There’s something special about surfing through the winter; empty beaches, quieter roads, cold fresh winds and consistent swells. The Atlantic Ocean comes alive, it’s a cold water paradise awash with surfers of all ages, check out the grass roots edit, filmed and edited by Caleb Giddens @calebgiddensmedia
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The Quiksilver/ROXY Pro G-Land, Stop No. 6 on the World Surf League (WSL) 2022 Championship Tour (CT) and the first competition following the Mid-season Cut, kicked off its opening day in super clean, three-to-five foot waves at the ‘Money Trees’ section of G-Land, the world-class left-hand stretch of reef located on the eastern tip of Java. The competition ran the women’s and men’s Opening Rounds on a fairly level playing field as it was the first time the current CT surfers had ever competed in this location, except for the 11-time World Champion and 1995 event winner Kelly Slater (USA).
World No. 1 Brisa Hennessy (above) and World No. 2 Carissa Moore Continue to Lead the CT
The second heat of the day saw three of the event favourites in Johanne Defay (FRA), ROXY wildcard Bronte Macaulay (AUS) and current rankings leader Brisa Hennessy (CRI) matchup for in mid-tide conditions with turns playing the biggest part in earning competitors scores. With a slight wobble in the waves, all three competitors focussed on turns and the performances didn’t disappoint, with less than a point separating the trio. Hennessy was able to clinch the win and progress into the Quarterfinals while Macaulay and Defay will battle it out in the Elimination Round.
“I think all the ladies are in the same boat here having a new experience,” Hennessy said. “Getting used to things here at G-Land, how far out it is, being in the middle of the jungle, it’s cool, just being able to disconnect and focus on yourself. I’m feeling really at home here. Growing up in Costa Rica, and spending time in Hawaii and Fiji, I feel like this place is a combination of all of those places. I’m just embracing all of the beauty here along with time with all of my fellow competitors. All the girls on tour are really rad and we are all really connected on land, then when we’re in the water it’s game time.
As the tide dropped, swell filled in and trade winds started to puff, G-Land began to show its potential with open tubes and long stretched out walls, much to the delight of five-time WSL Champion Carissa Moore (HAW, above), who found the first tube ride of the event. Moore tucked into a long tube before sneaking out for an 8.33 (out of a possible 10) to back up her 8.83, netting her an excellent two-wave total of 17.16, the highest of the opening day of competition.
“That was super fun out there,” Moore said. “I actually haven’t had any barrels here in the practice sessions but I have been watching a lot of videos and seeing what it can offer so I was really excited to see that one stand up so I could just set my line and hope for the best. It’s so fun to be surfing a left like this again. I feel like It might take me a while to get used to it but I’m feeling good and am excited to get back out there.”
Rio Waida Upsets World No. 1 Filipe Toledo
Current World No. 1 Filipe Toledo (BRA, below) had his opportunity to get one back on Indonesia’s Rio Waida (IDN, above) after he eliminated him early at the Corona Open Mexico at the end of the 2021 season when they matched up today in Heat 4 of the men’s Opening Round. Waida, who is fresh off a win at the recent GWM Sydney Surf Pro Challenger Series event, comes into his home event in serious form, which he continued today, taking down Toledo once again as well as fancied goofy-footer Nat Young (USA).
Stephanie Gilmore and Tatiana Weston-Webb Claim Critical Opening Round Wins
After finishing the 2021 season at the inaugural Rip Curl WSL Finals in fifth and second place respectively, no one expected to see Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) and Tatiana Weston-Webb (BRA) only just scraping in above the Mid-season Cut at the Margaret River Pro. Today at G-land, the pair got their season back on track, each booking themselves a spot in the Quarterfinals with impressive heat wins in the Opening Round.
In the heat immediately after Moore’s tube ride, Weston-Webb (BRA) also found some shade from the Javanese sunlight, pulling into a long tube before coming out and gouging two massive frontside hooks to post an excellent 8.67, the third-highest single wave of the opening day.
The first-ever women’s heat at G-Land witnessed seven-time WSL Champion Gilmore taking a narrow win over Isabella Nichols (AUS) and Californian veteran Courtney Conlogue (USA) in an all-natural footer matchup. Not known for her prowess in lefts, Gilmore was happy to get the nod in her opening heat at the ROXY Pro as conditions slowly improved on opening day.
