The Final Five: Brisa Hennesy and Italo Ferreira
Fifth Place: Brisa Hennesy and Italo Ferreira
Due to the knock-out format of the WSL Finals there's little practical difference between coming in fourth or fifth. Both will have to surf at least five times on the Finals Day to win the title, so remarks made on that point in the opening piece still hold. Fitness and conditioning will be key factors.
Our Men's and Women's number four ranked surfers come from what might be termed opposite ends of the privilege spectrum. Women's number four Brisa Hennesy had the golden ticket upbringing. Born and raised in Costa Rica until she was nine, home-schooled in Hawaii, spent lots of time in Fiji, including a famous year in 2020 during the pandemic where she spent her time figuring out Cloudbreak. Brisa talks the talk as well. When she opens her mouth it's like reading a self-help book. Facing fears and blessed and healing journeys of self-discovery etc etc. All very heart-felt no doubt.
Men's number four Italo Ferreira, by contrast, grew up dirt poor in a cinder-block house in Baia Formosa, where his Dad resold fish from fishermen to restaurants. Italo grew up tough and determined in a situation of “sumptuous poverty”. The 2019 World Champ is smiley but has embraced an aesthetic of chintzy gangsterism as he moves through the world of surf stardom.
Brisa's form guide for Trestles at the CT level is very basic. She doesn't have one. There's a seeming veteran quality to Hennesy but she only rookied in 2019, two years after Trestles was cut from the tour roster in favour of the Surf Basin. Hennesy brings youth, fitness, and a certain level of big wave moxie to Finals Day, having thoroughly dominated Sunset Beach. Unfortunately for her, that quality will be redundant at Trestles. She has a power-based repertoire with big turns that will be hard to showcase at Trestles. She also has no air game and only moderate progressive aspects to the finishing turn.
Brisa goes into Finals Day with no major head to head record against Gilmore. The last (and only) head to head match-up was won by Gilmore on Dec 8, 2020 at Honolua Bay in the Rd of 16. Gilmore won by 0.57 which is within the margin of error.
Hennesy goes into Finals Day as a true underdog, with oddsmakers putting her at 31-1 to win the title, versus Gilmore at 12-1. Those odds are attractive, except she has no chance of beating Carissa Moore.
Chances against Gilmore? Depends which Steph shows up. The faller or the baller. Gilmore anywhere within her top 20 percentile range of performance will easily account for Hennesy. A falling Gilmore will conversely be easily beaten. One way or another this won't be a close heat.
Possibility of a World Title: No Chance
For a guy with arguably the biggest aerial arsenal on tour, who would be expected to make mince meat of head high Trestles with a modern acrobatic approach, we do need a working theory to explain the consistent poor results of Italo Ferriera at this venue.
This is what I've come up with. Italo needs opportunity, like the constant short-period windswells he grew up in. Waves were crappy, but abundant. Mistakes were not punished but rewarded as pathways to progression.
Italo will go bigger than anyone, but he usually needs multiple attempts to get it right. We've seen that in Portugal, on the Gold Coast, at Keramas, and Newcastle. Multiple big air attempts per heat until he nails it. Judges have become increasingly demanding, dealing him the harshest result of his career when they adjudged a backside spinner against Connor Coffin at Narrabeen a non-make. He's been slightly out of favour with the judging panel ever since, including ending up on the wrong side of tight heats with Jack Robbo at Bells and Jadson Andre in Tahiti.
If my theory of needing opportunity was correct, it would predict poor results at Slater's Wave Tub - the ultimate low-opportunity venue. Italo has bombed out every time he's surfed there, failing to make a Finals appearance in three attempts.
Oddsmakers have him as a 16-1 dog, versus Kanoa as a 26-1 outsider. Nonetheless, you'd expect Kanoa to smoke Italo with repertoire and old-fashioned house-building.
Kanoa will start with a 7. Italo could easily lay down a pair of 2's in the hunt for a big air, and get marooned by typical Trestles inconsistency.
As one of the fittest men on tour who could easily surf five times in a day and who could ride a magic run based on huge airs we can't totally discount Italo.
Possibility of a World Title: Faint Chance
The waiting period for the WSL Finals Day starts on Thursday September 8th. Check the forecast here.
Comments
Fuck you’re good mate. Best comp reports of all time? Probably. You’ve pinched a few ideas enroute but more than made up for it with turn of phrase and insight. History is progression, standing on the shoulders of giants etc. Every groundbreaking act in history has a measure of derivation.
Just one more stroke of your ego… “Depends which Steph shows up. The faller or the baller. “
The Americanism makes me wretch but it’s a great line.
Anyway…..Italo : Could easily take it. Could’ve last year, could this year. Fuck I hope he doesn’t.
