By Lincoln Feast
(Reuters) – Griffin Colapinto beat Brazil’s Italo Ferreira in a high-scoring final at the Surf Ranch Pro in California on Sunday but the American’s win in the wave pool was tainted by claims from some Brazilians about the fairness of the judging.
Deep in California cow country more than 100 miles (160 km) from the coast, Lemoore’s Surf Ranch has been something of a divisive stop on the World Surf League (WSL) tour for both surfers and spectators.
While the giant, solar powered foil delivers unrivalled, high-performance waves peeling for 700 yards (640 meters), the predictability and struggles with the format of the competition have drawn criticism.
Improvements this year included more head-to-head battles and the introduction of a single scored wave, do-or-die night session from which just two men of 12 losers from the first round progressed to the quarter-finals.
Both Colapinto and Tokyo Olympic champion Ferreira survived that crucible and rode their momentum on finals day, mixing high-risk aerials with deep tube rides and huge turns to progress to the championship round.
Colapinto took the lead in his final run, and would have gone further ahead if he had landed a giant flip.
The high-energy Ferreira thought he’d done enough on his second-last ride but the score came up short and the Brazilian fell on his last ride to hand the title to Colapinto.
“I’m so psyched,” said Colapinto. “It hasn’t really soaked in yet. But I made three finals (this year), I was like, you gotta win one eventually, so yeah, I got one!”
Not everyone was happy with the result, however, with three-times world champion Gabriel Medina adding to criticisms of the judging by members of the “Brazilian Storm” that has dominated men’s surfing in recent years.
“The surfing community, especially in Brazil, is mesmerized with the poor clarity and inconsistence of judging for many years now, but lately it has been even more shocking,” Medina posted on Instagram after going down to Ethan Ewing in the quarter-finals.
“It is quite clear that judging is now rewarding very simple surfing, seamless transitions and have taken critical turns in critical sections off the criteria. This is very frustrating and is stagnating the sport.”
The WSL rejected the criticism and said the criteria – including performing the most difficult manoeuvres in the most critical parts of the wave – had been shared with surfers before the event.
“Surfing is an ever-evolving, subjective sport and we appreciate a robust debate around the progression of our sport and the criteria used to judge our competitions,” a WSL spokesperson said on Monday.
“However, it is unacceptable for any athlete to question the integrity of our judges who … are elite professionals.”
Hawaii’s Carissa Moore was too strong for young Floridian Caroline Marks in the women’s final, the win taking her to the top of the world tour rankings and improving her chances of qualifying for the Paris Olympics to defend her gold medal.
“It’s a perfect wave but it’s really difficult to ride,” said five time world champion Moore. “It always takes a couple of surfs to figure out the timing again and just to calm the nerves.”
Like Moore, Colapinto climbed to the top of the rankings with four more contests remaining before the top five men and women compete in a one-day finals event in Southern California in September.
Coveted spots at next year’s Olympics are also up for grabs, with the top 10 men and top eight women at the end of the tour booking a ticket to the perfect reef pass of Teahupo’o in Tahiti.
(Reporting by Lincoln Feast in Sydney; Editing by Stephen Coates)
