Talking with tourists lately, the main topics of conversation have been whether the sun still exists (evidence is inconclusive) and the number of people on island. With the tourism industry booming over the last several years, the idea of an “offseason” has basically evaporated on Kauai.
The same can be said for the surf schedule, which got its 2018 Championship Tour season underway on Australia’s Gold Coast. The first CT event of the year has displayed some of the new wrinkles to the contest format, as well as some big upsets to the dismay of many notable names.
It seems like we only just concluded the 2017 schedule, but here we are again, already analyzing the action at Snapper Rocks. There’s been some sizable surf and plenty of drawn-out wave opportunities, so some really strong surfing has been on display.
Continuing her elite progression over the past few months has been Malia Manuel, who made her way into the semifinals with a flurry of impressive heat wins. Manuel capped an injury-plagued 2017 with a third, fifth and second-place finish in her final three events. She also has a second and a third on the Qualifying Series already in 2018.
So the knee injury doesn’t seem to be a lingering hindrance and Manuel began the Roxy Pro Gold Coast with an elimination win over Tatiana Weston-Webb in round two. It’s a shame that Kauai’s two wahine were matched up so early, but Manuel started strong and went on to a 12.06 to 8.10 victory.
One of the changes for 2018 is the removal of one non-elimination round for both the men’s and women’s events. While the women’s third round still has three-woman heats, the third-place finisher will now be eliminated from the event. This will shorten the contest by six heats and implements some of the unpredictability of the multi-way sessions.
Manuel picked up a third-round win over defending world champ Tyler Wright and Oahu’s Coco Ho. Ho’s third-place finish in that heat earns her an Equal Ninth place result with this new format.
Manuel then took down three-time world champ Carissa Moore, 15.83 to 12.60, in the quarterfinals. In addition to Moore, the quarters were the surprising end of the line for both Wright and Stephanie Gilmore. So the final four remaining have a grand total of zero world titles to their names.
Manuel will face Lakey Peterson in the first semifinal. Peterson appears to be the most in-form surfer of the event to this point, so she and Manuel should put on a good show in their head-to-head battle for a spot in the finals.
The second semifinal will feature a pair of Aussies in Stephanie Gilmore and Keely Andrew.
The men’s side was weaving through the end of round three on Tuesday, but there have already been some shocking developments. John John Florence was knocked out in round two by local wild card Mikey Wright. Sebastian Zietz later fell to rookie Michael Rodrigues and injury replacement Michael February took out Matt Wilkinson. Those are three guys who have had major success during the Australian leg over the past few years and each will come away with a 25th-place result to start 2018.
Gabriel Medina, Kolohe Andino, Joel Parkinson and Frederico Morais didn’t fare much better as they all fell in round three.
With all of those heavyweights out of action, someone will begin their season with an unexpectedly nice head start. It could be a good chance for someone like Filipe Toledo, Owen Wright or Julian Wilson to put themselves in the yellow jersey for now. But with the results to this point, they all need to be at their best to advance.
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David Simon can be reached at dsimon@thegardenisland.com.