“I couldn’t really hear much out there and thought I was in third,” Gilmore (above) said. “I thought I’d just enjoy being out there not knowing what was going on and just come in and get the result old-school style then when I was paddling in I heard the score and was really happy. That was a really big win for me as my backhand isn’t my strong point and I really want to get a solid result here. It’s so cool to be here. I’m so glad ROXY and Quiksilver and WSL have been able to put this on. The conditions aren’t the best at the moment but I think it will keep getting better all day. I don’t think anyone cares too much at the moment if it’s two-foot or ten, we’re all just so happy to be here.”
Two-time WSL Champion John John Florence A9bove) Unfazed by Knee Injury
Having recovered from multiple injuries to both of his knees in recent years, the surfing world held its collective breath when John John Florence (HAW) arrived at his Opening Round heat in a massive knee brace. The two-time World Champion had tweaked his MCL while free-surfing yesterday and put the brace on as a precaution and it didn’t show as he smashed huge backhand turns and critical floaters to comfortably win his heat and progress into the Round of 16.
“Unfortunately yesterday morning I kind of tweaked my left knee, maybe my MCL,” Florence said. “It’s been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster for me. I was thinking about pulling out of the event then did some work with the medical staff then had a surf this morning and felt okay so decided to keep at it. I was so nervous before that heat because I still didn’t really know what it was going to feel like but it ended up feeling fine and having no pain so I’m really stoked to get the heat win and now I’m just really excited for the rest of the event. It’s amazing to be here in G-Land competing, the waves are perfect, light offshores, no one around, it’s special to be surfing out there basically on my own.”
For highlights from today’s Quiksilver/ROXY Pro G-Land, please visit WorldSurfLeague.com.
ROXY Pro G-Land Opening Round Results:
HEAT 1: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 10.40 DEF. Courtney Conlogue (USA) 9.90, Isabella Nichols (AUS) 8.30
HEAT 2: Brisa Hennessy (CRI) 13.83 DEF. Bronte Macaulay (AUS) 13.27, Johanne Defay (FRA) 13.20
HEAT 3: Carissa Moore (HAW) 17.16 DEF. Gabriela Bryan (HAW) 15.04, Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 9.30
HEAT 4: Tatiana Weston-Webb (BRA) 15.17 DEF. Tyler Wright (AUS) 12.67, Lakey Peterson (USA) 9.16
ROXY Pro G-Land Elimination Round 2 Matchups:
HEAT 1: Tyler Wright (AUS) vs. Bronte Macaulay (AUS)
HEAT 2: Courtney Conlogue (USA) vs. Johanne Defay (FRA)
HEAT 3: Isabella Nichols (AUS) vs. Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS)
HEAT 4: Lakey Peterson (USA) vs. Gabriela Bryan (HAW)
Quiksilver Pro G-Land Opening Round Results:
HEAT 1: Ethan Ewing (AUS) 13.37 DEF. Jadson Andre (BRA) 12.67, Jordy Smith (ZAF) 12.33
HEAT 2: Jack Robinson (AUS) 11.54 DEF. Kelly Slater (USA) 8.34, Jackson Baker (AUS) 7.17
HEAT 3: John John Florence (HAW) 13.94 DEF. Yago Dora (BRA) 11.67, Kolohe Andino (USA) 7.00
HEAT 4: Rio Waida (IDN) 11.83 DEF. Nat Young (USA) 11.66, Filipe Toledo (BRA) 10.80
HEAT 5: Italo Ferreira (BRA) 15.16 DEF. Jake Marshall (USA) 9.67, Caio Ibelli (BRA) 6.53
HEAT 6: Griffin Colapinto (USA) 14.00 DEF. Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) 9.64, Matthew McGillivray (ZAF) 8.46
HEAT 7: Miguel Pupo (BRA) 12.77 DEF. Barron Mamiya (HAW) 11.37, Connor O’Leary (AUS) 10.07
HEAT 8: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 11.70 DEF. Samuel Pupo (BRA) 8.20, Callum Robson (AUS) 6.14
Quiksilver Pro G-Land Elimination Round 2 Matchups:
HEAT 1: Filipe Toledo (BRA) vs. Yago Dora (BRA)
HEAT 2: Caio Ibelli (BRA) vs. Matthew McGillivray (ZAF)
HEAT 3: Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) vs. Jackson Baker (AUS)
HEAT 4: Jordy Smith (ZAF) vs. Connor O’Leary (AUS)
HEAT 5: Barron Mamiya (HAW) vs. Jadson Andre (BRA)
HEAT 6: Kelly Slater (USA) vs. Samuel Pupo (BRA)
HEAT 7: Callum Robson (AUS) vs. Jake Marshall (USA)
HEAT 8: Kolohe Andino (USA) vs. Nat Young (USA)
A full day of action took place today at the 2022 Surf City El Salvador ISA World Junior Surfing Championship. Round 1 of Boys U-18 wrapped up at La Bocana before Girls U-18 kicked off to run through their Round 1, while Round 1 of Boys U-16 was completed at El Sunzal.
