World Surf League Wrap Up

words by ben stephens

Alright, gather around team – bring the stoke, fill it with a solid level of froth and let’s recount what a crazy year it has been on the World Surf League – celebrating the world’s best damn surfers on this blue planet.

Let’s start with the girls. Aussie powerhouse Tyler Wright took that crown early on in France after taking the 1^st spot 5 times this season. This just cements her as our golden child and equal favourite Wright child – whatever Mikey is up to at the moment, it’s a solid piece of marketing.

A post shared by Tyler Wright (@tylerwright) on Oct 13, 2016 at 4:31am PDT

Then Laura Enever, hailing from the Northern Beaches of Sydney, charged hard this year when she was awarded the wildcard into the first female Big Wave Surf Event at Jaws. It was crazy. #laurawouldgo

Couple this with a solid year on the tour and just scrapping in for next year without having to deal with the qualifying series – Laura, we couldn’t be more proud of you!

The girls have had a banger of a year, heading into 2017 you can be sure that it’s going to be another huge year on tour.

Now the boys. Where do I start?

John John Florence had a year like no other. First winning the big wave Eddie event, then having a what he deemed as a rubbish start to the year, only to come back so strong and managing to nab his first world championship title. Then when the tour came back to Hawaii last week, he was knocked out in the quarterfinals, but he managed to pick up the Triple Crown – you do you, John John.

The 44-year-old, greatest of all time (GOAT), Kelly Slater was destined to take out the Pipeline Masters. He was on absolute fire throughout the heats. Sadly come the semi’s the young Igarahsi knocked him out with 33 seconds to go and nailed the required score.

Caption this.

A post shared by Kelly Slater (@kellyslater) on Oct 20, 2016 at 2:59pm PDT

The man who took out the Pipeline Masters was Tahitian, Michel Bourez, a well-deserved fight with rookie Kanoa Igarashi. Bourez did mention in his first post heat win ‘I still don’t believe it because we had the worst final I’ve ever had’ – true that. The swell was a little lacklustre and the boys were battling it out to post a score of 2.17 to win the event. It was a crazy day.

Once again, 2017 is looking to be another stellar year. Mick Fanning has been dropping hints that he might come back and surf at Snapper Rocks and Bells Beach. In fact, in that same interview, he then mentioned that when he does retire it’d be at Bell’s. Try not to read between those lines too much. It might be in three years. For now ya’ boy Mick has been surfing under the Northern Lights and making it look pretty damn spectacular.

Now all this sounds good in words, but it’s even better seeing all the live action. Thankfully the WSL have you sorted out for all this goodness, free and well produced. Get around it HERE