Griff Embraces Portugal’s Eternal Time Loop To Vanquish Medina + Ewing, Defay Delays The Inevitable

This is life on repeat.

In the 1993 film, weather reporter Phil Connors travels to the small town of Punxsutawney to cover the annual event known as Groundhog Day. The morning after his arrival, Phil wakes up to Sonny & Cher’s “I Got You Babe” on the clock radio, followed by the announcers’ chatter. 

The next morning, he wakes up to the same tune and chatter, and so on, successively. Phil becomes depressed, attempts to escape the town, behaves erratically, and tries to commit suicide, but no matter how hard he tries, he keeps living the same day over and over again.  

That is, until Phil starts using the knowledge accrued from his bizarre life inside the loop, to find beauty and joy in the mundane, bettering himself, helping others, and even falling in love.

Although struggling to find the silver lining in a difficult situation, the WSL finally broke out of its Peniche loop, putting a definite end to days of standing by, going on hold, and navigating extremely unfavorable tides, swells, and winds.

When Phil woke up from the hellish loop, he exclaimed, “Today is tomorrow,” a very layered and philosophical line for a mainstream, lighthearted romantic comedy.

It’s all too easy to dismiss five-day-long surf contests in passable waves, but being two stops short of the mid-year cut, today proved to be crucial for a handful of CT surfers’ tomorrows, significantly improving their chances of hanging around until Fiji — or Trestles for some.

TLDR

• Griffin Colapinto wins his second Peniche title
• Johanne Defay wins first event since G-Land
• Men’s Top 3 are now separated by less than 800 points
• Molly Picklum remains cloaked in yellow
  
  

Men’s Quarterfinals

The cut created a phenomenon where it feels like some surfers (even though they’re not) are still tour rookies. The heat between Jake Marshall and Crosby Colapinto felt like a matchup between two first-timers.

Crosby drew first blood to set the day’s scale, getting a 6.17 for stringing a few turns together on a waist-high right. An arguably low bar.

The high point of the heat was possibly a paddle battle won by Crosby after a rapid-fire exchange between the Californians. The youngest Cola bro took the lead by milking out another right for a score similar to his first, a 6.1. Enough to leave Marshall needing a 7.27, a big requirement in the dribbly conditions.

While Strider spoke of “cupped-out nuggets” and their expected arrival, Crosby and Jake sat in the water, looking into the horizon. Crosby moves into the semis.

In less than ideal conditions for two surfers who usually excel at right hand overhead peelers, rail-surfing knights Ethan Ewing and Ramzi Boukhiam met up to cross bluntish swords. Ramzi tried to find scores on the lefts but looked out of sorts, while Ethan drifted north towards a wonky yet rippable right, cleaning its face up with his yellow rails for a 6.17 and the lead.

Ewing stuck to his newfound corner, building upon his initial score by linking turns with impeccable timing and flow. He’d eventually put an 8 on the board, carving out double E’s into the Moroccan’s chest, who was left needing a 9.67 to advance.

Gabriel Medina kicked off with fireworks against Leo Fioravanti, launching into a backhand full rote into a series of connecting turns on the now rippable rights. Leo didn’t look shy and went airborne on his first wave too. The Italian made sure Medina knew he was putting up a fight.

However, Medina’s release of version 2.0 of his first wave came sooner than expected. With an even bigger backhand full rotation and linking up several turns all the way to the sand, he had judges tossing a 9 his way, for a heat score total of 16.17 in just 10 minutes. Medina could’ve just paddled in after that, poured himself some coffee and watched Leo try to get out of that pickle on his own.

Today we learned that Griffin Colapinto’s preheat routine consists of reading the Power of Now, listening to Sublime, and then some rap, in that order. By getting busier and overall more efficient than his opponent, Griff went left for a convincing win over Joan Duru, defeating the prospect of Mikey C putting his unborn child through college debt-free.

Women’s Semifinals

On the women’s side, Tyler Wright secured a victory over Tatiana Weston-Webb on the lefts. Tyler went more vertical than Tati, who appeared to struggle to fit her board in the tight curves of the wave on the outgoing tide. Tyler made full use of her prefrontal cortex to better read conditions and keep a close guard, leaving the Brazilian with little room to turn the heat around.

With the usual tide-affected conditions, it was hard to maintain interest in what was going on in the water. While the recent infusion of excitement and flair by younger surfers and tour rookies has made their portion of the tour more enjoyable, this all-veteran round made the gap between generations much more apparent.

Johanne Defay beat Lakey Peterson by opting to go left, tagging successive, albeit slightly mistimed turns for her top score, a 7.67. Lakey attempted to respond with an energetic approach to the rights during the second half of their encounter, but didn’t manage to outscore the Réunionnaise.

Men’s Semifinals

After a long lunch break, Renato and the commentary team return, talking up the afternoon conditions for the semifinals. Looking at what’s on offer, I can’t help but recall what Roy Lichtenstein once said of his paintings: “It doesn’t matter how much you talk about them, it doesn’t make them better.”

Crosby Colapinto rode the first wave of the heat, a crumbly right for a 5.5 — a definite keeper on a day like this. However, Ethan Ewing quickly managed to take the lead with a couple of mid-range scores, which he kept building upon throughout the 35-minute heat. With five minutes to go, Crosby managed to get another mid score, which left him needing a 7.5 under Ethan’s priority. Great campaign from Crosby, but Ewing was the first finalist to be decided.

