shot if everything aligns. The world champ will be from position 1 or 2.
Nice prediction dumbo.
oh are you butthurt BD? lmao
in real waves no way would a number 5 come through and win...fatique would kick in. Even Mick in the comments booth was saying they were worried about steph fatiquing...in real waves she would have lost
If SG has a "spell" before competition she will have enough energy for finals day if she makes it.
Kanoas latest little wsl instablurb where he says words to the effect of 'its the easiest wave ever' is indictment enough of the trestles final concept and a bit of a fumble by the you-cant-scripters. Makes it sound more mario kart than F1.
interesting article. I think Stephs every chance of winning the title. If it's clean, lined up, not unruly like last year, and she can just get through her heat, i reckon she'll build momentum and confidence and maybe suck some confidence out of the competitors seeing her coming. No ones actually gotten on a run yet, in the one event they've had for a finals. Stephs a confidence surfer and with a heat win under her belt could easily go all the way.
As for Kanoa, ahh, don't really care. Go Robbo!!
Go Ethan.
(and Steph).
Btw, Kanoa is not particularly big in Japan. Kelly's still the man.
No blame on the author here, but this article has not stirred any excitement whatsoever.
Other contests (like Pipe, Teahupoo, J-Bay) had me checking the forecasts every day in the lead-up. Haven't checked once for the finals.
This finals concept is a joke. Winner should be the one who did well across all conditions over the course of a year.
Sure Toledo didn't do well at Pipe or Teahupoo, but the reality is that with no Medina or JJF he was the best surfer over the course of the year. He deserves to have already won the title based on the entire season, it just won't go down in the collective memory as being a particularly great year.
Finals make sense in sports that are played in similar conditions every week (like a football field). To decide a surfing champion in one type of surf break (and not even even a great one) is moronic other than presumably for the dollars involved.
Go Robbo and Ethan.
That last paragraph regarding SG - I didn’t know that. Hopefully her bandname is Gil and Stephmores.
I don't reckon there's much mystery around why surfers don't like Kanoa much. He comes across as manufactured which seems pretty accurate given his life story.
If there's one thing surf fans hate it's surfers who don't seem to be in it for the love of surfing.
Makes me think of Andy and Kalohe as well. It's okay to be super competitive but only if you love surfing too.
Whether it's true or not these guys come across as if surfing is just thing to get to the winning. Makes it all clinical.
Wow...just wow!,,
“ Possibility of a World Title: No Chance”
Bugger! Haha
Go Steph, unreal
After seeing the result I clicked back on this article this morning!
Humble pie time
No Chance.... Never write off a complete legend! Congrats Steph!
I think 'No chance' was a reasonable evaluation!
She blew the doors off. Came from no-where.
Time will tell how long it takes for someone to come from 5th and win again.
My bet is its unlikely to happen in the mens, unless there is some funk with the conditions which reverses fortunes.
Totally remarkable performance and indeed an absolute champion!
She has redefined what it means to get in the top 5 and shown whats possible.
Yeeew.
This thread aged well.