Rip Curl Pro Portugal: Finals Day Reflections

What was controversial about the semi?

curious, how come the deivid silva mention re rincon (which i suspect you mean bells rincon, not cali rincon)? is deivid famously good through that section? or did you just mean it as "even someone who is kind of meh like deivid would smoke kelly on turns through rincon"? if the former, v interesting, i didn't know. if the latter then i tend to agree, although i do like how silky kelly's surfing is, even if he's not coming close to the power and criticalness (for lack of a better word) of most others on tour. i think kelly's surfing makes for better watching as surfing, rather than good competitive surfing.

At least the water is weirdly warm in vicco at the moment (19.9) so surely Kelly can't use that as an excuse.

Medina hits sections dead on. Squares up against them whether it’s vertical into the lip or lateral into an oncoming closeout.

It’s hard to reckon Colapinto’s smooth lip shuffling with the brutality of Medina’s approach.

Surfing is subjective……but Gabs smoked him.

I think the takeaway from all this is that after Hawaii, Portugal was a bit of a soggy kitten at best.

Batfink will be delighted though- his femme fatale était victorieux.

Medina was the inform surfer all event, and i fell he got smoked by the judges in that semi. He belted every section with speed and accuracy.

Made Griff look slow.

And the day after on Sunday it was 6ft clean light offshore barrels all day and it will be pumping with offshores the whole week. Bummer...

Yeah Steve the whole European pro surfer, or lack of, has always puzzled me too. It's not like they don't have good surf at home, it's not that they don't travel, it's not that they don't have talent and it's not like they don't have numbers in the water to push the standard up. All things that seem to spawn world tour surfers. They also don't have (as many) economic barriers in the same way say Indo surfers do.

It's a head scratcher. The only thing I can think of is they're too savvy to fall for the whole WSL shemozzle. But then again there was never a big presence of Europeans on tour even pre-WSL. Maybe they just need a world champ. And please Martin Potter doesn't count (as European).

Gotta be the most uninterested I’ve been in a wsl comp for a while. Hopefully Bells is pumping.

Didn't watch a second of this event. Not even on the news (if it was even on there).
Reading the comments in the Live thread was enough and of course FR's writeups.
Watched all of the Hawaii events and of course the clips coming through recently from the Goldie.

Re euro pros,
Feel that insta tik tok life has distorted one attention to detail.
The younger generations aren't really focusing on one activity
The choices they have are far too varied.
The reality is surfing is old and has no new blood in brands, just legacy brands with corpo backing, cfo's ,

Gabe's quarter heat was top notch. The semi was hard to judge. Its too boring to watch too many times although Griffin looks like a one-dimensional soft cock.

I'd be OK with Griff as a world champ.
Already got a (real) triple crown in the bag.
Seems to go pretty bloody well in just about any conditions. Charges.

Kelly 'Did you see my limp' Slaters list of excuses for not showing up at particular events grows longer every season, like his nose.
Four Pinocchio's.

I reckon I've got "Medina Check Turn" envy . I don't love his surfing but I will say when he takes off , most people sit up , more power and unpredictable than Pinto .

at the business end of the comp most heats needed more waves to dispense with the luck factor and let the surfers determine their own fates. the broad lineup reduced priority as a major factor. must be mind maddening for some of the losers knowing there was only three decent waves in a heat and your opponent jagged two of them. having said that it was exciting watching Griff exit that one-off tube even though it was the final nail in EE's coffin... "he was in there talking to someone and they just let him out.."

PS - Gabe's lateral ramp seeking style cost him.. amazing surfing but based on some of the other heats the judges were clearly putting a premium on verticality, otherwise he needed to land a functional and massive air. hope he goes to Bells with the same energy... may not be the same volume of autograph hunters though to prime him up.

Griffin is a good surfer, no doubt, but if I could surf like any of the current pros, it wouldn't be him.

I usually love gabs surfing but I agree it was a little lateral in that heat.
Not that it was bad surfing but it definitely wasn’t an outrageous decision. I had Griff as winning.
The judges were lucky neither of them did anything outrageously good as there wasn’t much room to move from the first score of the heat (7.17).

What a shit event though.

I don’t quite understand the Griff hate. At one time his style was compared to Parko (to which I very much agree).

Like Parko isn’t necessarily the best at one locale but very consistent. Remember Joel’s world title? Didn’t win a single comp all year until Pipe.

Griff is an excellent backhand barrel rider, charges, can get 10 for a single air and has a silky rail game……

…….is it cause he isn’t known for giving the finger to the camera and doing shoeys that some doubt him?

Just on gabes surfing. His wider boards seem to favour down the line speed for airs/floaters/tailslides over full rail carves back into the pocket.
I also think those wider boards have a negative effect on his style. Less rail to rail transition, more pumpy, squatty.
But those wider boards have that extra stability so he can generate down the line speed in an instant from them planing efficiently with minimal bobble to slow em down.
Bit of a trade-off i guess.
That's just my read on it.

As to the women final 4 when the quarters were held last week AJ interviewed lackey with the comment something like the old veterans had showed up the young guard like Molly and Caitlin etc .
Or was that perky coincidental that the waves were of no consequence other than 2 ft closeouts
The “veterans” doing soft turns as long as the wall would allow
Let’s see how they go at chopes and Fiji!
Need big sold bells and margs as well otherwise Tyler w8ns aga8n like last yr of 2022 n tiny winky

Great write-up, FR. Not classic all-time FRing but good enough, as much as the finals day was. Strange not to see Fioravanti in your Euro-list. Doesn't change the general, and accurate, view of Euro-failing at all, but the Italian is the only European performing at A-grade on tour, something that neither Morais nor Defay seems to be able to accomplish, regardless of the results or ratings by the latter. As for Toledo's stained world titles, let me turn the question around: will this season's title also be stained by the absence of the unanimously viewed as the best performer at Trestles?