Wave selection proved to be the crucial factor at El Sunzal today. Jackson Dorian had no problems cracking the code in the first heat of the day for Boys U-16. The Hawaiian dropped two 9’s for an excellent heat total of 18.20 in his first international junior competition.
Excellent scores [RJF1] were delivered as Hans Odriozola (ESP) found an 8.67 and Lucas Senkbeil an 8.00 (MEX). Hughie Vaughan (AUS) also came close with a 7.83, but the rest of the Boys U-16 field were unable to find themselves anywhere near Dorian’s dominance.
Competitors at La Bocana had plenty of options with perfect, glassy 4-6 foot peaks rolling in. Shion Crawford (HAW) made quick work of it, sealing the highest single wave score (8.33) out of the four Boys U-18 heats held to complete Round 1. Nicolas Paulet (FRA) received the highest heat total (15.57).
The rest of the day at La Bocana belonged to the Girls U-18 division. Early standouts included Kana Nakashio (JPN) and Kiany Hyakutake (BRA), with Puamakamae Desoto [RJF2] (HAW) claiming a 9.00 late in the day. It was Janire Gonzalez (ESP) however, who collected both the highest wave score and heat total. Her searing forehand snaps lit up the left for two 9-point rides and the current top heat total of the event (18.40).
Heimiti and Kohai Fierro are enjoying competing in their first ISA event. Following in the footsteps of their older sister Vahine, the 2016 Silver Medalist, the sisters are proud members of Team Tahiti.
“It’s super exciting,” 15-year-old Kohai shared. “You meet new people, especially because I’m doing the two categories, U-16 and U-18. I’m super-stoked to be here and I hope I’m going to do my best and have a good result.”
The sole representative for the Philippines, Noah Arkfeld, is enjoying his first taste of international competition.
“It’s really fun to travel here. It’s really exciting. Especially because it’s my first time traveling internationally. I’m very happy to be representing the Philippines for the juniors for the first time. I’m super stoked.”
Recently surviving Typhoon Odette, which destroyed much of his home island of Siargao, was a scary experience for the 17-year-old who grew up walking distance from the fabled Cloud 9 surf break.
“It was pretty hard. We had no electricity for a couple weeks. The food was hard to find, and water. Our house was also partly destroyed.”
ISA President Fernando Aguerre said:
“It was amazing to see so many huge performances on day two of competition in the incredible waves of El Salvador.”
“With girls making up 45% of the championship we are seeing their surfing pushed to massive new heights. It is so exciting that we are closer than ever to our goal of full gender equality.”
“It’s also great to see so many new names surfing incredibly well, especially those from newer surfing nations.”
As Mr Slim Shady once enquired – ‘guess who’s back, back again?’. In this case, it was the muthaflippin’ BLU and they were back at Rest Bay in beautiful Porthcawl after a 6 year absence!
With a typical monotonous regularity that has dogged surf contests since the dawn of time, the forecast did not look great. Surfable, sure. Great? Nope. Competitors were greeted with steely grey skies and latte coloured cross-onshore chest high waves. It takes more than an unflattering forecast to stop this bunch of wild-eyed wax wranglers, so in went the first round of the Men’s Open. The tide was already on the high side and by all known wisdom should have quickly become unsurfably high, but the ocean gods were with us and we managed to surf on through. Early front runners came in the familiar shape of Evan Rogers, Sam Bleakley and Elliot Dudley, all of whom posted double digit heat scores in the first couple of rounds and secured their places in the semi-finals along with Jack Unsworth who pulled a full undercover ninja mission, silently passing from heat to heat in the shadows pretty much undetected.
The next willing victims to hit the water were the other large entry pool, the Single Finners. Many familiar faces from the Men’s Open and very cool to see Emily Currie and Beth Leighfield reminding everyone that Single Fin is an OPEN division. Emily won her first two heats, dispatching some heavy hitters on the way to the semis. Sadly, Beth had a slightly less fruitful time and managed to seriously blow her knee out within 10 minutes of starting her first heat. Best wishes to her for a speedy recovery. Another stand-out came in the form of Connor Griffiths, yes the one who glasses at Thomas Surfboards up in Noosa. Back for a few weeks to see the folks, it was great to see both Connor and dad Chris ‘Guts’ Griffiths powering their way into various finals.
