Margaret River Pro: Day 2

Even though his tenure doesn't officially begin until May 13th we saw early signs of how new CEO Ryan Crosby intends to manage the sport. A clue was in one of the pressers stating, “Crosby will also help the league navigate the recent retirement of five-time world champion Carissa Moore and the potential departure of 52-year-old Kelly Slater.”

Why does a CEO need to manage retirements of previous stars?

Thanks for coming, here's a gold Rolex, please sign here giving us rights for eternity to your image in whatever manner we see fit, would be the normal way of “navigating” it.

The eleven-time champ, currently sitting in equal-last place with the guilltone about to fall, surfed like a man without pressure (WSL/Ryder)

No, we got former Chief of Sport, now Commissioner Jessi Miley-Dyer into the booth today to inform us, in a roundabout way, as to how Kelly's departure would be navigated. Referencing the back half of the tour containing a couple of Kelly's favourite waves, JMD said, presumably on behalf of the League and new CEO, “We're probably not ready to see him go. Everyone wants to see Kelly compete...We'd love to see him. He knows that. Kelly knows that we'd love to have him."

Who needs who the most? We'll probably never know. Kelly's recent interviews have all alluded to being done with competition, of being ready to bow out gracefully and embrace the new chapter. Retirement. Fatherhood. In 2022, after the epic Pipe win he claimed he had “hated lots of it."

But the GOAT will not go quietly and it appears the new CEO is not ready for that relationship to end either. Which means the normal rules of sport, where even ageing legends are eventually led out to pasture, subject to the relentless logic of competition which even Kelly claims to love, will not apply. “What is so great about sport,” he said after the Pipe win, “is heartbreak”.

The other major shift, hot on the heels of Medina's opinion that Bells featured the “worst judging he had ever seen”, and was “bad for the sport” was a huge re-jig of the judging scale.

Consciously or sub-consciously it was Medina's first wave that triggered the shift: two big, clean turns and a nifty little ending seemed good but judges went straight for the excellent end of the scale and gave it an 8.5.

What was once a voodoo location for Gabe has become a happy hunting ground, and it showed from his very first wave (WSL/Ryder)

Griffin Colapinto noted after his heat, “the scale is pretty high out there right now.” After a sizzling three-turn combination from Ewing, one judge was so exuberant he threw a 10 at it. It was an excellent ride but if judges couldn't find a single 10 in JJF's era-defining 2017 performance, Ewing's ride did not belong in that category.

Impossible to see it as anything other than a directive from the top. Maybe to soothe Brazilian passions (Medina and Italo benefited most from the generous scale), maybe to offer fans and mainstream press more excitement. Maybe to duchess the suits from the Western Australian government who had all whipped out to get sprinkled with pro surfing fairy dust as they announced a four-year extension of government support to make the Margs Pro happen until 2028.

And it was an exciting day. Slow but perfectly groomed surf through the early rounds turned glassy as sets became larger and more frequent. Heats were tight, performances were uniformly high, with a few rare exceptions.

John Florence looked out of sorts. Commentators spent the first half of the heat telling us how hungry and motivated JJF was, how red hot his form is etc etc, while JJF sat motionless and then flubbed some easy rides, to end up dead last and in the Elimination Round. He scraped through that heat by throwing a bunch of power hacks at anything that moved in rapidly deteriorating conditions. He just does not look the same guy out at Main Break as he did in 2017 and 2019. Judges no longer prepared to accept his carves as so much better than, say, Jack Robinson's mixed attack, or maybe the torqued-out approach can no longer be sustained by the new knees. John just feels like he is treading water, waiting for conditions to really inspire him.

A stylish capture, yet the camera lies: John surfed well below par in both heats, he didn't even land this move (WSL/Ryder)

Kelly surfed well on a twinny plus trailer set-up. He looked loose and fast. There's no doubt the resurfaced hip has freed him up and he is surfing better. The problem for Kelly though, is that even a 10-20% improvement still barely makes him competitive in turn waves. Boukhiam can displace more water, Jake Marshall is stronger, faster, and more progressive. Thus Kelly ended up in last place, destined for the Elimination Round, although not, as we learned, with his career on the line.

No stakes, no heartbreak, no sport. It's just an endless exhibition match; like seeing Mike Tyson at 60-years of age punch on with a man 30 years his junior. We'll all still tune in, but it's kind of sad too. It doesn't have the same meaning of seeing Kelly truly competitive, with his heart of stone as he called it, against the volcanic force of Andy Irons.

Ewing did the best surfing, by far, and you need to watch his scoring waves, if nothing else from the day. He learnt from JJF the key lesson of Main Break. Start the bottom turn early and get to the top of the wave with all possible speed harnessed. Delaying at the bottom of the wave remains the main technical mistake from surfers at Main Break, something Jake Patto reinforced in the booth for his entertaining cameo. Jake made allusions to a more “carefree” era of pro surfing when he recollected his Final with Neco Padaratz who, “seemed to have a lot more energy than anyone else." A year later Neco was busted for PEDs. Unlike the Tour de France, Titles can not be stripped retrospectively.

