Fiji Pro 2024: Day Two

We ground down to a single spot remaining in the Final 5 for both the men's and women's sides of the draw after a delectable day at Cloudy was shut down early by an ill-mannered wind change.

Simmers, Marks, Henessy, and Picklum have clinched spots with the last spot up for grabs between Tatiana Weston-Webb and Johanne Defay. Tati is still alive and needs to win her Semi to knock out Defay who went down in her Quarter to a scrappy performance from Molly Picklum.

On the men's side it's a little more fluid but JJF, Griff, and Jack Robbo have clinched, with spots 4 and 5 still alive and Dora alive in sixth place. Either Ethan and Italo could get bounced and the order could be changed further up with Ethan, Jack and Dora all still alive. Clear as mud..?

Great!

Gabe Medina is gone. Failing to qualify for the Final 5 for the third consecutive year after missing out by one place last year. Last year he was pipped on the buzzer in the Final in Tahiti by Jack Robbo, this year he was well beaten by Griff Colapinto in deteriorating surf as winds shifted onshore northwest through the heat. No excuses though for Gabe.

Gabs (WSL/Hughes)

Griff won the opening exchange, always crucial to beat Gabe, and then indulged Gabe in a long paddle up the reef, confident in his backside turns later saying of the strategy in the presser, “Let's go up there, let's go up the reef, it's better for turns.”

Oh yeah, whilst up the reef he jagged the best wave of the heat off Gabe, who had priority, and used those backhand turns to net an 8.

When Gabe loses, a few key things happen, primarily he loses focus on tubes and turns and starts going to the air, usually very well signalled in advance. He wastes entire waves winding up for airs and if he fails the make, he's wasted valuable scoring opportunities. It seems to be a panic move. Gabe failed on 7 of 8 attempts. The succesfull full rotation on a meagre wave was generously rewarded for a 6.83, which put him back in the heat but a final 5.50 from Griff and a descending clock put paid to another disappointing Medina year. A year where he has spent meaningful chunks of time at most comps looking the like the best guy there only to end up without a single event win.

Griff (WSL/Hughes)

No qualms on the judging on that heat, although Griff's 8 came in a little hot. Other heats saw confusing scoring where it seemed judges weren't sure what to pay, tubes or turns. The confusion started with Tatiana Weston-Webb being rewarded for a non-made tube to the tune of 6.17. Sure she came out of one section but pulled into the next consecutive section and got gobbled. That has been a non-make since Jesus played fullback for Jerusalem. But there was no consistency. Ramzi made a great tube, straightened out the doggy door for a mid-5. Some turns well well paid, others were not.

We received confirmation on who, if any of the much hyped female teenage wildcards was ready for the big time. Sierra Kerr still seems underdone but Erin Brooks enters this Cloudbreak competition as a fully-fledged CT surfer, complete with the full bag of tricks, plenty of savvy, and a functioning relationship with the big man upstairs which she was able to call upon (“God, please help me to catch a wave,” she recounted later) in the dying moments of her win over Gabby Bryan.

Erin (WSL/Hughes)

The ability to call upon the Lord or Jesus or whatever part of the Holy Trinity was most useful played a key role today with Tatiana Weston-Webb saying Jesus kept here safe as she committed to end turns on the Shish-Kebab section to get past Brisa Hennesy in their low scoring Quarter-Final.

If God played a major role on the women's side of the draw, for the men it was more Darwinian Evolution with big bodies and big turns deciding heats. The evolution of the sport favours the strong. It's beefcake all the way down on the mens side. Little guys like Italo Ferreira have to spend every waking hour pumping iron to keep up in the power race.

Italo is out. He tried the Gabe approach: throwing airs at the end section and losing the battle of basic turns against Barron Mamiya, who walked a middle path. Barron later claimed that he had lost many heats because he wasn't catching waves and that sponsor Britt Merrick had told him, “Dude, you have to catch waves and surf to win heats”.

So, he did. He surfed himself into rhythm and his best result since winning Pipe with a 10-point ride in January - practically a lifetime ago.

Barron (WSL/Hughes)

It was a good heat but I feel compelled to change my dark horse pick from Barron to Rio Waida after today's showing. Waida is a little guy, yes, who trains the house down and has found a winning formula at Cloudbreak. To wit, pretending he is at Uluwatu throwing vertical hits at every pitching section. Judges liked the critical late hits over Crosby's rounder turns and Rio is through to a Quarter Final with Imai Devault after Devault cruised past a completely hapless performance from John Florence.

I'm not suggesting anything untoward - he just had a complete shocker IMO - but if you were of a suspicious mind it sure did look like John wasn't trying to win. A 7-point heat total with nine waves ridden. If he was a racehorse, stewards would be called in for a swab. It certainly does not augur well for Trestles in less than month.

JJF (WSL/Hughes)

Both world number ones bundled out today. JJF by Devault and Caity Simmers by fellow teen Erin Brooks. No big bodies throwing big turns here. Athletic frames on the women's side are still being trumped by superior skill sets, none moreso than Simmers. Brooks will be next. It was about positioning and judgement. Brooks went deep and found a five-turner for an 8.00, then backed it up with a four-turner for a 7.33. It was a comprehensive win. The best female surfer in the world is a teenager, whichever way you slice it.

It was fun to watch the Fijian ads, in perfect sync with the environmental message of the Woz - “so thankful to Mother Nature etc etc” - and let the mind wander forwards to Abu Dhabi and imagine the manufactured narrative from the skyscraper surrounded tub. How will the Woz spin the destination, built on burning fossil fuels, with indentured labour, basically modern slavery, where homosexuality is illegal and theoretically punishable by death? A collection of Emirates which operates, according to Scottish critic A.A. Gill, as a “cautionary tale” and where “the plan was money, the architect was money, the designer was money, and the builder was money,” before going on to describe it as a state “mugged by its own greed”.

Will all the Woz's precious progressive shibboleths be sacrificed to petro-state dollars or can they find a way to thread the needle? I can't wait to find out how they reclassify war as peace, and slavery as freedom.

Happy times for surf writers aside, we're still left with the business of finishing off this surf comp, which still stands somewhat forlornly at half-mast, so to speak. The options are all unsavoury. Go tomorrow on a dying swell and a rising tide or wait for a small bump on Monday or Tuesday. Remember the architect of the cut Erik Logan when he was enthusiastically spruiking - and what a spruiker he was! - the benefits of the cut? Logan said: “With less surfers, we’ll be able to run an event on one swell cycle.”

Have we ever got a post-cut comp done in a single swell cycle?

If we ever needed it done in a single swell cycle it was now.

Erin and Rio on the podium and Ethan holds his spot in the Top 5.

Seeya on Finals Day.

// STEVE SHEARER