What’s going on at the WSL? First, they get rid of the mid-season cut and the WSL Finals in one announcement, then they go right out and call a day of competition at The Box? In my opinion, they need to watch out. Surf fans, who are laughably impossible to please, might start becoming accustomed to getting what they want.
Oh, and then the league announced Kelly Slater is getting his third event wildcard in the past calendar year at Trestles in June. Suddenly, all WSL news polls through the roof!
Back to The Box. Was it all you remembered, considering competition hasn’t run there since 2016? I mean, we’ve all seen people surfing the shallow, slabby tube plenty over the past six years — Championship Tour athletes on laydays included — but any wave in a CT heat is a different story. One charger putting his head down and swinging into a set wave amongst 50 tubehounds is different from a world-class athlete hucking it over the ledge looking for a 6.59 in the dying moments of a heat.
There weren’t many high scores in the Round of 16 heats that did run at The Box (there were only six completed). But there were a lot of people getting tossed over the falls. There were a lot of barrels in which doors slammed shut — the last barrier some would have needed for huge scores. There were lulls too, which ramped up the angst in some heats as time wound down, and made the day feel slow in other moments.
Overall, the make it or break it (a board or bone) stakes on a solid day at The Box made for at least a couple standout performances on a quiet scoreboard. Griffin Colapinto and Barron Mamiya stood out, and they’re probably the two guys you would have picked for that designation before the day started.
So, was a day of competition at The Box everything you remembered?
