Every March, American sports fans devolve into a bunch of rabid, gambling, degenerate college basketball analysts. The annual NCAA Tournament is set with 64 schools neatly fitting into brackets that get passed around every office building in the country. Winners are picked. Upsets are predicted. Five-dollar bills re-enter circulation at an alarming rate, each with the hopes and dreams of its former owner winning pride, glory, and some cash on the merit of their genius picks.
By the time Round 1 of March Madness is finished, there may be about four brackets in the entire country with a chance of having the correct final four teams. It’s maddening. But it’s awesome.
When the World Surf League announced this year’s title would be decided on a single championship day at the WSL Rip Curl Finals, they painted a vision of a Super Bowl Sunday. But the bracket formatting for the field of five men and five women who will be competing at Trestles next week lends itself to becoming a mini-NCAA Tournament. With the contest window opening up this week and a solid forecast for Lowers, professional surfing ended up with a gift other sports get to enjoy far more than the typical CT contest.
Matchups can be analyzed, debated, picked apart like a March Madness Final Four battle. How dangerous did Conner Coffin just become with the potential for overhead surf at Lowers? Could we say Filipe Toledo has the home-field advantage? Will Steph Gilmore complete upset after upset and win a women’s record eighth world title? And which seeding in this whole thing is the most advantageous for competitors? Is it that top seed for Gabriel Medina and Carissa Moore, who get to sit back and watch the field battle to a final heat? Or is it number two seeds Tatiana Weston-Webb and defending World Champ Italo Ferreira, who get at least one heat under their belts before surfing for it all?
Selema Masekela and Mick Fanning sat down here to talk over all these points and make their pick-by-pick predictions for each contest. Both had some interesting takes on who they expect to be crowned the 2021 World Champ with this new format.
Watch the 2021 Rip Curl WSL Finals at Trestles on Worldsurfleague.com.
