The Coolangatta Gold 2019

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Lucky Al
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The Coolangatta Gold 2019

Post by Lucky Al » Wed Apr 03, 2019 9:42 pm

This trick looked shit in the live stream but looks alright in the picture. Some tricks are like that - confused, impure. Not like paddling - paddling is always clear and pure. The guys had to paddle a lot today. Good to see.

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crabmeat thompson
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Re: The Coolangatta Gold 2019

Post by crabmeat thompson » Thu Apr 04, 2019 9:38 am

i had it playing in the background yday while doing some work ... my limited observations :


  • slater finally looks completely out of place – he caught the best wave of the heat. A long-walled right that just kept giving, and all he could manage was a cutback and two poorly balanced lip taps. no word of a lie, that's what I could have done on that wave – albeit with less style, and i see a hundred waves a swell here on the goldie where people surf that exact wave so much better. let alone going against dora and italo, two legits air studs. RIP Slater.
  • Ever since freestone had his kid – he divides his year 70% maui; 30% gold coast, he's been surfing better. the reason – he has nothing to do with the HPC. He's back surfing on instinct and with power & creativity all maxed out. 3 attributes the HPC neuters in its surfers over a more methodical adhering of the criteria. read: bland
  • Our other best surfer Mikey Wright, wouldn't go near the HPC if his life depended on it. and he too surfs with a power & creatvity all the other oz surfers are void of, but the Brazilians have in spades. it's not rocket maths here: the bureaucratisation of australian competitive surfing, has in fact killed our competitive surfing – or at the minimum, set it back a decade-plus.
  • the waves weren't the best, so this might seem harsh. but these comps just aren't interesting in the way cricket isn't interesting. there's too much dull void, there's wayyyy too many surfers and the commentary is rinse and repeat. at its conclusion, somebody could do a video edit of the this snapper event and overlay the commentary with gear from 4 years ago, and we wouldn't know the difference? letting go commentators who were good like BL & replacing him with Kaipo over wages, proves the statement; you get what you pay for...

    • which naturally leads me to this >

      in the 5-6 heats I had going, the audience topped out at 4.4k, and when the cameras panned back into the beach at various points, a crowd of less than 200 were on hand? a mate in surfing told me that fantasy surfer participation numbers are around 50% of what they were 3 years ago? if true, has the wsl finally killed surfing?
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Re: The Coolangatta Gold 2019

Post by buddy » Thu Apr 04, 2019 9:50 am

Good insight, crabby.

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Re: The Coolangatta Gold 2019

Post by channels » Thu Apr 04, 2019 1:44 pm

They haven't addressed the core issues with the format.

Too many surfers.
Meaningless round 1 heat (yet to see how this impacts the previously meaningless round 5 heat)
Competition too long
No incentive to go nuts on a wave and too much safety surfing.

The same as it ever was.

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Re: The Coolangatta Gold 2019

Post by offshore1 » Thu Apr 04, 2019 1:50 pm

Cricket became a lot more interesting the minute GStQ's great uncle Major Tom cut off his leg.
Maybe Slater could do something like that.
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Re: The Coolangatta Gold 2019

Post by crabmeat thompson » Thu Apr 04, 2019 2:01 pm

channels wrote:
Thu Apr 04, 2019 1:44 pm
They haven't addressed the core issues with the format.

Too many surfers.
Meaningless round 1 heat (yet to see how this impacts the previously meaningless round 5 heat)
Competition too long
No incentive to go nuts on a wave and too much safety surfing.

The same as it ever was.
it's gruelling for the spectator. watching all of the rounds 1 & 2 with 3-man heats for only 4 surfers to get sent packing. wsl have made the format unquestionably worse.

i just slammed my dick in my desk drawer and that felt considerably better than watching this.
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Would you mind throwing in a little more homoeroticism

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Re: The Coolangatta Gold 2019

Post by Nick Carroll » Thu Apr 04, 2019 3:04 pm

You know what I am actually enjoying it, I guess it is light entertainment for me right now

It was fascinating watching Kelly's second round heat, I thought wow! he is really out of touch with the criteria right now! He's forgotten how to surf a heat. epic.

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Re: The Coolangatta Gold 2019

Post by Nick Carroll » Thu Apr 04, 2019 3:08 pm

I also think the commentary on the air show thing just shits on the CT commentary. Loose, relaxed, knowledgeable.

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Re: The Coolangatta Gold 2019

Post by Nick Carroll » Thu Apr 04, 2019 3:10 pm

Rather than tense, weird, predictable, and (oddly given a couple of the crew) kind of ignorant.

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Re: The Coolangatta Gold 2019

Post by marauding mullet » Thu Apr 04, 2019 3:21 pm

Fcuk that, I’ll be in the neighbourhood watching the clubbies tomorrow
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Re: The Coolangatta Gold 2019

Post by channels » Thu Apr 04, 2019 3:22 pm

Nick Carroll wrote:
Thu Apr 04, 2019 3:04 pm
You know what I am actually enjoying it, I guess it is light entertainment for me right now

It was fascinating watching Kelly's second round heat, I thought wow! he is really out of touch with the criteria right now! He's forgotten how to surf a heat. epic.
Nick, do you think Kelly might be doing the tour because he doesn't know what to do in the next phase of his life without the tour?

