Rio Pro 2023: Day One
Rio Pro 2023: Day One
Look, day one at Saquarema has wrapped and it was OK. Just OK. Typical wobbly, wonky, backwashy Saquarema, described by Kelly Slater in Episode Five of 'Lost Tapes' as “a lot of potential but not generally living up to that potential”. Or, more candidly when comparing it with the hollow Barrinha at the other end of the beach, “the other wave [Saquarema] sucks”, if we hold it there “I'm boycotting”.
Different days.
Lost Tapes was filmed in 2019, with Pat O'Connell calling the shots (at Kelly's behest) and it was the last year they went down the beach to Barrinha, where they scored some of the tour's best waves.
Pat is now gone, Barrinha has been memory-holed by the WSL and we are back to the wave which Kelly said is, "a struggle to even want to go out there”. It's a tricky assignment: footage is so recent that Barrinha keeps popping up, the drone shots can't avoid it and the famous Church on the hill sits right over the wave. But still, over eight hours they managed to avoid a single mention of it. An incredible feat which I doubt even Orwell's dystopian Ministry of Truth could accomplish.
Let’s be honest, this post-cut stanza of the tour has been a slog - for fans and pro surfers alike. Kelly has been clear in his malaise. No showing Brazil is shockingly disrespectful after being awarded a seasonal wildcard but par for the course for the GOAT. As of fifteen minutes before start time he was still in the draw. Googling it to see if Kelly had made any last minute calls, there were pages and pages of links detailing Kelly's Brazilian no shows. Somewhere, sometime, a PhD will be written about Kelly's last minute disappearances from the Brazilian draw.
It's not just Kelly. After a heat win featuring a lofted alley-oop and a tidy air reverse which were very generously judged, JJF said he had been “struggling mentally the last couple of events”. We're locked in a death spiral now between athlete indifference, fan disaffection, and a CEO whose smoke and mirrors campaign is increasingly looking like Wile E. Coyote furiously air pedaling off the cliff.
Two surfers eliminated today. Wildcard Sylvana Lima taken down in a tight heat by Carissa Moore, with Riss once again the beneficiary of very generous judging, and current World Champ Gilmore taken out by Bettylou Sakura-Johnson by 0.37 of a point. Total coin toss result that could have gone either way.
Bettylou (WSL/Smorigo)
Judges wanted airs. Fair enough. Women didn't supply them and as a result not a single excellent ride was awarded.
Men were more prodigious with the aerial game and as a result five waves were judged excellent, topping out with John's flat 9-point alley oop.
As befits QS-level surf, there were a lot of coin toss heats for the men. Judging was extremely generous. Two average turns and a closeout was enough for a 6 or so.
JJF (WSL/Smorigo)
A fired up Medina was on the wrong side of a coin toss loss to Yago Dora. Last waves for both surfers were the determinant. Medina's 11th wave an 8.17 to Dora's 8.83 for a heat loss by 0.36 of a point. To be fair, Dora's huge, corked tail high backside air was the best manoeuvre of the day but Medina did the better surfing as a whole.
Yago (WSL/Smorigo)
Kelly claimed in Lost Tapes that he "gets overwhelmed in Brazil”. After two consecutive years of death threats, it appears the same holds true for current front-runner Griffin Colapinto. After flaming out for 17th place last year, Griff looked very shaky for his heat with LOB and Jaddy Andre. The best he could manage was a mediocre 5, backed up with a 1. He looked rattled, like he would rather be anywhere but Itauna surfing junky beachbreak in front of a raucous crowd. His normally reliable air game couldn't find the landing gear. Mentions of the controversy at the Surf Ranch were zero and there was no sign of booing for the sensitive Californian.
Griff (WSL/Smorigo)
Jack Robinson looked fine in the free surfs but still not fully back during heats. His lacklustre 10-point heat total puts him up against Seth Moniz in an elimination heat and it's a heat he should win. Seth is now one of those surfers, like Jordy, who just does not look motivated with mediocre surf and a quickly diminishing chance of making the Final Five.