Medina came out of the gates looking quick and nimble, fitting a couple of turns in on a left that looked like a closeout to the vast majority of the surfing population, earning a score in the 7-point range. Griffin’s response came with a sequence of three well-timed turns on an open left, getting the highest score of the heat, a 7.83.

While Medina paddled in to replace a broken board, Griff swung on a chunky right for a check turn and a chunky end section reentry over dry sand for a generous back-up score.

With little over a minute to go, Medina needed an 8.33. He found a left with scoring potential but couldn’t make the most of its best section. He followed through with a floater, a stock air rev and an end section reentry, to the delight of the Brazilian contingent on the beach. It didn’t look like he had it though. The score came in fairly high, but still short at 7.77.

Griffin’s wave selection was on point, capitalizing whenever a chance was present.

Women’s Final

Leading with a total of 3.83, Tyler spent a good portion of her heat filling up her backpack with closeouts. It took until the final third of the heat for Johanne Defay to rack up a couple of mid-range scores and take the lead.

While Johanne squeezed a turn under a big frothy section to increase her lead, Tyler took off on a bigger, bowly one with great scoring potential. The Australian went into a promising under-the-lip hook, but ate it. The ocean kept pounding her as she struggled to get out the back to chase the 7.5 she was in need of.

Johanne wins her first event since G-Land in 2022 and moves into second place in the rankings, with the new gen nipping at her heels.

Men’s Final

In similar fashion to what he did against Gabriel, Griffin began with a big backside tail-blow before laying into a series of reliable turns. With a knack for finding the best waves out there, he followed suit with another left, for a quick turn, and an end section closeout floater. Ethan, on the other hand, was starting to get into an uncomfortable position.

At the halfway mark, Ewing paddled into a left, hooked into a textbook backhand snap, into a vertical reentry on a steep end section, and holding strong in the backwash for the completion. The 7.4 got him out of a combination, needing a 6.37 to take the lead.

But Griffin’s wave selection was on point, capitalizing whenever a chance was present. First, he found a little tube on a right, before going into a pleasing lipslide for an 8.27. Shortly after, Griff took off on a chunky left, pulled in, and set his line for a long, technical backside tube ride, which earned him a 9.67, and many decibels from the sand.

Surely, a sigh of relief must’ve come from the WSL production team, finding the token barrel their highlight package had been missing throughout the entire day.

With this victory, Griffin Colapinto joins the ranks of Mick Fanning and Italo Ferreira as the third surfer to win at Supertubos twice, securing the yellow jersey for Bells, where runner-up Ethan Ewing has a title to defend.

Come-ups

Peak performance: Gabriel Medina (18.00), MQF H3
Hit replay: Griffin Colapinto (17.94) vs. Ethan Ewing (11.13), Men’s Final
Monster maneuver: Griffin’s backside tube ride, Men’s Final
One-liner: “How long have we been in Portugal for, two months?” — Paul Evans

Aside from the in-form surfers who made it into finals day, the crowd on the beach deserves an honorable mention. It takes enough dedication to watch an entire day of professional surfing in subpar conditions from the comfort of your own home. 

Roughing it out in the cold sand, amidst the merciless elements, away from food, beverage, or toilets, can be a grueling experience. Such level of loyalty and dedication toward professional surfing is commendable and might even be unparalleled anywhere else on tour besides Saquarema, which at times, the event we were watching felt oddly similar to.

And to the girl on the beach with the unofficial CT Shaper Rankings jeans: Hit us up? So many questions!

Let-downs

Caught behind: The commentary team talking up mediocre conditions.
Blind mice: Tough Brazilian fans with a keyboard.
Say what?: “There’s so much water moving, from the left, to the right of your screen, it’s kind of like the grain on a putting green.” — A Poetry Primer by Strider Wasilewski.

In recent conversation with Com Turren, SwampDad suggested that, “adding 3 days to the waiting period (on either side of the window), would have provided the 3 best days of the event,” pointing out that stops such as Portugal, in particular, could immensely benefit from an extension.

It would make for a great joke if it weren’t factual, but every odd year this contest runs, social channels get inundated with footage from Supertubos doing its best work a couple of days prior to or after the event.

Considering that some of the companies backing it are publicly listed behemoths — one having been subjected to legal action and eight-digit fines for carteling — it doesn’t seem that adding those extra days would put such a dent in its overall budget. Wouldn’t one of the world’s finest beach breaks, having a proper day, not be worth the extra dinheiro?  

Gamble Ramble

Portugal was a low-betting affair for Mikey C (blame the time zone), but a few big heat winner picks and the Griff event winner pick put him firmly in the black for the third time this season. Maybe you can beat the house?

Men’s QF
$50 on Jake Marshall at +115 to win $58 LOST
$100 on Griffin at -250 to win $40 WON

Women’s SF
$50 on Tyler Wright at -115 to win $43 WON
$50 on Johanne Defay at -130 to win $38 WON

Event winner
$50 on Gabriel Medina at +600 to win $300 LOST
$30 on Kanoa Igarashi at +1200 to win $360 LOST
$10 on Joan Duru at +3300 to win $330 LOST
$20 on Yago Dora at +2500 to win $500 LOST
$50 on Griffin Colapinto at +750 to win $375 WON
$75 on Caity Simmers at +600 to win $450 LOST
$25 on Bettylou at +1000 to win $250 LOST

Finals day earnings: $236
Event earnings: $500

Place your bets over at Betonline.AG