You watch the World Masters Championships over there in Azores? Check out the highlights? It was quality stuff, a feelgood mix of timeless surfing, rivalries reignited and just enough seriousness taken off you didn’t feel the need to call anyone a prick or write something toxic on the internet. Judging by the responses online, I wasn’t the only one digging it either. Which has me thinking.
Could the WSL run something of a Masters mini-tour alongside the main game?
I’m not talking about a gruelling, eleven-stop circuit that goes to all the same venues as the current crop of world title chasers. That wouldn’t be fair on anyone. The WSL would be up for twice as much insurance and have to bring on a haemorrhoid-relief company as a sponsor. But a four-stop, points-accumulative series that sees the old guard revisit some of the tour’s longest-running venues—say Bells, J-Bay, France and Pipe—could be a nice contrast to the ultra-seriousness of the big show. Imagine Occy and Curren doing battle again not just for a once-in-a-blue-moon heat at Supers, but a full-blown crusty division world title. Imagine Sunny storming the judging tower again, venting an anger so legendary it’s only lessened by mere fractions. Picture Slater at fifty, seeking the ultimate validation of his greatness by chasing two world titles in one year. Don’t tell me that stuff wouldn’t engage viewers and draw in a demographic of surfers that’ve probably lost interest with the current watered-down state of things.
The heritage heats are already in place, I get that, but a couple of things about them have always bothered me. One is their brevity. They’re literally a blink and you’ll miss it affair. If you’re not watching the webcast for that half-hour Dooma takes on Barton, then it’s gone and it’s not coming back and it’s not the kind of thing the Heat Analyzer really captures. The other problem is there’s nothing really at stake. When Gerr waxed Pottz at Trestles a few years back, the only person who really cared was Gerr. Sure, Pottz’s ego might’ve taken a brief battering, but what did he really lose? One ill-prepared heat in a rivalry where, ultimately, he was the top dog. Chuck something real on the line though, like a legitimate World Masters title, and see if it doesn’t fire up the chest-beating alpha male in your ‘89 world champ, or any of the other legends for that matter.
Of course, I could be a mile off the mark, envisaging a veritable sinkhole for the WSL to pour Dirk Ziff’s generous but ultimately finite financial resources into. Maybe a Masters mini-tour isn’t what the WSL needs. Maybe it’s more wave pool events? Maybe it’s a greater use of terminology borrowed from the NFL?
Still, it’s got to be better than Get Sent.