More of the same for the forecast. In fact, like El Salvador, this opening day might be the best surf we see all window. Which means great odds this event will be incredibly unmemorable and Toledo will continue his march to a back to back title win at Trestles.
// STEVE SHEARER
Comments
Posted this elsewhere, but how does JMD feel, speaking absolute bullshit to the cameras, about the quality of conditions.
I also loved that little bit where a Brazllian influencer (had to google her name) popped up to say that they're expecting 40,000 people on the shore each day.
the whole shitshow now is cringe start to finish
This will be the 3rd comp in a row I won’t watch just because I have zero interest in watching them surf shit house waves.
I tried last night and one very average wave was ridden in 11 minutes during the women’s heats.
Can the WSL fuck this tour up any more than they already have? Probably not.
On Swellnet last three videos listed, I watched in this order
Best Skelton bay - unreal
African Kirra - looked fun
WSL article only not even going to watch video - day one of a comp even the competitors would rather avoid. Not the dream tour anymore
I don't know Brazil very well. What options do they have for better waves, that are reasonably close to a major town/hub? (Say, within fifty kilometres).
I think this is the best option. Certainly better than those metro Rio beaches. They kicking out with swell, but also ? Choosing to ignore the best wave down the beach
I preferred the Rio comps with those punchy & even tubey city beach breaks. Gabriel's home beach Maresias often looks the goods.
Honestly, can't blame KS for not going to Brazil, if it's true he's received death threats. Threats over there probably shouldn't be taken lightly.
Wasn't one of the pro's kidnapped, i think Michel Bourez, a few years ago, bundled into a van, and only escaped by flinging open the door and jumping out at a set of traffic lights?
You'd imagine a similar threat hangs over the head of the biggest name in surfing. Could fetch a small fortune in ransom money. Probably safer to have Brazil as a throwaway result in his final lap.
Watched a minute of the comp and wondered when was the last time i saw a pro get an overhead barrel this year.
There's probably been less than a handful and the only one i can think of is Robson in portugal.
Dreamtour.
Is it me , or does anyone else think Mr Salazar dribbles complete shit ? I think he believes he’s WSL’s Nostradamus !! Quoting mr Salazar “ griffin cannot win the title at trestles unless he finishes number 1 before finals as he will get too tired “. Who is this guy ? Would rather hear Raoni Monteiro taalk about squeezing at one more final turn on PED’s !!
Oh mate totally agree. ‘Showing so much variation and progression’ @ Johanne Defay’s doing a a couple of wobbly identical backhand reos. Absolute dribbler
WSL provides the administration / rules and their own media, and I think the current administration has tightened their grip on the message - sorry probably being captain obvious..
sad
Maybe there should be a 1.5pt handicap for death threats received before the event?
Elo in the booth mens heat 5. What a sack of shit.
He wasn't pressed on anything, which wasn't surprising given the nature of the WSL machine.
Surprised he didn't have to have Joeys head surgically removed from his arse afterwards.
The Woke Surf League
Tried to fix what ain’t broke and that’s why a legion of people are switching off …
BTW a death threat in South America should be treated as a badge of honor…
Their issues have nothing to do with being "woke". Woke doesn't make the waves shit.
At the end of the day, I think their alignment to "woke" values has fuck all to do with the shit quality of the tour. If we had the best surfers competing in the best waves, no one would give a shit.
They have completely shot themselves in the foot and it is only when the chips are down you start to see the warts and all. AFl is far more open to criticism and acts on it in contrast to ELO and the WSL. They just bunker down and put the ear plugs in and won't listen to reason. It is broken as an elite surf institution and is going downhill like rocket surfing sub par locations.
AFL Open to criticism ???
How about a game thats 90 minutes of Knock ons and every attempt at goal gets a point ?
