A Weekly Recap: A Wavepool Dies, Chopes Breaks An Ankle, And Nathan Fletcher Jumps Out Of A Helicopter

Oh how lovely is it when Margaret River delivers. Main break isn’t so bad – as long as you don’t ask Mick Fanning – but the alternate options are what we’re all really hoping for when the West Oz contest rolls around. We may not see North Point spring to life this waiting period, but the spectacle produced at the Box yesterday was some of the better surfing live streamed on our screens in some time.

If that’s all you’re interested in, you best click over to Mike Ciaramella’s comp wrap – or just watch the heat analyser like a normal person. While Margies has been holding our attention captive for the most part, some other things did happen in the surf world. The most important of these events, as judged by me, are listed and somewhat surmised below. 

Kelly may have been knocked at Main Break after this, but it’s hard to deny he’s still got it.

Photography

Dunbar/WSL

Kelly can still do it. It’s tough not to have sipped the Kelly Kool Aid over these past few weeks. 

Realistically, he’s not going to win that a World Title, but neither are 75% of those surfers in the top-32. Coming into this year, clouds hung over Kelly’s competitive outro, and it seemed questionable as to whether the 11x World Champ, carrying an ongoing injury, at the age of 47, was up to taking on those who weren’t born when he won his first title. He may not have won any events, but his consecutive showings at Keramas and now Margs has many eating their words.

The King can still do it, and when he’s on, as Kelly said so himself, he can take on the best of them. 

If you’ve somehow missed all of this, at the very least, I recommend watching Kelly’s elimination round. 

Teahupo’o breaks Noah Beschen’s ankle, after a booger burns him. Firstly, let’s just hope Teahupo’o is this good come late August as it has been pumping of late.

Anyone logged into the binary ghettos of social media would’ve seen the state of Tahiti has been in over the last week: very big barrels, some wipeouts, and for Noah Beschen, a broken ankle preceded by a drop in.

While Noah wouldn’t have made this wave regardless, the drop in just gives some added burn to a broken ankle which will keep Noah out of action for the foreseeable future. 

“I just pulled in behind him and then it spit and I couldn’t see anything. Then the foam ball came up and, like, I hit it really hard and it came up and tweaked my ankle.” And what Noah means by “tweaked” is an ankle fractured in two places. 

Surf Ranch in Florida is dead in the swampy, really high water table. A high water table is the primary cause for the artificial surf waves cancellation, but there were a number of other entangled in the project. The WSL purchased the Floridian land for $6.5 million USD back in 2017 which was planned to feature a 13.9 acre surf lagoon. 

The ranch was met with some opposition from the Sierra Club and Audubon Society, but the WSL was granted the go ahead on the project, with completion scheduled for some time this year.

A few days ago however, the swamp-like setting ensured the end of Surf Ranch Florida’s hopes. 

Jack McCoy is doing a run of Talk Stories. The first one ran Saturday at the MCA in Sydney’s Circular key and featured the likes of Kai Neville, Craig Anderson and a screening of Craig’s new film – which is set to drop this week. Jack is doing another ‘Talk Story’ at the MCA in conjunction with Vivid this coming Friday, so if you’d like to hear one of surfing’s most creative creatives, purchase a ticket via the Vivid website.

Nathan Fletcher wanted to and then proceeded to jump out of a fucking helicopter. Nathan Fletcher’s documentary, ‘Heavy Water’ is premiering in the coming weeks. Jake Howard, a walking, talking surf encyclopedia, interviewed Nathan in the lead up to the film’s drop. As with anything Fletcher touches, it’s worthy of your viewing. Click here to read the interview with Nathan about the film. 

The Stab Interview, with Kanoa Igarashi. Kanoa Igarashi is currently second in the world on the CT. Come and acquaint yourself with the Huntington kid who could in our in deoth interview. 

A few little hits of Gossip.  So, the surmise: Taylor Steele is directing a profile film on Griffin Colapinto, Alana Blanchard followed Jack to Pyzel, and Adriano De Souza is off Channel Islands and onto the crafts of Mr. James Cheal – Chilli Surfboards. It’s just a pity ADS isn’t really able to ride them properly at the moment.  

No Contest’s Bali episode dropped.  For someone who doesn’t spend hideous amounts of time watching surfing anymore, No Contest is still one of my go to’s. There’s good surfing, a couple of handy interviews, and at the very least, I get to make fun of Ashton behind his back knowing full well I’d never have to balls to stand in front of a camera. Watch it, this Bali episode is very good. 

What else happened? Well, as far as scrolling back on the site goes, it looks like Eithan Osborne is surfing for Israel; Tom Jennings released a West Oz showreel; Asher Pacey finally announced his signing to RVCA (more details on how we almost fucked Asher’s financial life soon); we published a guide to surfboard shopping on Craig’s list; and I’m really sick of posting links so you can just scroll back through the previous day’s news yourself.

Keep your eyes peeled for Craig Anderson’s, ‘The Quieter You Are The More You Can Hear’ to be dropping on this .com in the coming days.

As expected, it’s a melter. 

Arrivederci.