Former WSL Championship Tour surfer Jack Freestone disagrees with the priority interference that eliminated Carissa Moore from the Philippines Pro. Luckily for Freestone, he isn’t employed by the WSL; therefore, he doesn’t have to worry about $100,000 fines for “disparaging” the tour.
“I don’t think Carissa should have got an interference,” Freestone said on the latest episode of The Washed Podcast. “That’s pretty hard to give someone an interference as they’re about to stand up on the wave. (A priority change) shouldn’t be vague, and it shouldn’t be as they’re paddling into waves.”
“If I was in that moment, I would have been really upset that there was a priority interference,” he added.
Freestone is referring to the women’s semifinal heat between Carissa Moore and Caity Simmers at Cloud 9. In the final minutes of the heat, both surfers had a lackluster look at a wave. The judges deemed that Moore’s attempt was strong enough that priority switched over to Simmers. Both surfers wanted the following wave, but it appeared only Simmers understood that priority had switched.
Moore dropped in on Simmers, losing the score for that wave in addition to her highest-scoring wave of the heat. Simmers took the lead and went on to win the event. Had Moore advanced to the final, she would have taken the rankings lead. Instead, she sits in second heading into the season’s final event at Pipeline.
The WSL doubled down on the priority switch. Vice President of Tours and Competition Renato Hickel said the priority call was made according to standard protocol, but also admitted that Moore had already started paddling for the next wave by the time the switch was announced.
“The priority judge went to review that situation and as he decided to change priority to red, they (had already committed) to paddling for the next wave,” Hickel said. “Apparently Caitlin checked the priority disk. Carissa said that she did and she saw blue, but it was already on red. We confirmed with our logs.”
In the background of the broadcast audio, you can hear the beach announcer stating that Simmers had priority as the surfers were dropping in. It’s unclear if that was the first verbal indication of a priority change.
Freeestone didn’t think that priority should have changed in the first place.
“There’s a lot of gray area in that rule because if I was in Carissa’s position, it didn’t feel like she was blocking that much,” Freestone said. “I think Caity didn’t sell her enough for the priority switch.”
“It kind of looked like Carissa was just paddling in front of her,” Freestone added. “That’s what you would do with priority. If you don’t want the wave, you want to hold them off, and they’re not overcommitting or selling you, you kind of just paddle in front of them.”
And even if a priority switch was warranted, Freestone doesn’t think it happened fast enough.
“If they were to call a priority switch, they have to do it instantly,” Freestone said. “I think a few seconds went by, and that’s all it took for another wave to come behind.”
“If the priority gets switched as the athletes are about to stand up on the wave, I think there should be no priority consequences,” he added.
Ultimately, that decision could change the title outcome, given Simmers and Moore will be vying for the rankings lead at Pipeline.
“It was a really unfortunate way for that heat to end,” Freestone said. “I know Carissa was really bummed about it, as she should be. She’s in a really good position for the world title and going into an event like Backdoor and Pipe, she could really do some damage there.”
Despite the priority controversy, Moore still has a good shot at a sixth world title. She can seal the title with a win at Pipe.