Oooh come on Gowsa thats just the bad games if you followed Geelong that never happens. Just go back to last year.....we are Geelong the greatest team of all!
Warddy. Grow up. “Woke” is a lame trope for far right knobs.
+1 ………totally irrelevant comment
Lol. The only time I ever hear the term 'woke' being used is by some crusty old bloke dribbling rubbish on sky news
Yes. It's seems to be something that upsets skynews grandads but I no idea what it means.
You change a format to satisfy as many non surfers to a lame presentation and pretend things are happening in the water which ain’t ..,,
Far right knob …
Yeh good one douche ..,
+1. I wouldn't call it woke just really dumb.
I work with teenage girls who can see through the woke thing and are over it.
Heaps of things are woke these days and its a very descriptive word to describe many crazy fkd up things these days.
But I dont know if you can really claim the WSL is going woke, i think they are more just putting on comps in places where they have an audience/fans like Brazil or just comps where governments give them $$$ like El Savador or a wWave pool that i believe they are invested in, all of which is coming at the expense of good waves.
Saquarema = suck - a - Rama
Watched the post show just now. I really don’t know what to say. Kaipo was like Hymie the robot, Salazar just waiting to chug another free corona and Stryder on Prozac. Topped with ten minutes of Tatiana’s tour of Portugal smelling flowers and my grom and I are stunned. That was the worst shit I’ve ever seen. The last three minutes of highlights was the highlight. Mostly very average surfing in very very average waves. Props to Yago, that air was actually insane but surf on mate, stop pulling up for the idiot claim. And Ethan. His 7.70 was four points higher than anything else they showed today. Why do we bother?
We bother because we love surfing. We try out of hope to witness non-contrived narratives that arise out of good waves and surfing a like. We got hooked on this because that is what it was like. We are pining for those days again.
It’s getting hard though isn’t it? I’m nearly done.
You get the best surfers on the planet and then fly them around the world to surf waves they wouldn't cross the road for. It's like having the X games at Mt Donna Buang. Surfing would be the only sport in the world where the athletes at the top tier aren't interested in competing. What happened to the dream tour?
Yago has lots of style. Tall, leggy, bends & extends those knees beautifully; similar to the ancient Jim Banks,
hear hear
This phase of the post-cut tour sucks donkeys balls.
Reckon that’s the easiest 9 John’s ever got?
Nah call it how it was, that wasn't OK it was shithouse. This is the highest level of competitive surfing and they surf that. Just don't surf, if that means comp doesn't get done then so farking be it. It's just embarrassing now.
There is consistent backwash, every event, even some nefarious side wobble funk (from the rock outcrop?). I mean this alone stops the waves from ever getting better than 3/10. Most surfers could lay a single solid turn out there and honestly wouldn’t surf it for fun. Wtf are they doing there?
Bottom line, east coast South America (and east coast Australia, east coast USA) should be no where near a CT level event.
Get a grip on reality ELO/JMD.
What? No CT level waves on the whole east coast of Australia? I’m guessing you don’t travel much Swany
I live here - it pumps - but it wouldn’t be in the fantasy dream tour in my head!!
CT level wave doesn’t just mean quality - it means consistency. I’d bet most venues on the east coast wouldn’t be genuinely world class for 3 days in any given contest window - with many obvious exceptions over years. Snapper is the grey area, but looking back at the waves they’ve had over the years, it feels like a challenger location (to me).
Snapper was much better when they’d go over to DBah on the small days and surf snapper when it was good. The event ran very smoothly.
Trying to get a big event done purely at snapper on a shit forecast now we’re forced to see them at 2 foot inconsistent dribble praying for a wave to get the contest completed in front of the infrastructure.
I think “ the best surfers in the best waves “ is just an ideal, cloudbreak has shit days. One of the best performances Ive seen is Gabby in Newcastle days out from the COVID CT. Shit onshore 3-4 slop
Still can’t believe what he did, and i only paddled out to watch him. Any other day I would have gone home dry
Sick. Lots of footage of those sessions on YouTube. The crew must have been pumped to surf with Gabby & Italo on those days.
