Page 6 - MidWeek West - March 30, 2022

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MARCH 30, 2022
Aloha surfers and beachgoers,
On the piping hot World Championship Tour we have event No. 4 coming up. It’s the iconic Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach April 10-20. The last guy to win there was John John Florence back in 2019.
The only other surfer to nab four wins at Bells was four-time world champ Mark Richards in 1978-1980 and 1982. This is no easy feat as Bells Beach has a huge play- ing field like Sunset Beach. It takes excellent judgment of the lineup, rail control, a lot of luck and a ton of paddling. Of all the Bells winners, 24 out of 43 are from the land down under — so local knowledge clearly helps. But I’m still bet- ting on Florence.
two! Then, Hawai‘i’s Lynne Boyer won in 1979. An inter- esting twist is that 19 United States female surfers, includ- ing Hawai‘i, have won out of a total of 34 events. Australia has just 12. So come on, guys, catch up with the U.S. girls ringing the “bell!”
their chance. Winning at Bells is one of the most prestigious trophies in pro surfing.
pan’s California-raised Kanoa Igarashi take the lead away from the North Shore’s Bar- ron Mamiya in Portugal earli- er this month. So now the top five rating is No. 1 Igarashi, No. 2 Kelly Slater, No. 3 Barron Mamiya, No. 4 Filipe Toledo and No. 5 Seth Moniz. Florence is about 2,000 points below in eighth.
the grand finale show at Tres- tles in September, getting his chance to win his 12th world title.
I guarantee you that it’s going to be epic and a game changer for the 2022 world ti- tle campaigns. The last person togotwowinsinarowwas three-time world champ Mick Fanning back in 2014-2015. Lucky for today’s hot shots, Fanning retired a few years ago.
By the way, the defending champ is Courtney Conlogue from California. She “rang the bell” three times. Caris- sa Moore won three in a row 2013-2015. But seven-time world champ Stephanie Gilm- ore has won four times at this venue. There are new female faces who also want to have
So how are the current standings? Well, surprisingly Costa Rica’s Brisa Hennessy, 22, went ahead of Moore in the last event, so she’s leading the pack.
Most do not grasp the sig- nificance of such a possibility since surfing “supposedly” is not a “mainstream” sport. So, to clarify, if he just makes it into the top five for this fi- nal event, it would be one of the greatest achievements in sports history. If he wins, I won’t have the words. Slater is 50. He won his first world title 30 years ago.
BY GARY KEWLEY
The World Championship Tour Goes Down Under
The ladies will be on it, too. They’ve been competing since 1977 when America’s Margo Oberg won the first
The U.S. and Hawai‘i have three of the top five positions, not counting local resident Tatiana Weston-Webb, who was born in Brazil but raised in Hanalei. Clearly, living in Hawai‘i has some benefits to success on the WCT, for now at least. Keep it going, girls.
Out of this elite group only one has won 10,000 points this year — it was “you know who” at Pipe. If Slater can somehow win just one or even two more events, he has a chance to stay in the top five. This means he’d qualify for
GQ, droppin’ in 4 U!
For the men, we saw Ja-
gary@surfnewsnetwork.com
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