Ethan buries it to the wood in the best single move of the day (WSL/Ryder)

The best Men's heat of the day was the Heat 7 clash with Kanoa, Callum Robson, and Italo. The lead reversed three times, with first place Callum ending up in last place after judges went gaga over Italo's big two-turn waves. Italo almost seemed to be trolling the judging panel in response, throwing down a series of Superman and Froggy airs, none of which, thank the Lord, required a serious response from the panel due to poor execution.

Spirited performances from those below the cut line were a feature, including Seth Moniz, Caio Ibelli, Jacob Willcox, Callum Robson, Fred Morais, Eli Hanneman, and the Pupo brothers. Jacob Willcox looked sharp as hell and surfed amazing but he assured us on the glass that it wasn't surfing but “competition decisions that get you through”. Normally I would scoff at that assertion but looking at the numbers and the performances from 1-34 this season, I have to begrudgingly admit he's right.

Decisions and surfing skill-set was behind the performance of the day, delivered by Sally Fitzgibbon. Try as I might, I've never quite been able to overcome a bias against Sally, but even-handedness requires me to acknowledge the sheer tenacity, and ambition in her heat win today. Not to mention insane execution under pressure. She started poorly, with a series of mediocre rides while Johanne Defay and wildcard Bronte Macauley lodged solid scores. She just kept chipping away, reminiscent of a Medina performance in European beachbreaks. Each ride seemed to build towards a greater whole and the improvement in confidence and rhythm was palpable.

Eleven rides with no ski assist in building surf. The eighth of those rides was a set and Sal attacked the lip, laid back, and slid the board across the coping at full speed. She later said that move is, “what you live for”, and trying it in “your pressure moment is why I keep fighting”. She backed up that 8-point ride with another excellent ride for wave eleven. It was stirring stuff. Worth all the Chinese car spruiking, Harvey Norman ads, and Best Sheds bogan blitzing that Sal has subjected us to.

Let's call it a draw.

If the recovery looks awkward in this capture, then notice where the trail of Sal's board starts compared to the position she's in here (WSL/Ryder)

The heartbreak of the cut has been ruined somewhat by the soft launch of Kelly's endless event wildcards. Maybe his career will outlast another CEO.

Even so, the surfing was damn entertaining and we could see Kelly up again in the morning, with the plebs still poised under the blade.

//STEVE SHEARER

Western Australia Margaret River Pro Men’s Opening Round Results:
HEAT 1: Imaikalani deVault (HAW) 14.50 DEF. Eli Hanneman (HAW) 12.03, Barron Mamiya (HAW) 11.33
HEAT 2: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 15.00 DEF. Jack Robinson (AUS) 14.66, Deivid Silva (BRA) 12.83
HEAT 3: Ramzi Boukhiam (MAR) 13.26 DEF. Jake Marshall (USA) 11.53, Kelly Slater (USA) 9.77
HEAT 4: George Pittar (AUS) 11.57 DEF. Ian Gentil (HAW) 8.87, John John Florence (HAW) 6.83
HEAT 5: Ethan Ewing (AUS) 17.00 DEF. Kade Matson (USA) 15.00, Reef Heazlewood (AUS) 12.30
HEAT 6: Seth Moniz (HAW) 12.70 DEF. Griffin Colapinto (USA) 12.20, Otis North (AUS) 6.86
HEAT 7: Italo Ferreira (BRA) 17.00 DEF. Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) 15.07, Callum Robson (AUS) 14.57
HEAT 8: Caio Ibelli (BRA) 14.93 DEF. Ryan Callinan (AUS) 14.33, Cole Houshmand (USA) 12.73
HEAT 9: Frederico Morais (POR) 15.37 DEF. Crosby Colapinto (USA) 14.50, Yago Dora (BRA) 12.47
HEAT 10: Jacob Willcox (AUS) 16.17 DEF. Jordy Smith (RSA) 15.23, Matthew McGillivray (RSA) 15.10
HEAT 11: Samuel Pupo (BRA) 14.56 DEF. Connor O'Leary (JPN) 12.83, Rio Waida (INA) 12.56
HEAT 12: Leonardo Fioravanti (ITA) 16.57 DEF. Liam O'Brien (AUS) 16.36, Miguel Pupo (BRA) 15.37

Western Australia Margaret River Pro Men’s Elimination Round Results (Heat 1):
HEAT 1: Callum Robson (AUS) 12.84 DEF. John John Florence (HAW) 11.37, Otis North (AUS) 10.73

Western Australia Margaret River Pro Women’s Elimination Round Results:
HEAT 1: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 16.27 DEF. Johanne Defay (FRA) 13.73, Bronte Macaulay (AUS) 6.33
HEAT 2: India Robinson (AUS) 13.67 DEF. Brisa Hennessy (CRC) 13.27, Luana Silva (BRA) 11.83