Agree there. What happened to developing the mobile events? All the Aussie majors benefit from it. What chance does Brazil have if Snapper, Bells and Margies are marginal CT spots? Consolidating a mobile model could salvage some locations.
Surely decent viewing figures at world class spots would trump the merch stand revenue? I have no idea obvs. Just kinda bummed to be giving up on watching pro surfing after 30 years.
Seems we’re all on the same page. Who can forget mobile contests that spread between Caba to North Straddie or Phillip Island to Johanna? Maybe our thirst for better quality webcasts and the Wozzle wanting to “activate” their merch tents has shot the golden goose?
Mentawi's anyone?
The Ments seem ideal but in my opinion too perfect. At that level I reckon it’d be hard to split surfers ala surf ranch. I remember this at perfect pumping Keramas.
Still a good option and I’d say my strange ‘too perfect’ notion would be down the bottom of the list of barriers going there.
Make it a ments mobile - unfortunately only telescopes has decent internet. That is the major problem - coverage would cost a bomb. No problem about exposing breaks the place is at chockas capacity already.
Mobile starlink is up and running. No need for mobile data coverage.
Slater to himself..."hmm....surf poxy close outs in a 3rd world shit hole...or surf uncrowded perfection anywhere in the world I want"....not a hard decision.
i am a # 1 slater tragic but i don’t think he’s done the right thing here - yep it’s not appetising but he didn’t make the cut, got a wildcard, then shits in the nest
….kudos all the surfers that are trying their guts out in sub-par conditions
They've shrunk the event windows, to save $$$ I imagine and reduced their mobility to sell some jerseys.
How's that working out ?? "It's faarked" says everyone.
I enjoyed these guys excel at surfin any waves.
The freesurfs are definitely better than the comps
The WSL circus may have become too big & fat to adapt.
Hopefully Tahiti provides good waves
nextgen are here
Yawn....
They need to inject some excitement on the tour, … seems this year they been hell bent on avoiding it. The box pumped for 3 days straight during Margie’s comp and not even 1 heat there. Now in Brazil the wozzel has forgotten about the tubes just up the beach while they surf a wonky Brazilian version of Bondi. And all we’ve got is finals day at a fat burger that rarely gets over head high to look forward too. I’m normally a positive person and a frother but even I’m struggling to maintain interest.
wish they had double points for switchfoot, sharing waves, tail first take offs, 360 barrel rolls &
Loose points for safety turns, missed easy tubes, etc....
I think the only reason JJF is still competing is to qualify for the Olympics in Tahiti next year. Once they’re over if there’s no major changes to the tour and the schedule, he’s done.
Pro surfing at its best is JJF in hollow 6-12ft reef passes. Nothing else comes close. If ELO can’t deliver that, that will be his legacy. The man who lost JJF.
I find it hard to believe that with the mobile broadcast technology available in 2023 combined with almost guaranteed surf in some locations around the world, the WSL is still hell-bent on ruining the highest expression of our sport by holding events at shit waves like Suckarema.
I’m totally disconnected from Pro surfing these days & would bet many thousands of erstwhile viewers are too.
Fuck the WSL.
I agree with all the malaise here about the WSL and the hope that they are increasingly irrelevant
bUT
Their Instagram has 3.9M followers and the JJF post re his 9.0 attracted 24k likes
Those numbers seems pretty legit?
If you trust the data implicitly - and I don't - 24K 'likes' from 3.9m followers is an audience engagement of 0.6%.
What does that mean?
Nothing.
You have to take into consideration the reach of the post. Not just their number of followers vs likes.
But what does 'reach' mean, from a biz perspective?
Of course, I know how it's pitched. But what's the actual (not perceived) value of the IG post, relative to the thousands of other posts that each viewer has been exposed to?
