As the year winds down we’re starting to see a little bit of motion in the ocean, courtesy of a coastal low, so maybe I’ll have something local to report for next week’s final Life Of Brine of 2024, but for now I’ve been amusing myself by trolling through the highlights of the WSL world championship tour.
And there were some doozies, particularly over the first half, leading into the mid-year cut. Let’s start with the cracker Hawaiian season.
The Lexus Pipe Pro kicked off in brilliant conditions which were only overshadowed by a couple of quite bizarre moments. Home boy Barron Mamiya ended up getting the drop on his neighbour John Florence, while California’s Caity Simmers stopped our Molly Picklum from taking two from two at Pipe, but let’s focus on those first day moments.
As I wrote at the time: In heat two of round one Australia’s Callum Robson took off without priority on an absolute gem of a wave and was dropped in on by first priority holder and three-times world champion Gabriel Medina. OK, by the rule book, Medina had every right to employ the blocking move, but at double overhead Pipe, where straightening over the reef can have extremely gnarly consequences! Well, you reap what you sow. Undamaged, Callum paddled back out and into the best wave of the heat, possibly of the day, and took out the heat win with a magnificent 9.0.
And then there was the Flip fiasco. Two-times and current world champion Filipe Toledo of Brazil paddled out for his heat against Sammy Pupo and Shion Crawford. For most people a tough heat, but we’re talking about the fastest surfer in the world, surfing in his 100th world championship tour event, as was John John Florence. A seasoned campaigner, a brilliant strategist and a gifted surfer, except for one thing. The elephant in the room.
Flip paddled out and sat wide of the left in the channel, and there he sat for half the heat while Sammy scored a seven plus and Shion went excellent. It was a beautiful glassy day at Pipe, and while many competitors were feeling the fear factor, they were making it over the ledge and loving it. All except for one. Finally Felipe made a move towards the break, but pulled up short of the takeoff zone and shoulder-hopped a couple of smaller waves for a combined total of 1.77.
Next up, the Hurley Pro Sunset Beach where our Jack Robinson and Molly Picklum took out the daily double for Australia, prompting this commentator to rashly predict that Molly would be the 2024 world champ, having secured the yellow jersey with a second and a first over the Hawaiian season. I wrote: Pickles’ perfect 10 at Pipe was a moment for the ages, even though she couldn’t back it up in the final, but at Sunset she surfed with power, style and confidence throughout, and then air-dropped out of a bomb in the final, and that was all she wrote for Hawaii’s great hope, Betty Lou Sakura Johnson. It was a near-flawless exhibition by the 21-year-old from the NSW Central Coast, but three years her junior, Betty Lou is going to be right there with her and Caity Simmers in finals to come, particularly in Hawaii.
Jack Robinson also found outstanding form at Sunset after faltering at Pipe, putting him at number two in the rankings and sniffing down John John’s neck as the tour headed to Portugal. Speaking of which, Peniche’s erratic Supertubos produced the goods for just long enough to justify its presence on the championship tour, while teaching this reporter that you should never go to bed when they call a break for the tide.
Watching finals day of the MEO Rip Curl Pro long after midnight, after watching the men’s quarters and women’s semis, I saw it going to Gabriel Medina and Tyler Wright, both of them on song, so when the WSL called a lengthy low tide break, I went to bed, only to wake up next morning and discover I was zero from two. Tyler had no answer to Johanne Defay’s exceptional backhand attack in messy but rippable waves. And, having seen off Medina by the slimmest of margins in his semi, San Clemente’s Griff Colapinto smashed an out-of-sorts Ethan Ewing.
Let’s skip Bells and get to Margaret River where careers are on the line at the mid-year cut.
After using up all but the last day of the 11-day waiting period with little to show for it, finals day at pumping Margaret River Main Break proved to be one of the highlights of the 2024 world tour, perhaps trumped only by the historic girls day out at massive Pipeline. But with virtually every heat an emotional crisis for at least one of the competitors, the 18 heats overlapped into one perfect double-overhead day made for compelling viewing. Nine out of 10 days at Margaret River, the afternoon onshore wind would blow a dog off a chain, but on finals Sunday it puffed just enough to add some delightful texture to the wave face and offer Jack Robinson the opportunity to boost a casual alley-oop above the lip and underline with clarity that this was his day.
With two WSL world titles and two Margaret River titles under his belt, five years seniority and a wide acknowledgement that he designed the modern approach to riding this break, it would be easy to call John-John Florence the master to Jack’s apprentice in this final, but Robinson grew up surfing Margarets, won the event in 2022 and had never been beaten by Florence in a head-to-head.
The clash of the titans was always going to be irresistible, but watching them get there, vanquishing incredibly talented opponents behind curtains of spray, deep barrels and more and more excellent scores – Florence topped 50 for the event – was just as exciting.