And that “raised in poverty” vibe….grew up next to the beach. Surfed everyday. I’ve got mates who didn’t have much less than Italo growing up and that was the golden age of Australia. As long as you’ve got a roof over your head and regular food in your guts you dont quality for the proper sob story. Rode an esky lid till he started getting free boards pre-teen. Boohoo.
Italo could easily win and it’d shit me to tears. Stick the soccerfication of surfing in your arse. Gold chains and disco disco disco. Operatic theatrics and acting like a third world soap star…..get fucked.
Brissa : How’s the photo above! Full power and assault on a heavy water wave. Don’t be fooled by the sloping face…look at the white water explosion. She’s given it to the chunk of ocean. Sucks that the finals is held in the surfing equivalent of “ economic girly men”.
Imagine Arnie saying that these days. Political correctness would have you think he’s still a broadsword swinging barbarian. Fuck that shit. Fuck trestles. Bring on finals day at trestles! Party at my place! You’re all invited. Don’t spill your drinks on my fucking carpet. Oi cunt ! Get your feet off me lounge. Skol skol etc etc
It irks me that every time I read her name, I subconsciously go to pronounce it "Breeesa".
Fuck you Joe Turpel.
Unpopular opinion: I think airs are sick and Italo is the best at them other than Medina. It's an interesting discussion as to why he doesn't dominate Trestles because he can generate so much speed out of nothing, on par with Toledo.
I think after he won the Olympics and his world championship he hasn't been the same. The ol "It's easier to reach the top than stay on top." Maybe he's doing too many chicks and/or drugs, if so, good on him.
“ Maybe he's doing too many chicks and/or drugs, if so, good on him.”
Hahahahaha
2x.
“it's like reading a self-help book”
“ an aesthetic of chintzy gangsterism “
Ha ha! Dear me. Bang on.
Equally insightful on the sporting aspect. As usual.
well i think Brissa has a good chance and she would be a deserving world champ in my book after watching her in her rip curl vid charge cloud break...........
Italo has Gabe's left all to himself, no one else will touch it except maybe Jack, biggest ramp on tour
Oddsmakers have Steph at 525-1 to go left at trestles
Ha.
I don't think any of the girls have an air game really.
Can't recall Steph or Tati ever doing one,let alone Brissa.
Joanne did one 4 or 5 years ago in the event at Snapper.
Never seen her do one since.
Carissa did one last year at the Newcastle event.
Again haven't seen her do another since.
I may have missed them doing others,but i'm sure if they did there'd be spare fingers left on one hand after counting them.
The top 5 guys,with the probable exception of Ethan,have done more airs in one heat at various times than the girls have in their entire careers.
I'm not expecting to see any from them in heats for the world title.
As for Italo,i'm over him.
He was a breath of fresh air for a while there,but his style and claim antics have worn thin by now.
He's got his world title,which Medina pretty much handed to him when he had that brain fade for that interference call in Europe before it came down to Pipe.
And i don't see Italo as a multiple world champ.
Time might prove me wrong,but i hope it doesn't.
I took a sequence of Steph doing a nice big backhand punt at Dbah a few years ago (the year Caroline Marks beat her). It wasn't epic technique but she landed it, didn't ride out clean, but....she definitely does (did) try them in free surfs. Not sure if i'm the only person with photographic evidence of such!
Steph doing a backhand air i never would of imagined it as she's so significantly better forehand than backhand.
Carissa is probably the only chick on tour that would do them semi regularly.
In free surfs that is.
Sally Fitz too.
Some of the young chicks that'll be on tour in the years to come are gonna be the ones to bring consistent airs to the womens tour.
Josh Kerr's daughter looks like she'll be leading the Aussie charge there.
Sylvana Lima had the most reliable air game for a Women's Surfer.
No one since has made it a part of their repertoire.
From memory her make rate wasn't so high in comps.
Otherwise she would had a more successful career.
Injuries screwed her up quite often i remember though,which had her falling off tour then having to requalify again.
That seemed to be a merrygoround for her for a lot of her career.
Those injuries would of been a burden on confidence to go for airs in the events too.
She came out of the gates early in her career strongly,then it all kind of stalled after about 3 years.
Her having all that bad luck definitely helped Steph's run of 4 in a row.
Lack of serious sponsorship $$ compared to the other women didn’t help either I suspect. Silvana ripped, without the glossy, glamour, cutesy bs. I always remember her performances at Bells. (just found a 10 pointer she got at snapper….with completed air https://m.
Seeing this now, it is disappointing that the women’s air game on the tour hasn’t progressed much -if at all - since then, and that was 8 years ago.I reckon the judges are also over the excessive claiming and theatrics of Italo. Like don't tell us how to do our job. In the real close calls i think it could be going against him- subconsciously the judges coud be holding back 0.5 or ,25 of a point- meaning your theatrics won't sway my decision. But it actually does negatively.
He's probably not going bigger or higher with them since his world title year.
Or doing anything much different with them.
After a few years so many of the same airs from the same guy would get repetitious and more boring to the judges.