My point being: social media statistics are not an indicative sign of the health of any business, because the underlying mechanics are so massively engineered.
Value is what you make it. When i hear of a business eg: sunglasses that i'm interested in, i will generally check their social media before i check their website. If i like what i see, then i will make my way to their store.
Majority of product posts will not reach your followers, however these posts give a great insight to the business and are extremely important. So every post should be well thought out before pressing the share button. You can't measure the value of the individual post but you can measure (to a certain degree) your sales generated from social media.
Instagram and other platforms are designed for entertainment and to keep you on the app while scrolling. For you to reach your entire audience it needs huge engagement and shares. This is as rare as hens teeth, but if you crack it, you will also also find the value.
I Just had a look at swellnets insta and it doesn't look like too much time is invested to attract new customers, which is a huge opportunity missed IMO
Where's the controversy? where are your reels? Get people sharing your content and you will have huge opportunity to obtain more subscriptions.... for free.
One last thing, a lot of businesses are over social media and the lack of reach to your followers, it fucking sucks. But while they are stepping back, its a great opportunity to invest time and push your brand.
That's your perspective from a consumer's POV, not a business owner. And, the example you cite is relative to a retail purchase, not a service-based-business (which Swellnet is). Apples vs oranges.
My point relates back to Roystein's initial post, that he thought the WSL may still be relevant because one Instagram post with 24K 'Likes' (against an audience is almost 4 million) "seemed legit".
I dispute the claim, that's all.
It's not to say there's not a place for Social Media - there obviously is - but seeing that I can buy Instagram likes for $0.50, I wouldn't place too much value on the performance of one IG post (nor the size of any IG audience).
As a consumer and a business owner I would totally disagree that you couldn’t build your business through Instagram.
Yeah I gave an example of a retail purchase however that could very easily been converted to your subscription based service.
Totally agree that you can’t gauge the success of a business from likes on a post.
Only a fool would buy likes or followers especially with the success of re-targeting campaigns.
Genuine followers and genuine likes on a post are hugely important in more ways than one.
So true, insta, fb & Googles value is relatively small; compared with general relativity....
"Einstein spent the decade between the two publications determining that particularly massive objects warp the fabric of space-time, a distortion that manifests as gravity, according to NASA"
https://www.space.com/17661-theory-general-relativity.html
However, we live in an non research, review by peers & books, insta internet age...
"Researchers warn that generative AI models, including ChatGPT, DALL-E, and Midjourney, could distort human beliefs by spreading false, biased information." 23/6/23
https://scitechdaily.com/misinformation-express-how-generative-ai-models...
"So Long And Thanks For All The Fish"... said the dolphins & Douglas Adams
I'm with Burleigh in that 3.9M is significant. Of course you can't be sure how much value they squeeze out of it, but it looks like the potential could be there.
Reckon if WSL has 3.9M followers 90% would be legitimate kooks!
so by my estimate wed thurs ?
Looks to be slim pickings, will have an update tomorrow.
The best thing WSL could do is change the good comps that are left to more audience based shit locations and put the final nails in the coffin. It’s like a relationship that used to be good and we’re sticking around hoping it will improve. Tex Perkins said it best… the honeymoon is over baby. We need to find another billionaire.
Have Jack and JJF riding the same board for the last few events? Both boards look like they're allergic to throwing spray. It's weird.
Praia de Itacoatiara.
&ab_channel=APBTourHow the wozzlecircus hasn't ever been here is quite hard to fathom.
It's only 40 mins from Rio. Go figure. Home to that Shock slab too.
Boogs in junky shit lol why would they move
Slabbing peaks up and down the beach. Clearly you didn’t watch the YouTube clip or you’re just shit trolling. Meh.
Wow proper pumping. Wonder how often it does that? Johnny Flo would be all over it
On the regular, in season seems like, last 10 years of comps there been pretty good.
Should be called the wet dream tour, so much potential till you wake up and realise the truth