Dane Reynolds slammed the door on the Tour a few years ago. He left it at the altar and took free surfing to the dance. It seemed, for a while at least, to suit him down to the ground–his performances in contests had always been a bit of a roller coaster, and the pressures of events just made him surf worse than everyone knew he could.
But that’s what people love about him: it’s that all-or-nothing approach he takes that makes watching an event that much more entertaining. He adds a healthy dose of possibility. Dane Reynolds is a spoonful of hope mixed with a shitload of what-if. The World Surf League realizes that, so they’re throwing wildcards at him. Given the fact that he turned his back on the Tour and there are a thousand guys clawing to get spots, he’s well aware of the pressure.
After his performance in Fiji, the world has high hopes for Dane at J-Bay. And if all goes well, Dane will not fall in the middle of the pack–he’ll be on top or buried under the weight of a crushing defeat. No one wants to see anything else.
