Surfing Confirmed As Sport As Ryan Callinan Upsets Filipe Toledo At Quik Pro

Philosophers have long considered whether or not surfing is a sport.

And by philosophers, I mean people with mediocre educations that are paid to write things for surfing publications. And also maybe some folks amongst friends. But only if they have weird relationships because you have to be pretty fucking out there to sit around arguing with your friends about whether surfing is a sport, a lifestyle or something else.

Anyway, it all ends today.

Today, October 10, in the year of the Laird 2018, surfing has officially been confirmed as a sport.  

It didn’t happen when they introduced exercise bikes to the competitor’s area. Or when every boardshort became known as high performance. Or when surfers started being referred to as athletes.

It happened when wildcard Ryan Callinan beat current WSL Jeep Ratings Leader and the pride of São Clemente Filipe Toledo in a wild heat at the Quiksilver Pro France.

The friendliest dream-crusher you’ll ever meet. Photo: WSL

It was back and forth. Tit for tat. Turn for turn. Eight for eight. The end result shook things up for the World Title race and things suddenly feel very sports.

Tokyo 2020, baby!

Now, more notes.

Wiggolly Dantas got barreled on the very first wave of the day today. This proved to be completely irrelevant as conditions were good, but also hard to handle. There was a ton of swell. And good winds. And a good bank. But it took a lot of work in order to get those three things to align favorably.

They ran the last ten heats of Round 2 and the first seven heats of Round 3 in a workhouse kind of day. Visions of La Graviere yesterday were still very much on everybody’s mind as they tussled with the ocean searching for seven-point-somethings.

All those bread and cheese platters have been paying off over at the Fat Boy Surf Camp. Photo: WSL

The first four heats of Round 3 were decided by less than .20 points. I’m not a conspiracy theory guy, but I do believe that 9/11 was a hoax, chem-trails are responsible for making dolphins lesbian and that Oprah eats fetuses in order to gain strength (sup Erik Logan). Not trying to imply anything here, but all four of the surfers who lost by the narrow margins were goofyfooted and maybe there’s a deeper reason why Kelly Slater won 11 World Titles and Mick Lowe won 0. 

Matt Wilkinson destroyed Italo Ferreira’s hopes and dreams of winning a World Title as he maintained his hopes and dreams of requalifying for the Tour. They say that every time somebody forces a backside turn, a small child accepts the fact that they’ll never achieve anything notable in their lives.

Medina’s patented pre-heat sob. Photo: WSL

Gabriel Medina is famous for tearing in Europe — you can read that as either crying or surfing well and both would be accurate. He pretty much either wins events or weeps on the podium. With Filipe out of the Quik Pro, Gabriel has a big opportunity to catch up the current World #1.

More heats will almost certainly run tomorrow. And Friday could be good. There has been plenty of talk about the WSL wanting to rectify the mistake they made yesterday and get some heats in at La Grav.

Quiksilver Pro France Remaining Round 2 (H3-12) Results: 
Heat 3: Wiggolly Dantas (BRA) 10.00 def. Wade Carmichael (AUS) 6.83
Heat 4: Kolohe Andino (USA) 13.07 def. Keanu Asing (HAW) 11.13
Heat 5: Joan Duru (FRA) 11.44 def. Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) 10.56
Heat 6: Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 11.50 def. Michel Bourez (PYF) 9.00
Heat 7: Willian Cardoso (BRA) 13.44 def. Miguel Pupo (BRA) 3.60
Heat 8: Ian Gouveia (BRA) 12.36 def. Jeremy Flores (FRA) 9.50
Heat 9: Conner Coffin (USA) 14.00 def. Jesse Mendes (BRA) 11.43
Heat 10: Michael Rodrigues (BRA) 14.10 def. Michael February (ZAF) 12.93
Heat 11: Ezekiel Lau (HAW) 13.93 def. Tomas Hermes (BRA) 13.80
Heat 12: Yago Dora (BRA) 15.77 def. Frederico Morais (PRT) 15.57

Quiksilver Pro France Round 3 (H1-7) Results: 
Heat 1: Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 13.90 def. Italo Ferreira (BRA) 13.84
Heat 2: Conner Coffin (USA) 10.43 def. Yago Dora (BRA) 10.27
Heat 3: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 10.50 def. Ian Gouveia (BRA) 10.30
Heat 4: Willian Cardoso (BRA) 11.13 def. Connor O’Leary (AUS) 11.07
Heat 5: Adriano De Souza (BRA) 15.20 def. Adrian Buchan (AUS) 11.14
Heat 6: Ryan Callinan (AUS) 16.80 def. Filipe Toledo (BRA) 16.60
Heat 7: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 11.33 def. Wiggolly Dantas (BRA) 8.37

Quiksilver Pro France Remaining Round 3 (H8-12) Matchups:
Heat 8: Michael Rodrigues (BRA) vs. Ezekiel Lau (HAW) 
Heat 9: Mikey Wright (AUS) vs. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 
Heat 10: Kolohe Andino (USA) vs. Patrick Gudauskas (USA) 
Heat 11: Griffin Colapinto (USA) vs. Sebastian Zietz (HAW) 
Heat 12: Julian Wilson (AUS) vs. Joan Duru (FRA)