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First a disclaimer. I have nothing against actual SUPs. In the right hands they have saved surfers I know from non-surfing lives (shoulder and back injuries). However for an inanimate object they do seem to have an amazing propensity to turn a lot of normal laid-back wave lovers into raging, greedy and pretty dangerous people in the lineup. My skilled SUPing friends are often the first to point this out.
So why is the International Surfing Organisation trying to grab control of stand up goat boaters?
Money of course.
Apparently stand-up paddleboarding is one of the fastest growing sports in the world, with well over three million participants in the U.S. and an annual growth rate of 26 percent, according to a 2016 report by The Outdoor Foundation. Thankfully it’s more on the racing and down winding side than careering through lineups, overestimating their own ability and trying to maim all unfortunate enough to be in their paths.
The smell of potential moolah has led the International Canoe Federation (ICF) and the International Surfing Association (ISA) to get into a right scrap over who should be the governing body for the sport. Of course at the heart of it all is the lure of the promise of cash should the ‘sport’ be accepted as an Olympic event.
The goatboaters think they are the obvious choice since paddles are involved.
“ICF statutes state clearly that a person using a paddle as a main form of propulsion whilst on a craft in water is canoeing, paddling,” International Canoe Federation secretary general Ian Toulson told Reuters.
Fernando Aguerre of The International Surfing Association meanwhile argues, “This is not a canoe. This is not a kayak. Sure, it may look similar. But you know, you can play soccer with a basketball and you can play soccer with a volleyball, but they’re not the same sport.”
Which to be honest, was probably met with confused silence.
Brandon Van Elslander reportedly said, “It depends on the day. If it’s a flat-water-type day, you’re paddling. But if the conditions change and you’re downwinding and surfing larger swells, you are indeed surfing.”
Anyway the whole debacle is going to a Swiss court- The Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland, in early December.
Larry Cain, a former Olympic sprint canoeist turned SUP racer says that for most paddlers it really doesn’t matter who wins.
“The essential thing about the sport is you go out and participate and you enjoy it. You don’t need rules and you don’t need people telling you what to do. You drive your board down to the water, take it off the car, drop it in the water and go for a paddle.”
And not run people over, or hog all the waves… Don’t forget that bit.
Should the ISA support SUPing given the problems in line-ups and conflicts with surfers and swimmers? Should SUPs be treated as watercraft due to their volume? Should skill level tests be mandatory on purchase? Let us know in the comments.
Walsh winning. Pic WSL
“I mean I was third with a ten…” Ian Walsh.
“Which ten do you like best?” WSL.
In actual fact, to all who witnessed it, Ian Walsh was not in third in the glorious semi final of the Pe’ahi. He was the clear winner with an almighty piece of surfing that will long live as one of the finest barrel rides in history. With the scale already prescribed by the judges decision to award Ryan Hipwood a ten for an outstanding, although lesser wave, I’d have called a it more a 14.
A 14!
‘You can not have 14!’ I hear you cry. No, well you can’t have two tens when one is way better than the other other can you?
The elephant gun in the room here being this: if it were a standard two man heat, the eventual winner would have walked in the semi.
Bye bye, Walshy.
Of course it all came out in the wash and Walsh went through to the final in third place and onto a well deserved win. But in truth if the wave and heat was correctly scored he should have been first. Hipwood’s ten threw out the whole scoring system.
Nitpicking maybe, but here’s the point. Imagine a similar situation at Pipe in a two man heat. Replace Medina for Hipwood and a struggling rookie for Walsh. It’s a tight heat, a solid eight feet, with the odd bomb. Medina chalks a steady calculated, but perfectly ridden ten early in the heat. He must make it through to keep his title hopes alive. Florence stands watching, world title on the line hoping Medina fails.
Then a gift from Huey: the Pipe bomb. A random beast of natural wonderment. Almost too heavy to ride, yet too mesmerising not to give a go. The requalifying hopeful goes balls to the wall in a bid to save his career.
