The Hurley Pro Sunset Beach: Day 1

Opening day of Sunset finally wrapped at the halfway mark of the waiting period. The day was marked by the season's continuing confusing mix of swell angles and periods leading to a jumbled mess that you could call 4-10 foot. Not too big that it created any insurmountable fear factor in any of the competitors. We saw no refusals, no paddling for the horizon, looking the other way when sets stood up, or handing over priority before the sets came.

Good waves were at a premium, highlighted by the fact we only saw three excellent rides for the entire day. If you made it to double figures you had a reasonable chance of winning the heat. Sub-10 point heat totals won twice and were enough for advancing position most times. Two of the three wildcards - Kai Lenny and Keanu Asing - were sent home with cheques for last place finishes (USD $13,525). As were a hapless Ramzi Boukhiam and Callum Robson. Ramzi just had two absolute shockers and did not find a single wave with a clean corner to turn on. Callum was only slightly better. He found a couple of waves that should have been enough to squeak through but woke up with the wobbly boots on and could not back up a 5-point ride.

JJF ditching turns for pipes (WSL/Bielmann)

No surprises for John John, Ethan, and Jack Robinson. JJF claimed on the glass he was “itching to do a turn out there” but won by navigating some nasty little drainpipes across the Inside Sunset ledge. Ethan's full wrap cutback to snap was the nicest combo of the day and Jack looked totally comfortable on a 6'8½" Arakawa round pin that surfed effortlessly top to bottom.

Surprise came with Kelly Slater, who looked outmatched on paper by world number one and 2022 Sunset winner Barron Mamiya and Sunset ace Caio Ibelli. Halfway through the heat Kelly was leading with a pair of 3's and looking typically out of sorts with Sunset. He scraped into a flat piece of foamy water off the calvacade of swells hitting the reef and turned it into a technical tuberide, one of those classic Slater rides manufactured out of nothing. Followed it up with two beautiful hooking turns that cut hard against the grain, something very few were able to accomplish. His two 6-point rides weren't enough to get him on the glass for his first heat win since Sunset came back on Tour (Ibelli found two bombs) but it was enough to get through.

Slater "scraped into a flat piece of foamy water off the calvacade of swells hitting the reef and turned it into a technical tuberide" (WSL/Bielmann)

After describing a nightmare freesurf warm-up in a later presser - “I caught one wave in 45 minutes and it wasn't very good” - Kelly threw out the spectre of imminent retirement. “I'm questioning competing," he said, “my confidence isn't high." Like everything Kelly says when it comes to retirement, we'll believe it when we see it, not when he says it.

That habit of casual, even subconscious, deception has become so ingrained into the structure of the WSL it was almost inevitable that Filipe Toledo's stint in the booth would be marked by it. Inconsistent, illogical, and deeply confusing would be the only ways to describe it. Obviously fulfilling some obligation to chief sponsor Hurley, Toledo appeared and wore dark shades for the stint in the booth, which did not bolster the impression of trustworthiness.

Toledo taking time off yet fullfilling sponsor obligation (WSL/Bielmann)

Despite claiming he needed a rest (after a four-month break) and alluding to mental health struggles, Toledo opened the stint claiming, “I feel great, I feel super happy!” In another video released in Portuguese he was emphatic he was not “depressed or sad”.

OK.

At least Joe Turpel asked him about the calendar and about Pipe and Tahiti and how he felt about those events. Whether there was work to do.

Filipe smudged, saying, “everyone has strong points and weak points” and that he was going to “put in the work; put in the time to get better.”

But when..?

He had just told us he wanted a year “pressure free” to hang with the family and focus on his body and mental health.

Asked about trips, he said he had nothing planned and he just wanted to relax, surf, and enjoy the family. Although he did say as an afterthought that, “pretty soon I'll be flying around chasing waves”.

All those things can't be true. They are too contradictory. So I guess we'll see what happens.

The Olympics was not even mentioned, which was telling.

Can he come back after a year and pick off where he left off?

It depends on the calendar.

Champions have had time off. Notably Kelly. It took him three years to get back to form when he returned, and that was with a top-of-class Pipeline skill-set.

Medina has not looked the same since his sabbatical.

Good luck to Filipe. Whatever the reasons he has pulled out of this year's tour, and I suspect the obvious one is the most likely (enormous pressure after a very public humiliation at Pipe, compounding a reputation of other dubious showings at heavy lefts) he remains a dual World Champ and the best surfer in the world in a wide range of conditions.

Turning a bad surf around at Sunset is not easy. Few were able to manage it today. Medina's opening heat was marked by lethargy and a lack of focus. The ruthless machine-like competitor we used to know and love (or hate) is long gone. We get brilliance from Medina and we get heats of disinterest, much like a soccer game from Lionel Messi.

Medina blasting (WSL/Bielmann)

Brilliance returned in his elimination heat with Sammy Pupo and Keanu Asing. The Medina point of difference that we see at big Bells, J'Bay, and Mainbreak is a very deeply buried backhand bottom turn, as if he is on tracks - no wobble, no loss of speed up into the lip. It's the best turn in the Top 34 when he gets it going, as he did on a couple in that heat.

The “job” of a pro surfer is to make money from surfing. Which makes Ian Gentil a total mystery to me. Rookie of the year and currently World Number 3 and he remains, if we believe the blank sled, without a single sponsor. Does he not have a manager, a phone, email? Can he not find a Bonsoy, a Bailey's Ladders, or a travel sponsor like Trip a Deal as Callum Robson has? It's cool, and a bad look at the same time. Can the League not organise a sit down between Ian and Ziff where the main guy can give him a 15 minute business primer?

Gentil throws around his soulful white stick (WSL/Bielmann)

The mad messiness of last year continues seamlessly into this year.

A holiday during the best day of the waiting period. There's this thing called a calendar you normally check before locking in the dates.

We'll get some fun Sunset before this thing is through.

Essential viewing: Ethan's 8, Kelly's two turns, Jordy's deep wormhole for a 9.33.

The rest, immediately forgettable.

// STEVE SHEARER