I don’t want to be the doomsayer, especially after predicting that the Covid outbreak at Pipeline last month would dash the hopes of a 2021 WSL world tour, but it’s looking seriously dodgy again, following the WSL cancellation of the Sunset Pro in Hawaii this month and the Santa Cruz Pro in California in March.
World Surf League CEO Erik Logan announced: “The decision to postpone the Santa Cruz Pro, the last planned event of the US leg of the Championship Tour, is based primarily on the surge of Covid-19 cases in California. The postponement is also heavily influenced by the length of time our athletes have been away from home, and by the complexities of global travel during this pandemic, which would have caused significant logistical challenges for athletes and staff to travel home and return to California for the event. We look forward to safely continuing the 2021 CT season with the Australia leg starting at the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach in April.
Use of the word “postpone” in relation to Santa Cruz, like G-Land and Peniche, Portugal before it, is code for “it will happen at a later date if several miracles happen”. Which they won’t. So that’s four of the 11-event tour already out, but worse is still to come.
Given the time frame for widespread vaccination to take effect following its introduction in Australia at the end of February, and the harsh realities of the new state-based short and sharp lockdowns, Logan is off with the pixies if he really think the Australian leg is going to happen in April. On Surfline last week, Nick Carroll wrote a comprehensive explanation of the difficulties the tour might face, largely for the benefit of the website’s American audience, who were probably too busy watching democracy disintegrate in Washington DC to pay much attention.
It was a good piece, as they usually are from Nick, but it was outdated within hours of it being posted, with the flash Brisbane lockdown providing further evidence of how volatile the Covid travel restrictions are and will remain for most of this year. The WSL tour is supposed to kick off at Bells over Easter, then head to Margaret River before heading back to Queensland for the Gold Coast Pro end of April.
Assuming that 50 or so surfers and another 50 officials could get sporting event exemption to get into Australia – and if the Indian cricketers and the Australian Open tennis players can get in, we must think that the door is at least slightly ajar – this then means negotiating with Dan Andrews, Mark McGowan and Annastacia Palaszczuk, the three toughest Covid premiers. As Nick pointed out, you could do your $3000 forced two-week holiday in a Melbourne hotel, head down to Bells for the comp and find yourself in a lockdown, stuck there for a month. And nobody closes a state border faster than Mark McGowan.
Above and beyond all of this, when it comes to presenting a convincing Covid-safe event plan, as Cricket Australia and the ATP had to do, all the WSL can point to is its disastrous cluster within the event group at Pipeline, and the hasty cancellation of the January permits by the Hawaiian authorities. It’s not a good look.
I can’t see the Oz leg happening, but there is a wildcard in the mix, and its name is Andrew Stark, the WSL manager for Australasia. Starky is a terrier, and if anyone can somehow make this happen, it’s him.
Mel’s wave of passion at Mavericks
Speaking of the WSL, as we were, did anyone not see commentator Peter Mel’s monstrous barrel at Maverick’s last Friday? The frothers were calling it the wave of the decade, which might be a bit extreme, but then again, the 51-year-old’s drop down a bottomless face into an ugly and menacing pit and finally emerging with his palms splayed, as if to say, what the hell just happened, well it was pretty extreme.
“Everyone on earth should see this ride,” Pete’s good mate Kelly Slater posted. I’ve watched it about a dozen times, both for the intensity of the ride and for the long after-ride during which Mel, who is one of nature’s gentlemen, seems truly humbled by the experience, just floating in the channel, not knowing what to do next. I know what I would have done – jumped on the next jet ski in, ticked that box and never gone out there again. But nah, Pete eventually paddled back out for another dig, as he would.
Pete’s son, Jon, who was with him at Mavericks and watched the ride from the channel, posted: “Words can’t describe what I watched today … 51 years old and just set the standard of what everyone will now be chasing to get the best wave out there. Congratulations … I love you dad!”
Beautiful. It’s only a wave, but it’s everything.
Ado grows up
Noosa’s best Neil Young impersonator and evergreen surfer, muso and coffee king, Adrian Spelt turned 70 last week. Did he celebrate with a few ends at the bowls club and a nice cup of tea? Of course he didn’t. He surfed all morning on the points and then rocked out all arvo with his fellow SandFlys at the Harbour Wine Bar, where a few bevvies were had.
Good on you, Ado. Forever young.
