It’s standard procedure for multiple surfers to paddle for the same wave at crowded Uluwatu – as was the case on the first wave in this edit.
But when one of those surfers is 2019 World Champ, Italo Ferreira, you’d better bring your ‘A-Game’, because he doesn’t miss too many waves that he paddles for.
Italo on fine form during this session at the Racetrack. Surfing with a lot of speed and sticking almost everything he went for.
The GWM Sydney Surf Pro presented by Rip Curl, The second stop of the World Surf League (WSL) Challenger Series (CS) and the Opening event of the WSL Longboard Tour (LT) has continued today with the Women’s Longboards seeing all eight heats of the Round of 16 running in super clean, one foot surf at Manly Beach.
Next Generation Steps up At Manly as Veterans Drop Out of Draw
Local hopeful Tully White (AUS, above) was the biggest winner of the day, clinching herself a spot in the Quarterfinals with a dominating win over French competitor Zoe Grospiron (FRA) much to the delight of her friends and family watching on the beach at their home spot. The heat was anyone’s to win with both surfers having mid-range scores to their names until, with less than 10 minutes left, White found one of the biggest waves of the day and took off, got straight to the nose for a long hang-10, then went back for a long smooth drop knee cutback, before finishing the wave with on the closeout. White was rewarded an excellent 9.10 point ride and is now guaranteed one of her best results with a spot in the Quarterfinals.
“It’s definitely super special to be here at home and have all of this support on the beach,” White said. “It’s been crazy seeing so many friends and family down here on a Tuesday afternoon, I really appreciate all of this support for sure. Everyone has been saying it’s super small but this is about as dreamy as logging gets here at North Steyne so I’m pretty frothy. I was stoked to get that bigger one – it gave me some good opportunities for sure.”
The second heat of the day saw Japanese competitor Natsumi Taoka (JPN, above) take a massive win over Californian competitor Lindsay Steinriede (USA) to book herself a spot in the Quarterfinals at the GWM Sydney Surf Pro. Steinriede came into the match up a favorite with over a decade of competing behind her and 2011 World Title, Taoka had her work cut out for her and she dug deep to take the win, posting an impressive 16.67 two-wave heat total. Taoka’s excellent total included a 9.00 point ride for a series of long nose rides in the critical section.
“The waves are small but it feels a lot like home in Japan so I was having fun,” Taoka said. “I woke up this morning early and warmed up then we went on hold for quite a while so by the time we got underway I was really ready to go. It was great to get some heats run today and it felt so good to go excellent on that one wave. My boards and surfing are feeling great so I’m so happy to get rewarded.”
Californian Mason Schremmer (USA) and Hawaiian Sophia Culhane (HAW) were the other two standout upstarts in the Round of 16 with Schremmer taking down veteran and 2021 title runner-up Alice Lemoigne (FRA) and Culhane overcoming fellow Hawaiian Kirra Seale (HAW).
Title Hopefuls Progress into Quarterfinals
It was a good day for a crop of recent world title holders with Current World Champion Honolua Blomfield (HAW, above), as well as the 2018 title holder Soliel Errico (USA) and 2015 Rachael Tilly (USA) all taking heat wins in the Round of 16 and progressing into the Quarterfinals. Along with the World Champions, perennial title threat Chloe Calmon (BRA) continued her charge towards Finals Day, claiming a victory in the opening heat of the Round of 16.
The next call for competition to resume at Manly will be at 7:15 a.m. AEST for a possible 7:35 a.m. start.
The 2022 GWM Sydney Surf Pro presented by Rip Curl Challenger Series and WSL Longboard Tour events will run at Manly Beach through May 24, 2022. For more information, please visit WorldSurfLeauge.com or check the free WSL App.
This year Cold Hawaii Surf & Film Festival presented by California Wines screened 22 Danish and international surf films over three nights at the fishermen’s boathouse Kassehuset in Klitmøller.
The winners of this year’s festival awards were both local from Denmark, Germany and Poland, Turkey, Canada, South Korea, U.S.A., Canada, and United Kingdom. Besides the seven awards given by the jury, the audience cast votes for the Whapaa Award Short Film and the Whapaa Award Feature Film.
