Congrats to Gabriel Medina, the now three-time world champ who defeated an onslaught of other acrobatic-minded bouncing Brazilians and to Carissa Moore, the now five-time world champ who battled her way to an entertaining, yet well-deserved victory.
On Tuesday, it seriously went down at Lower Trestles; I mean, there were waves, babes, an obnoxious amount of electric bicycles accompanied by the people who own them and frothers bare-knuckle brawling for the title. The format for crowning the women’s and men’s world champion was a tad different than in previous years (probably more than a tad, let’s say a fair bit). The WSL pulled a switchamoondo on us, resulting in one day of action-packed, gladiator-style grudge matches. Usually, surfers will surf throughout the year and receive a certain amount of points from each event, depending on how well they do. At the end of the year, the surfer with the most points wins the title — Kelly Slater used this outdated system to claim 11 titles (strip them away! kidding). Anyway, this year, the point system was used to determine the top five ranked surfers before finals day at Lowers. Then, on finals day — really try to follow me here; put that sandwich down and pay close attention — the fifth seed would surf against the fourth seed; the winner of that match-up would surf against the third seed; the winner of that match-up would surf against second seed; however, the winner of that match-up would surf against the first seed in a two-out-of-three series for ALL of the marbles. Make sense? Seems kinda’ unfair for everyone who’s not the first seed, what do you think? Click here if you need a better understanding, I tried my best.
So how did it all go down, Barn?
It served its intended purpose, that’s for sure. There were upsets; there were close calls; there were drunken grown men who forgot to wear sunscreen; there were tears; there was action! Through all this madness, with pressure building and sharks breaching, Gabe and Carissa were still able to get the job done for Brazil and Hawaii. Let’s take a quick look at how the day unfolded. Conner Coffin (4), who apparently eats at the same burrito place as every surfer in San Clemente (more on that later), was able to get the best of Australian wonderboy Morgan Cibilic (5). Unfortunately for Conner, Filipe Toledo (3) is a Brazilian-bred bouncing bean with infinite amounts of energy — Conner’s powerful rail-to-rail surfing was just not enough. Next up was Italo Ferreira (2), who I thought would actually take home the title due to his incredibly sharp surfing throughout the year; he lost at the hands of Felipe as well. Ok, Felipe, just one more surfer to beat and the title was yours. However, that “one more surfer” was Darth Medina, Vader’s long lost brother from Brazil, and oh yea, Felipe had to beat him twice. Although a valiant effort from Mr. Toledo, Gabe received a 7.30 and 9.00 in the first heat and an 8.05 and 9.03 in the second. Take a gander for yourself:
The women duked it out for an equally intense day of completion. Johanne Defay (5) cruised past seven-time world champ Stephanie Gilmore (4). Sally Fitzgibbons (3), after realizing Johanne’s cruel and unjust treatment of Steph (kidding, she won deservingly) slid into the next knockout stage. Sorry Sally; here stood Tatiana Weston-Webb (2), a noble competitor, to say the least, rested and ready for battle. Tati stormed past Sally to meet Carissa Moore (1) in an epic, nail-biting, down-to-the-wire thriller. After three heats and 36 waves ridden between the two, as you probably know at this point, Carissa was victorious, posting an 8.00 and an 8.60 in the final heat. Grab some popcorn and watch these two go at it:
How was your experience, Barn?
Alright, quick anecdote because I went full sports-news-anchor on you guys; let me just reel it in for a couple of moments here. As Kookalita and I planned our day at the WSL finals at Trestles, we full-on kooked our timing and underestimated how many people can inexplicably take off work in Southern California. Like I always say, I am a land barn as well as a surf barn. We arrived late. As those who have been to Trestles will know, there is street parking next to the trailhead. Unfortunately, I drove around for 30 minutes before finding a parking spot roughly three miles away —luckily we brought the rusted-out beach cruisers! We then biked to the trailhead and as we started riding down the hill it became more apparent how covid-unfriendly this event was. IT WAS CROWDED. Folks were flying by on electric bikes; zoom; broom; vroom. There we were, both on barely functioning buckets of bolts scraping our way toward the event. I felt like I was at some kind of futuristic music festival; we pedaled on. When we parked our cruisers, we marched down the hill, shoulder to shoulder with Italo fanatics. As we reached the top of the cliffside, we could see that it was PUMPING. Despite being packed like sardines, at least we would see some perfect waves with graceful shortboarders dancing and carving upon their light blue walls. When we landed on the beach, I lost Kookalita in a sea of RadRunners.
Did you find her??
Maybe here??
What was your next move?
Our next move was simple: sit down and enjoy the show. We walked through the “WSL Finals” gate into the main event area. There was a food truck, some booths and no spots for us to set up (Kookalita has an umbrella that requires some extra space). There were hoots and hollers and I actually caught a glimpse — through 12 rows of people, a fence and a dog relieving himself — of Felipe fully rotating on the end section of a wave in his heat against Conner. SIIIIICK! However, this wasn’t a comfortable spot, in fact, it was close to mosh pit status. So just like I would do when the surf is crowded, we went down the beach. We caught the rest of the heats in a mellow, more spread-out area to the south of Lowers. Check out some of the action from our POV!
Italo mid-turn, just zoom in, Ok
Felipe’s end section foam climb
Carissa throwing spray!
Gabe, on a left, before taking flight
Ok, our view wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t that bad. I should probably buy a lens for my camera with more zooming power. Then I can sit anywhere I want. Although, sitting away from the main area does have its perks. We had a surprise visitor grace us with his presence. It was funny, I saw a man walk up with a board with some whacky fins. He yawned, scratched his belly, raised his arms for a tiny stretch and paddled out into the wave directly in front of us. Can you guess who it was?
Any guesses?
If you said TOM CURREN, you would be correct! He crept up like he was just going for a surf on his construction lunch break. I swear, nobody else even noticed Tom walking out in front of us. He blends in on land. When he was surfing, I heard somebody from the crowd yell, “Who is that?” It’s Tom Curren, he just walked past you.
Tom, after a nice lunch break surf
All and all, it was a great day. The comp, although we were semi-disconnected due to proximity, was entertaining, the waves were perfect, and I saw Tom Curren surf. What more could you ask for? After Carissa took home the title we left to grab burritos at my favorite (everyone’s favorite) post-Trestles burrito spot. Conner Coffin, who just a couple hours prior was very close to clawing his way past Felipe, walked in with his girlfriend and everyone was taking pictures, throwing him high-fives and encouraging him. I decided to just stay cool and let him be. My girlfriend waved at him.