So the general scoring starts to dip a bit lower than it used to be,hence his closer heat scores that has seen him get beaten more often than he used to be.
Airs have possibly reached near their limit of creativity with the mens tour.
Like 100 metre sprint running,there's only so fast they can run until it can't be run faster anymore,and the record only gets broken every once in a blue moon by a bee's dick by a freak athlete.
I disagree JetsonRover. The only 2 comps this year that allowed proper punt sections were the Oi Rio Pro and Portugal. Both of those comps Italo semi finaled in. I can't be buggered going back and seeing how his airs scored but they're good results, that probably helped him reach the finals.
The rest of the waves, were all either heaving barrels, deep water thick lipped reefs or reeling down the line points/reefs. I'd be hesitant to underestimate his backhand attack on small down the line point surf too. His homebreak is exactly that. He's won on the goldy too, albeit at dbah, but was still fun little rights. Anyway, just my opinion, could be well off but good fun trying to predict it all.
I vaguely remember Lakey Peterson making them (at least a stated) point of focus a few years ago but don't recall seeing the fruit
yeah Lakey learnt how to do them, but did not bring them into her competitive repertoire.
too high risk I guess.
She did once in the wavepool event she won that year.
Again like the others though,a one off in a contest that i've never seen since.
Brissa- " healing journeys". How old is she? Doesn't sound like a life of hard knocks.
She hasn't, read it a (US) book which the yanks can never get enough of.
R - yep - gotcha.
cheers
Great insight on Italo's need for a few warm ups before he nails it.
Pretty sure Sally Fitz has landed some airs in comps - sure: she’s not punting massive - n none of the girls have them on lock …
I imagine things will be different in another 5 or so years - and they all surf better than me - boo hoo
Interesting theory on italo- suspect you’re into something there
I think Felipe is close to a sure thing over three heats at trestles - don’t think Ethan or Jack can match the number of searing moves he can cram into a single wave - his air game trumps jacks, Ethan doesn’t seem to go to the air, and italo has to beat too many good surfers in a day to make his odds of winning any good
Unlike most - I also wouldn’t put question marks to a Toledo win due to his lower skill/courage in big waves of consequence - sure: he would be even more impressive if he killed it in that realm too - but I fully admire what he can do in conditions that are more relatable to my surfing experience (and I expect the conditions and experience of the great majority of surfers here and elsewhere)
Nup, ever Slater admires him for his small wave poweress but this is supposed to crown the best of the best in all conditions and he is clearly nowhere when it comes to serious waves or even bigger left handers. Always has been a measure of surfing skill and always will be, you have to commit if you want to be the best of the best. What did Arnie say again....
"chintzy gangsterism" gold.
Thats no disrespect to Italo, unlike others on here, I love his antics.
it makes the whole thing more fun to watch.
His big backhand close-out belts on scary close-out sections are next level too, but they won't come into play at 4ft Trestles.
I agree I wonder if it is tongue in cheek and having fun with it.
I do fing it amusing watching him post heat spit the dummy and jump on his board after a close loss.
But if that's what i like best about him by now,then yeah it pretty much means i'm over him.
I just don't reckon him and Medina have those good carve lines and turns like many other world champs have.
Or perhaps it's more their style that doesn't highlight that part of their surfing like many of the other world champs.
Without that,the aura wears off quicker.
I still reckon JJF is the most naturally gifted all rounded world champ ever talentwise.
Of course as a competitor in itself he's way down the list though.
the guy acts like a tosser and then wonders why the judges treat him a like a tosser.
If you want theatrics, airtricks & lota spray watch WSL & co, including Italo, at Tresles final
I thing the odds be 50/50
Could be quite a lot of opportunity on the more bowly lefts for Italo, if he’s launching on insiders between sets.
Short paddle out. Decent reps.
Kanoa could be fishing for a big right with white knuckles.
And if the judges pay and Italo smells blood I reckon his odds aren’t bad at all for a run. He’d smash 5 heats and has a point to prove.
Deffo.
Depends if judges pay those little inside lefts.
They would have to be big and very clean airs.
You need the a'noon N wind to really launch and the first heats, at least, will be in glassy conditions (most likely)
Nice-true journalism Steve-another great article
Remember when Italo got denied that air at Narrabeen? Deemed incomplete….then someone pulled the same move the next day and was awarded full points.
Go watch it again. You can’t script this….lol
22:20ish minutes
Id say Italo got gipped because they over-rate / score Conner massively. IMO he is not as talented as most of the top 10 talk about never really seen an air.
" Jacky boy Robo "
Italo surfing Lowers when he was 14:
Wow, how’s the flow. I guess he probably wasn’t addicted to red bull back then!
The bearded baby will go down after 17 failed hail-Mary's, despite drinking an extra 10 gallons of red bull that morning. Over him and his endless chest-thumping bullshit. So are the judges thankfully.