He takes off late, weightless, frozen in time. His fins grasp for the face, they barely hold as the wave rears like the spectre of global warming. The rider’s face is frozen, his muscles taut, as pure instinct kicks in. He is within the maelstrom, a churning mass of beauty and hell all rolled into one. Like the bunny boiling hotty you fancied in your youth. Dodged that bullet didn’t you? Then he’s gone. In the bowels of the second section, the wave vomits gargantuan spumes of whitewater into the channel… For a split second all is lost. Then our gladiator emerges, blade glistening in the sunlight. Arms aloft, triumphant, adrenaline pumping, spat out with gunslinger claims practically into the Sunset Beach parking lot. “Pow, pow, pow. Yippee-ki-yay motherfucker!”
The crowd go wild. The people of the internet are on their feet. Popcorn is everywhere. Coors Light froths on the living room carpets of mid-America. Babies are woken from their slumber as their carers dance in celebration of a majestic moment in the king of sports. In that moment we are one. Happy, sad or mind blown …
It’s a title deciding, sugar-coated, life saving, dramatically spectacular 10 which puts him into… SECOND PLACE… and UNEMPLOYMENT because the GOD DAMN SCALE IS OUT … A black cloak descends on the world.
The rookie is fucked, his dream destroyed through no fault of his own.
Florence and his title hopes are fucked (for the moment) and his managers and sponsors are going mental. It could be a million-dollar decision for them. A lost chance to further suckle from Nike’s plump breast.
The internet is alight with accusations of favouritism, nationalism and, let’s face it, out and out racism.
The judges are running for their lives hiding behind barricades like Butch and Sundance in their final shoot out. The Hawaiians are coming for them. Not even quaffing vast quantities of JD will calm their nerves.
CARNAGE!
OK … so I got bit carried away. But if the Pe’ahi Challenge semi had been the final a similar fate WOULD have happened.
Pe’ahi was amazing. We watch broadcasts like this for the moments of sublime wave riding of Hipwood and Walsh. But if that was a two man heat one of the greatest waves ever ridden would have counted for nought and the whole thing would of ended in farce. Fact.
The very real lesson learned from all this is that you can not throw out ‘tens’ in surfing competition. Not early in heats, not in this day an age of incredible surfing of both big waves and small by the likes of Dorian, Walsh, Florence, Medina, Toledo or anyone else at this level. Sooner or later the surfers will mug the judges off.
And then what?
All hell breaks loose, credibility is lost, lots of shouting on the internet…
Tens are great for hype, they’re fun, a commentators and PR’s dream, but they also hold the potential to throw out a final or in the worse case, end a title run or a career.
Once you drop a ten, you have nowhere else to go. You can not turn it up to 11. There’s no 10*. The surfer can not make it up next ride and have an extra 0.5 added for old time’s sake. If they do the whole thing ends in acrimony.
We have all seen ‘tens’ dished out and then a better ‘ten’ scored. Events have been lost because of it. Judges can not award the proper points once a ride has fulfilled the scale. And that skews the whole game. Surfing is the only individual sport where different performances can be awarded equal points by judges. It won’t do. I put it to you that tens have no place in our sport.
Walsh’s ten should be the last in WSL history. It was a damn fine wave, a proper ten, and it would be a fine way to end a ridiculous peculiarity.
Luke Dillon, 12 O Clock, Sandside. Picabove and Gallery Andy Holter
Seated under the watchful eye of Dounray nuclear power station, the Open surfers surfed off in the 3-4’ fun, left-hand pointbreak at Sandside. Early eliminations saw Scottish local wildcards; Mark Boyd, Chris Noble, Chris Clarke and Andrew Robertson drop from the lists, but through to the finals were South Africa’s Jacob Mellish with Bude surfers Reubyn Ash, Miles Lee Hargreaves and Newquay’s face of Korev, Luke Dillon.
