Last weekend turned out to be absolutely perfect for being flat on your back with the Covid you have when you’re not having Covid. Over two bouts in a month I’ve tested negative four times while suffering the exact same symptoms ascribed to Omicron. Go figure.
But like I say, has there ever been a better moment to be consigned to the couch? OK, I could have done without the shakes and cold shivers while Ash Barty climbed out of the hole for a brilliant and historic victory in Melbourne, but I didn’t even notice the hot sweats and headache early next morning when the Banzai Pipeline turned it on for the opening day of the 2022 World Surf League Championship Tour.
If there’s ever been a better opener than this – picture-perfect blue skies and swaying palms as the offshore trades groom thundering, chattering, spitting, double to triple overhead pipe barrels – then I can’t remember it, and I’ve been watching in person or on the box since the tour began 46 years ago.
Over the course of a long morning, stretching into a red-streaked Hawaiian evening, I saw the veterans of the Momentum Generation, Kelly Slater, Shane Dorian and Ross Williams, frothing like groms as set after magnificent set hurled itself onto the reef.
My dear friend Mark Cunningham, the bon vivant, conceptual artist, champion bodysurfer and former lifeguard chief at Pipe, was moved almost to tears by the majesty of the occasion when captured by the cameras making last minute adjustments to his commemorative fin installation. And Pipe pioneer Gerry Lopez, who Zoomed in from home in Oregon, was rendered speechless by it – at least we hope that was what got his tongue – and could communicate only with shakas.
And the waves rolled on. It wasn’t absolutely perfect, of course. Pipe never is, which is why it holds such fascination for the very best surfers. It requires calmness, awareness, concentration and above all commitment, which not all elite surfers have, which is why so often we saw surfers scratching and scrambling, wildly out of position while beautiful sets rolled through.
Day one is barely 24 hours old as I write, and with two rounds of the women’s held in fast-dropping conditions today, it may be mid to late week before we see more action on the next predicted swell. But already I’ve read and heard several accounts that Sunday represented the changing of the guard in pro surfing, with unknown rookies proving themselves in this hairy-chested heaven while the middle-aged veterans could no longer cut the mustard.
I wish I had a hundred bucks for every changing of the guard headline I’ve written, starting in reference to an energetic micro-grom named Tom Carroll in 1977 when he won the Pepsi Pro Junior. TC would become a great champion, but not before Rabbit Bartholomew and Mark Richards had their day in the sun. Guards don’t change in a day.
And so it proved at Pipe on day one. In a day of stellar performances, the honours were shared between rookies (or recent rookies) and veterans. Kelly Slater, 50 next week and the oldest surfer to ever compete at this level, was woefully underscored on his second Backdoor barrel but still managed to progress under Aussie Jack Robinson, less than half his age, who pulled out all the stops to take the heat on two nines to Kelly’s two eights.
Then there was South Africa’s 17-year tour vet Jordy Smith, 34 next week, who surfed like a spent force in the first round and came back in the elimination round with the highest score of the day (9.73) on a critical, highly technical and wonderfully arrogant Pipe barrel.
But not everyone was a winner. Spare a thought for last-minute injury replacement for Liam O’Brien, Jordy Lawler who went down fighting with a beautiful and under-scored barrel, and for last year’s super hero Morgan Cibilic, who couldn’t find a rhythm and had a best score of a high three. Number five in the world in 2021, he starts the year with an equal last. Ouch.
Our Ben is on his way
Moving to the local canvas, there mightn’t have been as many household names competing in the $73,000 Usher Cup at Snapper Rocks last weekend, but this lively event featured a quite incredible number of past and present tour stars competing for their clubs and for the generous cash prizes on offer.
How about these names for starters: Narrabeen’s former WSL star Nathan Hog Hedge, current tour warriors Sheldon Simkus, Cooper Chapman, Macy Callaghan and Keely Andrews, plus rising star Jagger Bartholomew.
But if Noosa Boardriders’ wildcard entrant Ben Lorentson was a little in awe when he got to the comp, by the time he left on Sunday afternoon he was yewing and high-fiving with the best surfers in the country because he’d just joined them.
It all started in the quarter finals when he fought back from last to first in the dying seconds with a series of backhand lip bashes that had the large crowd swooning and recalling Matt Wilkinson at his fiery best. Next he beat Jagger Bartholomew to win his semi-final and take his position in the star-studded final.
Ben was on his game again with some great rides, but Sheldon Simkus, Nathan Hedge and Jagger B had the edge and the Noosa boy had to settle for fourth place, a trophy and $2000. Ben, who turned 17 last month, informed his mum, Councillor Amelia Lorentson, that the money would go towards his first ute.
Good on ya, Ben.
