A Tale Of Six Losers At The Corona Pro Bali

Welcome to Day 2 of the 2019 Corona Bali Protected, the let’s start running heats at midnight (PST) edition. 

Today was elimination day at Keramas, with six heats surfed across the genders and six surfers ousted.

Oh, how it must sting to be one of the few true losers of a CT event. To be in the bottom 11% of the field. To not beat one person between two three-man heats. 

But it had to happen to someone – or, rather, four CT men and two women – and these Round 2 losers are the first of their name, meaning they’d yet to encounter a 33rd (or 17th, women) in their 2019 season until today. 

This comes as a huge relief to Paige Hareb and Keely Andrew, both of whom lost in the second round of the first two events. 

Using the heat analyzer as our scalpel, let us dissect today’s six matches and see if something of worth can be mined.

“It sucked,” Heat one winner Kanoa Igarashi said about being relegated to the Elimination Round. “It’s a lot more nerve-wracking than you think – just because there’s not a lot of waves. If there was tons of opportunity you wouldn’t really care, but after yesterday I had some trust issues with the lineup [Kanoa caught one wave – a 1.77 – in his Round 1 heat].”

Then Rosie asked him about Bali Belly, which for our confused readers, is not the same thing as Soli Bailey.

“As soon as I woke up at one in the morning, I was like this is it, it’s Bali Belly, I got it. You kinda just accept it and let it happen, you let it all out, you let it do its thing. You can’t really fight it. I think I got a little too comfortable, I was gargling tap water the other day, so I got a little slap on the wrist. But I’m good now.”

Kanoa put up 14-odd points, the most of the day, to defeat Deivid Silva and wildcard Jacob Wilcox.

Heat 2 was a QS bash-fest between Willian Cardoso, Zeke Lau, and Leo Fioravanti. The big-man trio performed spray snap after spray snap, hypnotizing the judges to a point where their fingers wouldn’t move past the ‘5’ on their keyboards.   

Leo broke the cycle with four minutes remaining, busting a frontside reverse that was so fucking ordinary Ben Dunn could have drawn it in his Year 4 notebook. Even so, the hypnosis was broken and Leo earned himself a six and the heat lead, relegating Zeke to a dismal 33rd. Tough luck, but when you try to out-QS Leo and the Panda, you’re typically gonna lose.   

Seriously, imagine the shit Filipe would have done if he’d surfed today.

Heat 3 was a more exciting affair, with each surfer using their first two rides in their ultimate heat score. 

First, Soli Bailey big-dicked the peak and connected two searing hacks for a low-six. Seth Moniz fought back with a low-five and Ace Buchan, on the very next wave, went floater, vert, lateral, lateral for a seven. 

Then came Soli’s tube-carve-snap, which netted a low-five, followed by another dissection from Ace who took the lead by several points. 

Seth’s next wave was the best of the heat – maybe not by score, but certainly to the viewer’s eye. A tapered wall that hit the reef just right, Seth slid into a draining tube and out the other end, carving back to the wash before we knew what happened and jamming a kick-stall under the cheeky end-section funnel.

Seth fell on the closing snap but so what? Are you a fucking narc or something? I said give the man his score and the judges did just that – a clean seven was awarded for a qualifying slot that, despite Soli’s last-minute effort, would not be overtaken.  

In Heat 4, Sebastian Zietz didn’t catch a wave until the 12-minute mark. It’s like he hadn’t even read Mitchell Shepherd’s recent dissertation, which proves that bolstering your wave count in heats gives you a greater chance at success. Sadly for Seabass, the stats don’t lie, as he was relegated to third with an eight-point total. Ryan Callinan and Jesse Mendes advanced. 

The women had just two heats to run today, one of which included our 3x World Champ Carissa Moore. Riss looked totally out of place in the Elimination Round heat, not because she surfed badly but because it was so, dare we say, beneath her. There’s no reason Carissa should ever be fighting for survival alongside Paige Hareb and a teenage Indonesian wildcard.  

Nevertheless, Carissa surfed her way to Round 3, but not before getting brutally faded by the local gal. In fairness to Ms. Johnson, I believe she truly didn’t see the Champ, who had come from well behind a crumbling section.  