From the casual viewer standpoint, he isn't close to being a contender unless it's a take off and stand wave like Pipe or Teahupoo (not saying they are easy waves, just saying no critical airs etc needed). Might he contractually obliged by a deal with the WSL?

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Re: The Coolangatta Gold 2019

Post by Nick Carroll » Thu Apr 04, 2019 3:54 pm

He's that competitive, he needs to be convinced that he can't do it anymore. Like the CT guys have to literally kick him out. He won't go till they do that.

He's not an idiot, he's had time off before and he knows how to cope with life. It's not that. He's just not gonna go quietly.

People have fairytales in their heads about how other people are supposed to behave around this stuff. Like Mick is the poster boy for retiring -- as far as people know. But Mick is v private, who knows if every day is a great one from that pov? And he was over the tour in a way Kelly isn't yet.

Other people want JJF to step down because they think they would do the same in his shoes. It would fulfil their idea of what a cool person is supposed to do. "If I had a boat and millions of dollars..." sorta thing. But they're not in his shoes are they, no.

Watching Kelly in these heats, it really strikes me that he is surfing OK but is a bit out of touch with the criteria. Base to lip is the starting point for CT surfing now, if you don't cover all the ground between those points in single turns, then the panel won't give you much. Especially you've got to repeatedly go to or over the lip even in semi conventional turns. The commentary was having kittens about how great he is, while he was catching pretty good waves, looking pretty quick and limber etc, and just not fulfilling that criteria. That's what I mean about him having forgotten a bit of how to surf heats, it's harder work than it looks.

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Re: The Coolangatta Gold 2019

Post by BA » Thu Apr 04, 2019 4:21 pm

Nick Carroll wrote:
Thu Apr 04, 2019 3:08 pm
I also think the commentary on the air show thing just shits on the CT commentary. Loose, relaxed, knowledgeable.
Absolutely.

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Re: The Coolangatta Gold 2019

Post by foamy » Thu Apr 04, 2019 8:49 pm

My daughter went to D-bah to observe a bit of the action.
She 'watched' the last women's heat. You couldn't see them. They were almost around at Froggys. Invisible. There were a couple of jetskis that indicated their location. There was no big screen showing the action.

The air heat started. She moved out onto the Tweed rockwall. The rockwall was officially closed, but it wasn't much enforced, thankfully. This was fun. A lot of the guys were riding the left into the rockwall. You were right on top of them. Great viewing. A bit of tension between a couple of competitors which you could hear.

She almost didn't hear an Australian accent while she was there. Young Brazilians and ageing Europeans seemed to be the attending fans.

After that, she had a look at Snapper and Greenmount. Ridiculously crowded. There must have been some pros out there. Because, as crowded as those places are normally, it is seriously turbocharged when the pros are in town. Celebrity magnetism I suppose, and possibly there's a lot of pretty crap surfers who want to show the pros their stuff.

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Re: The Coolangatta Gold 2019

Post by black duck » Thu Apr 04, 2019 9:37 pm

From the camera view, Slater out surfed Wright and Crisanto. Judging is fcuking weird.
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Re: The Coolangatta Gold 2019

Post by steve shearer » Fri Apr 05, 2019 7:12 am

That was my view from the beach.

Seems a bit ludicrous that Kelly with 55CT wins suddenly no longer understands how to surf a wave according to criteria.
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Re: The Coolangatta Gold 2019

Post by crabmeat thompson » Fri Apr 05, 2019 8:07 am

black duck wrote:
Thu Apr 04, 2019 9:37 pm
From the camera view, Slater out surfed Wright and Crisanto. Judging is fcuking weird.
Slater was definitely more creative – which is better on the eyes for us the spectator, criteria be damned. but his timing was all out and his execution poor. he was super unslater-like in his execution.

all i was thinking watching that heat was; his slow and gradual decline in comps has coincided with leaving Merrick and his finely tuned semi pro roundtail. Watching slater, it's frustrating bcos his talent and ability and flexibility are all still there. his mind is still competitively tack-sharp. he can match it with the kids ... but (imo) not with those boards under his feet.


those tweaked out merricks and his surfing were hand in glove – for 2 to 12 foot he had it wired. you can watch his heat and see the board not responding. he's behind in sections he's normally out on front on, he's not crisp off the top, the rails work excellent on his sweeping cutbacks, but don't snap off the top with any release? it's weird watching those boards under his feet.

imo this twilight part of his career where he's trying to build his own board brand has been his competitive demise more than the injuries or his (perceived?) waning ability have.
Kunji wrote:
Wed May 27, 2020 8:09 am
Would you mind throwing in a little more homoeroticism

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Re: The Coolangatta Gold 2019

Post by Wyre » Fri Apr 05, 2019 11:17 am

Oh man. D'Bah looks super fun with 4 guys out.
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