Luke Dillon took the early lead with his powerful style and dialling in those clean wave sections down the reef, with Miles in hot pursuit. S.A surfer Jacob Mellish threw into the mix, a smooth, fluid style which earned him scores keeping track behind our heat leader and pushing our Bude riders, Reubyn and Miles to quickly work on those scores to climb the ladder.
Hoots from all our Thurso Surf Festival and horn blasts from the vast fleet of vans accompanied each impressive ride as our ultimate heat ended with a win from Luke Dillon, Reubyn Ash claimed a second, Miles in third & Jacob Mellish ending in fourth place.
The Fistral Beach Under 18 Boys saw Barnaby Cox & Stanley Norman from Bude, surf against Noah Capps and Logan Nicol. Smart surfing from Logan saw him score a good first wave, only needing a small score to take the heat from a flurry of waves by Barnaby Cox, leading with a 7.1 wave who thrilled with some well-timed snaps throwing spray for the judging panel, Stanley kept up the pressure by attempting to pull off a 360 manoeuvre at the tail of each wave and Noah also keeping pace but left requiring a combo score to move up, making for an exciting heat. A score for Logan, changed the result however as a huge 8.43 dropped in for our surfer in blue and takes the win over Barnaby Cox.
Lucy Campbell not only took out the Women’s competition at Melvich on day two, also claiming the UK Pro Surf Tour Title from Emily Currie in a climatic final with Emily Williams who led an early charge with a 7.33 ride topped after by Lucy’s combined wave total of 12.33.
Exeter’s Sam Hearn dominated the Under 14 Boys, rapidly dialling in the left-hand reforms into Melvich river mouth and scoring the longest and most impressive waves to take the title over Scottish wildcard Ben Larg who takes 2nd place.
In the Under 16 Boys Noah Capps took an early lead scoring solid waves with a 5.4 followed by a 6.2 leading the other finalists in a game of catch-up for the entire heat, ending in victory for Noah as his scores remained unbeatable.
Sam Hearn, Under 14 champ. Pic Andy Holter
Results
Men’s Open
1st – Luke Dillon
2nd – Reubyn Ash
3rd – Miles Lee Hargreaves
4th – Jacob Mellish
Women’s Open
1st – Lucy Campbell
2nd – Emily Williams
3rd – Emily Currie
4th – Francesca Pioli
Fistral Beach Under 18 Boys
1st – Logan Nicol
2nd – Barnaby Cox
3rd – Stanley Norman
4th – Noah Capps
Under 16 Boys
1st – Noah Capps
2nd – Barnaby Cox
3rd – Seth Morris
4th – Frankie Bamford
Under 14 Boys
1st – Sam Hearn
2nd – Ben Larg
3rd – Bertie Norman
4th – Kieron Smith
Under 12 Open
1ST – Craig Maclachlan
2nd – Eli Perrins-Davies
3rd – Tom Boothroyd
4th – Ishka Tres
5th – Jack Pearson
Under 18 Girls
1st – Alys Barton
2nd – Iona Maclachlan
3rd – Bonita Whitelock
Under 16 Girls
1st – Alys Barton
2nd – Bonita Whitelock
Under 14 Girls
1st – Alys Barton
2nd – Bonita Whitelock
Paige Alms of Hawaii wins the women’s 2017 wsl Pe’ahi challenge
Paige Alms (HAW) and Ian Walsh (HAW) have won the World Surf League (WSL) Big Wave Tour (BWT) Pe’ahi Challenge today in towering 30-to-40 foot-plus conditions at the world famous Pe‘ahi in Haiku, Maui, Hawaii.
The second event of the 2017/2018 BWT season tested the top big wave chargers as a solid swell delivered massive surf over two days at Pe’ahi with wave faces exceeding 45 feet. Event officials have rated this year’s Pe’ahi Challenge a Gold coefficient, the highest possible BWT rating, which will allocate 15,625 points to first place.