“We are very proud for being able to present such an amazing lineup. Watching all those films, was like going for a round-the-world trip. An exciting trip where we experience huge diversity concerning nature, culture, and people. We watched inspirational stories about friendship, love, growing-up, family relations, and of course films with pure surf. Please keep on making surf movies and keep on sharing the stoke.”, states the festival director Alicja Cupial.
Winners of Cold Hawaii Surf & Film Festival presented by California Wines
Best Sound Design: re/discover (GER) Dir. Philipp Sigmund / Finn Springborn
Best Cinematography: Many Wonders (USA) Dir. Ben Weiland & Elli Thor
Best Emerging Filmmaker: Swell (POL) Dir. Lukasz Ratuski
Best Creative Short: WHERE IS THE SURF? (DEN) Dir. Sebastian Krogh Motivation from the jury: “This film encapsulates the spirit of surf filmmaking – that it doesn’t have to be about big cameras, big adventures, or big waves. It can be a simple story, well told that makes you feel and leaves you richer for the experience. Where is the Surf does just that, it captures perfectly the enduring pleasure in the pain of wild goose chase at home with your friends, it’s what unites us as surfers.”
Best Creative Feature: Welcome to the Guesthouse (KOR) Dir. SHIM Yo-han Motivation from the jury: “It’s a rare treat to watch a narrative fiction surf feature. The film touched on important universal themes – the environment, equality, localism, and above all the sense of community in surfing with humour while showcasing new places and cultures.”
Best Short: Vona (TUR) Dir. Clint Davis Motivation from the jury: “A beautiful short that brings to life a new, off the radar, surf destination and really evokes a sense of place.”
Best Feature: Ride the Wave (UK) Dir. Martyn Robertson Motivation from the jury:
“A powerful and moving tale that is a great reminder of the power of the ocean and the power of surfing.”
Special Mention for surfing: Born Pacific (CAN) Dir. Nate Laverty Motivation from the jury: “We wanted to give a special mention to Born Pacific – it does just what a good, classic surf movie should, it makes you want to go surfing!”
Whapaa Award Short Film: The Journey (DEN) Dirs. Tobias Ernst, Gustav Ernst, Noa Stender Whapaa Award Feature Film: Welcome to the Guesthouse (KOR) (KOR) Dir. SHIM Yo-han
Festival Jury Demi Taylor is a writer, best-selling author, director of the London Surf / Film Festival and one half of Approaching Lines creative agency.
Martin la Cour is a cinematographer based in Klitmøller, who has worked on shorts, commercials, and features. Magnus Sandvad
Thorhauge is a freelance screenwriter and director, and just finished his first short film ‘ANKER’.
Angelina Owino is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and cultural entrepreneur based in Klitmøller.
For further information about Cold Hawaii Surf & Film Festival presented by California Wines check out the website here.
Meet Luke Grifo, young gun and talented lensman of “Champagne Sorbet”, featuring a full crew of NZ rippers and showcasing the wave drenched coast of New Zealand, click in and enjoy.
This film isn’t a big project with companies bankrolling us. It was us pretty much stringing together a trip every few weekends whenever the waves were good. Traveling around NZ with my best buddies was what made it special. Leaving the parties behind to find waves was refreshing and I recommend it for sure.
Some surfing in this film isn’t quite of the caliber from those films that inspire my friends and I. Rather than making a 10 minute piece featuring the best waves from each trip, the film has a loose sort of narrative to make you feel as if you’re partly there on the trips themselves. From the best waves to the blow ups, and all the other antics between.
Hope you enjoy the film as much as we did while making it. I recommended viewing the film super loud with a crew of mates, and too many cold beverages. – Luke Grifo,
Fantastic conditions graced Manly Beach today as the world’s best longboard surfers glided into action at the GWM Sydney Surf Pro, opening event of the 2022 WSL Longboard Tour (LT). Surfers opened the GWM Sydney Surf Pro on the same beach where Midget Farrelly and Phyllis O’Donnel won the World Title of Surfing in 1964, surfing the same traditional style of that original era. Hanging Ten along with stylish drop knee cut backs being the ingredients for high scores in the pristine small, peeling waves.
Brazil’s Chloe Calmon (BRA, above) was the days standout surfer with excellent wave scores of 9.23 (out of a possible 10) and 8.40 as her back up to accrue a day’s highest 17.63 (out of a possible 20) heat total to comprehensively win her opening round heat. The multiple-WSL Champion runner-up, Calmon continues to showcase her experience in beautiful waves with her abilities to match.