The first day of competition ended with the U16 Cadets semis and finals. Although the level of surfing in the dropping mid-tide treacle-fest that is Rest Bay (the tidal range for those uneducated in such matters can be up to 11m, which does take a smidge of energy out of the swell as it drops) was fantastic, once again we had a noticeably low turnout in the U16, U18 Boys, U18 Girls and – most disappointingly – Women’s Open. The boys could be excused as Lukas Skinner and Arthur Randell are on international shortboard duties at the moment, and all the juniors did make each and every heat and final a genuine contest. Ted Pearson continued his excellent run of form with a win in the Cadets and second in the U18s, while local boyo Blake Jones secured first in the U18s and the honour of being the only surfer to crash into the fabled rocks at Rest (his home break).
Day 2 saw out the remaining semis in smaller but cleaner swell, starting with the Grandmasters and great performances from Chris Griffiths and Alan Reed which saw both of them into the final. It was Chris and his magnificent beard and dancing feet who took the title. The Single Fin semis saw the end of Emily Currie’s great run and the advancement of Elliot, Sam and Connor into the final along with BLU first-timer Ed Bresnan. Despite a busy home life and missing several sessions of leg day, Elliot put on a good enough impression of a wetsuited nose-riding hood ornament to take both the Single Fin and Men’s Open titles. Impressive stuff.
With the withdrawal of Beth Leighfield on the grounds of having no knee, the Women’s Open was a straight 3 way fight. Emily Currie on the right, taking on the surf as well as the ever-encroaching weekend crowd and Izzy Henshall and her cousin Lola Bleakley trading waves on the smaller but more consistent and definitely less crowded lefts. It was tight, but Izzy took it with some very graceful cross-stepping and nosework.
The U18 Girls saw Lola taking the title with some confident (and continuously and rapidly improving) cross-stepping, but the highlight for me was the two local girls Anna-Rose Merchant and Seren Davies who pretty much entered ‘for a laugh’, made a good contest of it and – rumour has it – are now super keen to carry on competing. Awesome.
That left the Masters. A couple of years ago this was a well-contested division but a tad light on superstars. On this occasion, we had two former multi-National, British and European champions, a BPSA Night Surf Winner and a Jesus Surf Classic Master’s Champion. No pressure to perform, then! It all looked to be going the way of another Guts Griffiths win, which led to a slightly early retirement to the beach. In classic Hollywood style, IOW boy and serial entrepreneur Chris Thomson in his first season of the Masters took off on the archetypal Hail Mary final wave and hang-fived his way to last second glory by 0.03 points! You could not make this stuff up.
In summary, the surf was fine, the weather good, the surfing great, the bants epic and the chili con carne? It came with half rice, half chips.
Massive thanks as always to our friends and sponsors for their unwavering belief that 9ft+ bits of foam, wood and fibreglass make a weird kind of sense.
Porthcawl Surf School
Welsh Coast Surf Club
Pura Vida Boardriders
Edwards Roofing Newport Ltd
Ocean & Earth
Welsh Surf Federation
Rest Bay Café
All the heroic support staff, you know who you are!
Men’s Open
1st Elliot Dudley
2nd Jack Unsworth
3rd Connor Griffiths
4th Evan Rogers
Women’s Open
1st Izzy Henshall
2nd Emily Currie
3rd Lola Bleakley
4th Beth Leighfield
Single Fin
1st Elliot Dudley
2nd Sam Bleakley
3rd Connor Griffiths
4th Ed Bresnan
Masters
1st Chris Thomson
2nd Chris Griffiths
3rd Sam Bleakley
4th Steve Horn
Grandmasters
1st Chris Griffiths
2nd Alan Reed
3rd Colin Bright
4th Richard Gowers
U18 Boys
1st Blake Jones
2nd Ted Pearson
3rd Joel Mew
4th Syd Randell
U18 Girls
1st Lola Bleakley
2nd Anna-Rose Merchant
3rd Seren Davies
U16 Cadets
1st Ted Pearson
2nd Lola Bleakley
3rd Syd Randell
4th Anna-Rose Merchant
If reports are to be true, Dick Brewer, legendary shaper, surfer, Innovator has sadly passed away. Considered as one of the most influential board makers of all time, and possessing a magic eye when it came to shaping in its most purest form. Dick has been regarded by many as the gurus guru, born in 1936 in Minnesota he started surfing in the early 50s when his family moved to California, eventually making his way to Hawaii in 1960, planer in hand, and the rest is is surfing history.
Our thoughts are with Dicks family and friends.
Dick Brewer 1936-2022
Photos: David Darling