The tour just isn't that appealing for the best surfers anymore.
Like Pipe is probably the drawcard but you can get into the shootout or the pipe masters as a freesurfer anyway.
Adding Fiji back probably helps,
But they get skunked at all their venues with remarkable regularity these days.

Battle it out on the QS, get into the challenger series and battle it out there, finally make the tour and (haven't done the stats exactly) but probably more than 50% chance of not making the cut as a rookie and doing the challenger again.

And even out of the tour surfers the remuneration is only good for the guys at the top and marketable ones.

Fuck that.

"As for Toledo's stained world titles, let me turn the question around: will this season's title also be stained by the absence of the unanimously viewed as the best performer at Trestles?"

Ha ha...love the contrarian logic.

The sooner they scrap that system the better. No-one wins.

Steve
Can you confirm for the mid year cut after margs does each surfer only count best4 of 5 results?
And then for back half of the yr how many contests count?all with no throwaway?

Where are the European's? Surfing, just not in comps.
There isn't the competitive framework of Australia and US in Europe. A clubbie equivalent doesn't exist, local surf comps happen but there isn't a well trodden path from grass roots, national comps, pro-am onward. Some young guns do have a crack at 'Eurosurf' but there aren't the numbers to drive up performance levels and bother the CS. The pool of European surfers keen enough to throw their hat in the ring is just quite small. Surfing recreationally and travel is generally the European way.

My 2 cents on why euro surfing doesnt churn out talent, after spending time there married to one

- the weather....its fucked 3/4 of the year for an adult with a $900 wetty. For a grom its diabolical.
- geography....atlantic coastal europe is provincial. I can only think of 1 big city with surf, lisbon....basically no mass urban surf pop mean less chance the next kelly ever surfs there.
- cultural.....people dont grow up at the beach like oz, cali, hawaii and brazil. Most go to the beach in august and thats it.
- it just doesnt matter.....besides a few regions where its everything, no one else in europe actually gives a fuck about surfing. Its soccer 1st, 2nd & 3rd and then maybe snow sports. Surfing just doesnt count and it shows.

Kelly’s already in oz isn’t he?

Saw footage of a cutty he did in qld .
Insane .
Bring back snapper.

I think Gabe did his best surfing in a long time in the 1/4 final against Leo . He was on fire, plus he surfed a lot more vertical in that heat than the semi, which is why he didn’t beat Griffin in the semi.
His first wave in the semi was impressive but the first turn was a little too lateral trying to make it to the close out section which he then belted giving him the majority of the score.
His last wave, again a lateral first turn followed by a good floater then the spin, which looked weak and a bit silly imho, ended by a small finish.
No way was it an 8.33 that he needed.
Griff got buffed a bit on his second wave but his vertical attack is what the judges were paying throughout the comp so he surfed to the criteria set for Supertubo.
If there wasn’t tubes on offer, they scored vertical surfing in critical sections over lateral surfing.
In my opinion I think a fair result and really, I didn’t see any heats where I thought the judges got it wrong.

Joanne Defay was quoted in a the SMH “Women pro surfers are now like Rockstars” the dribble never ends. Women’s pro surfing has always had a shallow pool of talent but they demanded equal pay and got it by surfing less heats than then men to earn it… No wonder Defay thinks they are Rockstars . It’s like we are a collective of relatives cheering them and over compensating for supposed past injustices. It’s no surprise Defay sits at number 2 without an excellent wave surfed all year.

'A bigger question for the event: Where are the Europeans?'

No doubt multi-factorial but I suspect 2 (general) contributors are:
a) that younger people tend not to be leaving the house much - on the e-device (also not drinking or having sex I"m told by demographers); Anecdotally, in my sphere the average age of surfers tends to be rapidly increasing so that surfing is on track to become like rollerblading in terms of how it is perceived on the cool spectrum by young people (call em under 25).
b) The notion of being a guardian, coach, etc who pushes someone so hard (or they push themselves as a reaction to some trauma) that they become a competitive beast like Slater, AI, or formerly Medina is pretty frowned upon these days (probably for good reason). You can see it in the demographics - relatively poorer areas (like Brasil) are still producing competitive beasts - they have it hard and it lights a fire while the comfortable, overweight youth of Europe, USA, and Oz lack drive

I can't believe the Seppo push by the WSL- mostly the 2 percenters who other than Griff and The Cros are the only 1,s to make in impact- not even sure if their both part of that team anymore? In Hawaii it was almost embarrassing- interviews with The Cros, Mayhem board annalis with Biolis and Houshmound and candid interviews with Kade Matson- f@#$%^g torturous. Correct me if I'm wrong but the WSL is an American entity and they want these guys to be the next Generation? Further more Steve,s description of Simmers was spot on, freckle face potty mouth etc etc ,I think the only thing he missed is that she sounds like a stoner?

Qld is lucky they got rid of the shitshow that is todays WSL. More surf for surfers and more places to park to go surfing.

Flicked on occasionally few a minute or two so if the conditions were worth watching....Nope!. How long is it going to take for the WSL to pull its head out of its fucking ass and put the best surfers in the best possible waves. Kelly got it right..streaming through Kirra barrels is a better way to spend your time instead of wasting it in typical Sth American onshore shitty close out beach breaks. Over scored "Favela spins" and 2 turn waves don't have much holding power for the viewers, ditch the Sth American leg, get comp's back to where the waves are.. or better yet make the Sth American leg predominantly on the challenger series...if that doesn't inspire the CS competitors to strive to get to the CT to avoid the place, I don't know what will.!! .....Bring Back the ASP!