“I’m so happy to be back in Australia after two years, having a great time in Manly, I find a lot of similarities with the beach breaks I surf at home in Rio,” Calmon said. “It’s also great being here with my coach and Manly local Matt Chojnacki and I learn a lot about the surfing culture here in the Northern Beaches. The conditions this morning were great for longboarding and I hope it stays like that until the end.”
Australia’s Harrison Roach (AUS, above), 2021 World Title runner-up is the No. 1 seed here in the men’s and started his campaign with style taking a strong opening round heat win. Roach’s approach to the small, pristine waves on offer went unmatched for the men, earning an impressive 15.13 heat total, and set the tone for what could be another World Title contending season.
“It’s great to open the season here in Australia” said Roach. “Especially here at Manly, I’m feeling the history of the sport around Farrelly’s World Title win and this really is a special beach – the waves are really small but on these longer boards they are good and there’s plenty of high scoring potential out there.”
Other standouts on the opening day included Ben Skinner (GBR, above in action at Malibu last year), Kai Sallas (HAW), Honolua Bloomfield (HAW) and Lindsay Steinriede (USA).
With the Challenger Series potentially ready to start tomorrow, the surfing moves will likely transition from soul arches and Hang 10s to full rotation air reverses and alley-oop aerials as the modern short boarders battle the all important opening rounds of the Challenger Series event.
How The WSL Longboard Tour Works
The first two events of the season at Manly Beach and Huntington Beach will be worth up to 5,000 rankings points each, while the final event in Malibu, the Longboard World Championships, will award 10,000 points to the winners. The World Titles will be awarded to the highest-ranked woman and man based on their best two results out of the three events.
CLICK HERE FOR OPENING DAY RESULTS
Now that the early rounds have been completed, the remaining rounds through to finals will integrate with the Challenger Series event which begins tomorrow, running through to Tuesday May 24.
Challenger Series Set To Begin Tomorrow at Manly Beach
In early 2020, Italian Leonardo Fioravanti (ITA) took the win of his career at the Sydney Surf Pro Challenger Series literally days before the world stopped due to the pandemic. Fast forward over two years and the twenty three year old is back in Sydney, and looking for another big result so he can return to the CT in 2023. After an equal 5th place finish last week on the Gold Coast, Fioravanti will be looking to keep his momentum going as he returns to his happy hunting ground of Manly Beach.
“I’ve always enjoyed coming to Manly,” Fioravanti said. “I have been coming here since I was so young and competing in the Pro Junior, the QS and now the CS and I’ve always found good results. It’s a great place and has so many Italians living in Sydney so the support is always incredible. I’m feeling really confident after Snapper and love that we are going back-to-back with events so I can gain some more momentum, especially considering it is a place I have won before.”
Fresh off a second place finish at the Boost Mobile Gold Coast Pro presented by Rip Curl, Central Coast phenom Molly Picklum (AUS) is another competitor excited for the quick turn around between events as she looks to bank another solid result on home soil. After competing for the first half of the season on the Championship Tour, Picklum has had a taste of the top level and is all in on getting herself back there by year’s end.
“I’m really excited to be returning to Manly,” Picklum said. “It’s one of the locations we go that has a lot of history in surfing which is cool. It’s definitely a stop where we end up getting all sorts of conditions throughout the event window so you have to be ready for anything which is a fun challenge. I was stoked to make the Final at Snapper but I want to go one step further at Manly and take the win.”
The 2022 GWM Sydney Surf Pro presented by Rip Curl Challenger Series and World Longboard Tour events will run at Manly Beach from May 16 – 24. For more information head to WorldSurfLeauge.com or check the free WSL App.
This event is proudly supported by GWM, Rip Curl, Destination NSW, Bond University, Harvey Norman, Bonsoy, Boost Mobile, Oakberry, Oakley, Dometic Outdoor, Coopers, Northern Beaches Council, Havaianas, Bailey Ladders, and FCS.
South swell with almost no wind all day long, dropping tide in the morning and only 10-12 people in the lineup made this day special. The morning was still a bit slow, long waiting for the sets, many wide ones made it a bit difficult to get a good tube.
Around midday the cross on wind got a bit stronger till 4pm. Around 5pm when the tide started to go out, the Wave machine of Lagundri Bay turned on, set after set, perfect clean tubes with a beautiful sunset!
