A Case For The WSL’s Grand Finale To Run At This Famous Wave

I like to imagine Mick’s Unplugged interviews as job interviews for future World Titles. 

Mr John John, based on your answers you qualify for another, as do you, Gabe. Carissa, you’ve just earned yourself another three and Ronnie Blakey, big congrats on your 17th commentary World Title. 

It doesn’t take much imagination to hand out future World Title trophies to people that already have shiny shelves so Kolohe Andino’s appearance on the show would be my first real test. 

Before I can even attempt that thought experiment, I would need to wrap my head around what it will take to win World Titles now that the WSL has vaguely communicated their plans to reinvent the tour. The only thing that’s concrete about the tour’s future so far is that World Titles will be decided by an end of year surf-off. 

Will this open the doors to a different style of surfer and does that surfer look like Kolohe Andino? With a 5th place finish last year and a short term goal of becoming World Champ, Kolohe is both directly affected by and directly opposed to surf-offs describing the plan as “…not fair”. 

On the other lines are Sam McIntosh, who as equal parts surf fanatic and surf business entrepreneur, is all about the change and Mick Fanning, the competitive surf oracle, who has a nuanced view of both sides. 

If you care about competitive surfing then you’ll enjoy the clashing of these points of view and the educated estimations around how, when, why and where these surf-offs will happen. 

This is only a snippet of the show and you can find the full-length versions by subscribing to the Stab Podcast channel. For the Apple podcast app click here or stream the Soundcloud below. 

As for whether or not Kolohe gets the job of future world Champ? I’ll let you know when the WSL comes forwards with their plans for the tour or an insider uploads them to WikiLeaks.