The long hibernation of international pro surfing finally came to an end (of sorts) in the wee hours of last Monday morning (Noosa time), and your columnist, formerly an incurable World Surf League tragic, slept right through it.
It’s amazing to reflect on the fact that the last WSL event I took any notice of – and virtually the last WSL event that was held this year – was the Noosa Longboard Pro which, conducted in pretty ordinary Noosa West side-shore beachies, certainly had a snooze factor after local chance Harry Roach was somewhat unfairly eliminated. But what can have happened in less than six months that would allow me to sleep through an event featuring the world’s best where the waves were guaranteed to be perfect?
I’ll tell you what. While the pandemic hasn’t cured much else, except the surplus, it may have cured me of a decade-long addiction to live broadcasts of championship events. They went away in February, and in truth I haven’t missed them. Haven’t even thought about them, haven’t wondered how Felipe or Julian or Steph or Sally are handling their iso, or how Gabby is coping with his anger management, haven’t given any of it or them a thought.
And quite frankly, this prelude to a pro season that is most unlikely to happen left me pretty cold from the get-go. Okay, it was being held in the Lemoore Surf Ranch in Central California where your columnist last year tried and failed to sneak under the fence and play with the rich boys, and is therefore just a little prejudiced against the joint. And it had a very silly name – Rumble at the Ranch – which conjured up Ali imagery it could never hope to match.
The Rumble was the first event of the WSL Countdown to the beginning of the 2021 world tour at Pipeline in December, which, on current Covid projections, is not going to be allowed to happen. Timed to coincide with surfing’s debut at the Olympic Games, which is now postponed to next year, it featured US and Brazilian tour surfers who live in California, some of whom would have been representing their country in Japan.
So it wasn’t exactly the second 11 (in fact there were 16) but there were some glaring omissions, like world champs Italo Ferreira and Gabriel Medina, stuck in Brazil, and the entire Australian tour contingent, and the boy/girl team format, while commendable, seemed to render the exchanges predictable. But yes, I did force myself to watch the highlights, and there were a few.
In case you missed the results on social media (maybe trying to avoid the Covid hysteria at the Civic), Brazil’s Felipe Toledo and Hawaii’s Coco Ho took the win from Japanese-American Kanoa Igarashi and Brazilian-American Tatiana Weston-Webb. Ho, fresh from farewelling her Uncle Derek, the 1993 world champ, was gutsy and great to watch, but took too many risks. Toledo was on song with barrel/air combos one after the other, while Igarashi looked disinterested at first, then angry. It was a hot, dry day in the dust bowl after all.
But for me the real highlight was Kelly Slater, casual, relaxed and confident as he cruised and completely unruffled when he fell. He didn’t progress too far, but it’s always great to watch the designer of the wave playing in his own sand box.
So the pros are back, to some extent. I just hope that I can get excited enough to follow the Australian regionals coming up soon, depending on lockdowns.
Half a million surfers and counting
There are now more than half a million active surfers in Australia, according to the latest AusPlay survey, commissioned by Sport Australia. Anyone who surfed the Noosa points during the recent school holidays will verify this, since at least four million of them were here!
This is a gross exaggeration, of course, but the numbers were intense, many of them giving our sport a bash for the first time. AusPlay’s third annual survey reveals a three percent increase in the number of Australians engaged in active sports on a regular basis, but some of the surveying predates the pandemic, and my guess is that a survey conducted over the past four months would reveal a much more significant increase in all individual sports, particularly surfing.
Interestingly, surfing is near the bottom of the top 20, coming in at seventeenth, behind pilates, recreational dancing and cricket. The most popular sport in Australia is recreational walking (like walking to the end of your drive to pick up Noosa Today) with almost nine million of us admitting to the odd amble.
Next up are fitness/gym (pre-Covid) and swimming. So, while surfing might be labouring down the list, if you take a brisk walk out to Granite, do a few stretches on the beach and surf without a leggie, you’ve ticked more boxes than any other activity.
Does that make you feel better?