The waves pulsed for Keramas’ golden hour, with clean, chest-high walls coursing down the reef.

After an extensive injury leave, Silvana Lima made her presence felt once again, the 34-year-old bashing the lip time and time again for a series of sixes and sevens. 

Courtney took a similar if slightly less flowing approach, garnering fives and sixes for her efforts.

Macey Callaghan failed to connect multiple maneuvers until her last wave, where a searing two-carve combo was rewarded with six-and-a-half points. But it was too little too late for the lanky blonde, who was unable to back it up and therefore took the L. 

As far as I can tell, that’s about all that happened. If I missed something major, let us know in the comments below, but try not to be a dick about it. 

Next call’s Thursday at 6 am (Indo time). 

Corona Bali Protected Men’s Round 2 (Elimination Round) Results:
Heat 1: Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) 14.60 DEF. Deivid Silva (BRA) 10.67, Jacob Willcox (AUS) 10.10 
Heat 2: Leonardo Fioravanti (ITA) 10.90 DEF. Willian Cardoso (BRA) 10.66, Ezekiel Lau (HAW) 10.07 
Heat 3: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 14.00 DEF. Seth Moniz (HAW) 12.50, Soli Bailey (AUS) 11.40 
Heat 4: Ryan Callinan (AUS) 10.50 DEF. Jesse Mendes (BRA) 8.43, Sebastian Zietz (HAW) 8.40

Corona Bali Protected Men’s Round 3 (Round of 32) Matchups:
Heat 1: Julian Wilson (AUS) vs. Jadson Andre (BRA) 
Heat 2: Yago Dora (BRA) vs. Michael Rodrigues (BRA) 
Heat 3: John John Florence (HAW) vs. Joan Duru (FRA) 
Heat 4: Wade Carmichael (AUS) vs. Deivid Silva (BRA) 
Heat 5: Italo Ferreira (BRA) vs. Jack Freestone (AUS) 
Heat 6: Willian Cardoso (BRA) vs. Jeremy Flores (FRA) 
Heat 7: Conner Coffin (USA) vs. Griffin Colapinto (USA) 
Heat 8: Kolohe Andino (USA) vs. Ricardo Christie (NZL) 
Heat 9: Filipe Toledo (BRA) vs. Caio Ibelli (BRA) 
Heat 10: Seth Moniz (HAW) vs. Ryan Callinan (AUS) 
Heat 11: Owen Wright (AUS) vs. Kelly Slater (USA) 
Heat 12: Michel Bourez (FRA) vs. Rio Waida (IDN) 
Heat 13: Gabriel Medina (BRA) vs. Leonardo Fioravanti (ITA) 
Heat 14: Mikey Wright (AUS) vs. Adrian Buchan (AUS) 
Heat 15: Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) vs. Peterson Crisanto (BRA) 
Heat 16: Jordy Smith (ZAF) vs. Jesse Mendes (BRA)

Corona Bali Protected Women’s Round 2 (Elimination Round) Results:
Heat 1: Carissa Moore (HAW) 10.67 DEF. Paige Hareb (NZL) 8.33, Kailani Johnson (IDN) 2.33 
Heat 2: Silvana Lima (BRA) 13.53 DEF. Courtney Conlogue (USA) 12.57, Macy Callaghan (AUS) 10.80

Corona Bali Protected Women’s Round 3 (Round of 16) Matchups:
Heat 1: Carissa Moore (HAW) vs. Paige Hareb (NZL) 
Heat 2: Johanne Defay (FRA) vs. Brisa Hennessy (CRI) 
Heat 3: Caroline Marks (USA) vs. Silvana Lima (BRA) 
Heat 4: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) vs. Coco Ho (HAW) 
Heat 5: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) vs. Keely Andrew (AUS) 
Heat 6: Malia Manuel (HAW) vs. Courtney Conlogue (USA) 
Heat 7: Lakey Peterson (USA) vs. Bronte Macaulay (AUS) 
Heat 8: Tatiana Weston-Webb (BRA) vs. Nikki Van Dijk (AUS)