2016 Women’s Big Wave Champion Alms successfully defended her event title today after defeating a stacked field of competitors in the Final. Alms, who became the first ever Women’s Big Wave Champion at Pe’ahi last season, made history once again with her unprecedented big wave victory.
“I feel so grateful to be able to sit out in an empty lineup at firing, perfect Jaws,” Alms said. “It doesn’t get much better than that. Every single one of the women today sent it on a bomb. There were big waves out there and I was kind of kicking myself for not going on one set, but I just feel super stoked and honored.”
The Women’s Pe’ahi Challenge saw all six competitors charge monstrous set waves in the 60-minute Final. Alms stayed selective throughout the Final, utilizing her local knowledge to take off on two gigantic waves for the winning score, an excellent 21.23 combined score (out of a possible 30).
“Anyone that says they’re not scared of this place, I think they’re lying,” continued Alms. “I think it’s the most powerful and intimidating big wave anywhere in the world, by far. I definitely look up to Ian (Walsh) and I’m super stoked that he won it. We couldn’t have asked for anything more – it definitely put on a show so thanks Pe’ahi!”
Line up for the Pe’ahi Challenge
Big wave veteran Keala Kennelly (HAW) earned second place in the women’s event with four fearless attempts. Kennelly turned in a 17.21 heat score, including an impressive completion for a 7.17 single-wave score. Justine Dupont (FRA) looked in great form with three big attempts and took the third place result. Bianca Valenti (USA), Andrea Moller (BRA) and Felicity Palmateer (AUS) also charged the epic conditions to earn fourth, fifth and sixth place, respectively.
Ian Walsh of Hawaii wins the 2017 WSL Pe’ahi Challenge
Walsh earned his career-first BWT victory after dominating his Round 1 heat and the Final series. The 34-year-old, who was invited to compete as an event wildcard, capitalized on his opportunity to earn first place at his home break in Haiku and vault up to third place on the BWT rankings.
“This is a really big honor and I’m stoked that I can follow Billy (Kemper) and keep this thing on Maui,” said Walsh. “It was an incredible couple days of surfing, some challenging lulls but everyone here surfed really, really well and it was a pleasure to be in the water with them. It was fun to watch each heat almost, our sport progress as the waves got bigger and better. It feels just like those big free surf days, so I’m really honored and stoked.”
The men’s Final saw heated battles amongst the top six competitors. 2014/15 BWT Champion Makuakai Rothman (HAW) gained an early lead with a 5.60, but the field quickly battled back with big attempts. Two-time Pe’ahi Challenge winner Billy Kemper (HAW) opened his campaign with a committed 5.43 and maintained his do-or-die mentality after taking off impossibly deep on an enormous wave for a 6.57 backup score.
Ian Walsh of Hawaii advances to the finals after scoring a perfect 10 and placing third in the semifinal heat 2 of the 2017 WSL Pe’ahi Challenge
Kai Lenny (HAW), winner of the Puerto Escondido Challenge and BWT rankings frontrunner ahead of Maui, narrowly missed a collision with Ryan Hipwood (AUS) in the Final after committing to an under-the-ledge late drop into a 35-foot wave. Lenny managed to successfully ride out his first wave and stamp out a rail-carve for a 6.93 from the judges, then found a 4.40 backup score to finish fourth in the event. Lenny’s result strengthens his lead on the BWT with Kemper following closely behind and Walsh moving up to third.
Big wave veteran and Pe‘ahi professional Greg Long (USA) displayed good control throughout the event and maintained deep positioning in the lineup during the Final. En route to a fifth-place finish, Long took a high-line approach on his first wave in a barrel-hunt attempt and completed two rides to the channel for a combined heat score of 14.67.
The men’s second Semifinal saw event-best performances from both Walsh and Hipwood. Both surfers dropped Perfect 10’s for navigating steep takeoffs and cavernous barrels, with Walsh flying through two tube sections prior to winning the event.
