Matt Wilkinson, victorious. Photo: WSL/Ed Sloane
Today’s show is brought to you by the number 5, the color yellow, and a little football adorned with Elmo.
Matt Wilkinson became the fifth goofy-footer to ever ring the bell at the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach — and the first since in nearly two decades since the iconic Mark Occhilupo’s 1998 victory — at the 55th running of the historic contest, hanging on to the yellow leader’s jersey as the gap between him and the second best, now Conner Coffin, grew to 20,000 points versus 9,200.
Team Rip Curl was celebrating on the landing at the bend in the Bells stairs less than five minutes into the heat, but it didn’t start out as a victory party for Wilkinson. Four-time Bells champ Mick Fanning, who had just been denied a record fifth bell by South Africa’s Jordy Smith in the semifinals, was ready for a drink as soon as his post heat interview with Rosy Hodge was done, so stoked for his upcoming holiday as he takes a break from the pro tour that he started yelling for a piña colada with his wetsuit still half on.
When WSL Australia’s regional media manager, Will Hayden-Smith, asked Fanning if he’d do a few interviews with papers in Sydney and Brisbane over Hayden-Smith’s cell phone, Fanning replied that he’d do it in exchange for a beer. Minutes later he was handed a box of Corona cans, which he doled out to a select few on the staircase — including rookie Davey Cathels, photographer Corey Wilson, and team manager Ryan Fletcher — with the phone pressed to his ear. The party was ON, but so was Fanning’s professionalism as he held his beer behind his back during a couple more interviews and slipped the empty can discreetly into the back pocket of the faded black jeans he’d donned along with a grey Rip Curl hoodie, remaining comfortably barefoot.
As Wilkinson’s merciless trademark backhand snaps left Smith’s combined wave score in the dust, the party became a casual planning session: who would be guiding Wilkinson to the desk for a live post heat discussion, what the process would be going into the tradition-filled awards ceremony, and most importantly who would be chairing the athlete up the towering staircase that would soon be adorned with his name.
“You have to make it to the top of the stairs, that’s the rule,” Fanning said firmly, encouraging the chosen men to fight through the exhaustion they were about to experience no matter what.
Wilko has only lost one heat so far this year: his second place finish in a Round 4 matchup here at Bells against heat victor Wiggoly Dantas and Hawaiian wild card Mason Ho forced him to compete in Round 5 before moving on to the finals, which he did by ejecting fellow Aussie Julian Wilson in a tie-breaker heat on April Fool’s Day. That prowess and Wilkinson’s overall transformation into an unbeatable surfer has been largely accredited to the tutelage of Glenn “Micro” Hall, the newly retired CT charger who now plays surf coach to many of this year’s most impressive competitors.
“He’s one of those guys who didn’t ever do the little things that gave him the confidence and the belief that should happen for him, so now he’s doing all the little things,” Micro said of Matt’s progress as a surfer since last year. “Training’s one thing — when you get fitter and stronger and healthier— which is one of the elements, but then that leads to confidence and it leads to believing that when you need a score it will come, and when the judges are right in the score believing he deserves it, and then they believe he deserves it, and it all kind of snowballs from there.”
Hall watched the final heat like a nervous mother hen, turning to Fanning to share massive grins, half-hugs and back-pats when his elation over a perfect maneuver overflowed beyond containment. Thank goodness for The Footy, a little red football with Elmo’s name on one side and the childhood favorite’s face on the other. Matty was tossing it in the air to himself after his semifinal win, the lads of Team Rip Curl chuck it around to each other during their downtime, but The Footy’s true purpose is to quell Micro’s waves of anxiety during heats.
“It’s to get rid of Micro’s nervous energy,” team manager Fletcher, known to most simply as Fletch, explained. “We found out in the earlier heats, especially at Snapper, that he needed something to do while the heats were on so he didn’t walk around in circles. So that’s why The Footy’s there: we throw it around, pass it around, just sort of keep him busy while the heat is on.”
The minutes flew by, the hooter blew, triumph was seized. Wilkinson tore a victory wave to shreds as a disappointed but brave-faced Smith belly-surfed to the shoreline. When the fast-moving crowd of media, friends, and the latest Bells champion finally reached the 1,000th step at the top of the Bells cliff, one of the first things Wilko heard was a baritone chant from Fanning that the three-time world champ had been doing the whole time his close friend was out in the water, “Wiiiil-kinnnnn-sonnnnn!”
Wearing an Australian flag like a superman cape, a giddy Wilkinson ascended the stairs of the athlete’s tower to the WSL post show desk. A couple people started another, slower chant that the entire gathered mob quickly joined in on and would continue to sing well into the afternoon: “Wiiiiiiiil-koooooooo, Wiiiiiiil-kooooo…” When the victorious athlete reached the deck overlooking the crowd, he began laughing, tilted his head back, and unleashed a cheer fit for a king as he reached two fists as high into the sky as his arms would allow.
And so continues the illustrious, goofy reign of Matt Wilkinson. Long live the king.