Ahead of his runner-up result, Kemper narrowly got the edge over Danilo Couto (BRA) and Mark Healey (HAW) in Semifinal 1. Knowing Healey’s capabilities at Pe‘ahi, Kemper stayed close to the 35-year-old waterman in order to secure his position in the Final. Couto kept busy on the left-hand breaks, but fell just 0.57 points short of advancing through to the Final and will exit in Equal 7th place.
Highlights from the Pe’ahi Challenge can be found at WorldSurfLeague.com, the WSL app and on the WSL’s Facebook page.
The 2017/2018 WSL Big Wave Tour season is divided into Southern Hemisphere and Northern Hemisphere components. The Southern Hemisphere window saw the completion of the Puerto Escondido Challenge earlier this year. The Northern Hemisphere window opened on October 15 and will run through February 28, 2018, with the potential to run the Nazaré Challenge in Portugal and the Mavericks Challenge in California.
WSL Big Wave Tour officials will monitor swell producing storms for the next four months and watch for the conditions that will produce waves in the 30-to-60-foot range for the remaining Northern Hemisphere events. Once the call is made, competitors will have 72 hours notice to be ready to compete.
2017/18 BWT Women’s Pe’ahi Challenge Final Results:
1 – Paige Alms (HAW) 21.23
2 – Keala Kennelly (HAW) 17.21
3 – Justine Dupont (FRA) 14.36
4 – Bianca Valenti (USA) 10.86
5 – Andrea Moller (BRA) 6.41
6 – Felicity Palmateer (AUS) 4.54
2017/18 BWT Men’s Pe’ahi Challenge Final Results:
1 – Ian Walsh (HAW) 21.67
2 – Billy Kemper (HAW) 18.57
3 – Makuakai Rothman (HAW) 18.46
4 – Kai Lenny (HAW) 18.26
5 – Greg Long (USA) 14.67
6 – Ryan Hipwood (AUS) 6.60
2017/18 BWT Men’s Pe’ahi Challenge Semifinal Results:
SF 1: Makuakai Rothman (HAW) 16.61, Greg Long (USA) 13.74, Billy Kemper (HAW) 11.83, Danilo Couto (BRA) 11.26, Mark Healey (HAW) 7.77, Cristian Merello (CHL) 4.66
SF 2: Ryan Hipwood (AUS) 26.50, Kai Lenny (HAW) 26.31, Ian Walsh (HAW) 25.33, Albee Layer (HAW) 24.23, Lucas Chianca (BRA) 22.19, Jamie Mitchell (AUS) 16.44
2017/18 BWT Women’s BWT Rankings (after Pe’ahi Challenge):
1 -Paige Alms (HAW) 15,625 pts
2 – Keala Kennelly (HAW) 13,020 pts
3 – Justine Dupont (FRA) 10,850 pts
4 – Bianca Valenti (USA) 9,042 pts
5 – Andrea Moller (BRA) 7,536 pts
2017/18 Men’s BWT Rankings (after Pe’ahi Challenge):
1 -Kai Lenny (HAW) 19,042 pts
2 – Billy Kemper (HAW) 18,807 pts
3 – Ian Walsh (HAW) 15,625 pts
4 – Makuakai Rothman (HAW) 13,920 pts
5 – Jamie Mitchell (AUS) 10,647 pts
The wave pool war continues with the announcement of the first commercial Kelly Slater Surf Ranch and it’s being built within half an hour’s drive of President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club. Palm Beach certainly has the money for whatever the admission fee will be. Word is it’ll be open in 2019.
From Kelly: Well…it’s official…we have a building permit in Palm Beach County for #SurfRanchFlorida. I’m beyond proud and stoked to see the first of our developments at @kswaveco going to my home state of #Florida. Thank you to Mayor Burdick and the city commissioners for your approval and support of the project. Also thank you to #JupiterFarms for your comments and support. Looking forward to being neighbors. I keep joking about it but it might be true that now I can move back home now and surf as much as I want! Cannot wait to see a bunch more stoked people riding waves. This is gonna be fun.
