Hey surfers,

We're half way through the Australian leg of the CT. I'm glad the tour is back but for these couple events I can only say that I'm happy that they happened overnight for me.

Watching some of the highlights was more than enough. Very poor waves, for CT standards, in small conditions and a judging scale that was difficult to understand. Italo's loss got all the attention and controversy. But for me the most intriguing was the heat between Reef Hazelwood and Griffin Colapinto.

Griffin won the heat because of a spectacular maneuver on small close out. It's a move that very few surfers in the world are able to execute and for the most part I agree that he should be rewarded but in my view not enough to win. It was the best score of the heat which I found to be very disappointing.

Reef's best wave, for me, was a lot better. Super well surfed from start to finish. He started with an off-the-top, a great roundhouse cutback, a powerful snap and a reentry sliding the fins. He read the wave perfectly with super smooth and clean transitions. A joy to watch.

This heat got me thinking. WSL has taught us to appreciate "difficulty". In small conditions, surfers with a great air game will optimize for that. But what is great surfing? Can we score a wave by how many times you could watch it? I mean, I could watch Reef's wave all day. Griffin's, on the other hand, seeing it twice is enough.

Unfortunate that Reef wasn't scored with the same glasses that Morgan Cibilic was. It requires a great deal of technique to surf a wave like that.

Feel free to disagree. Check out the waves on the heat analyzer. Round of 16, heat 8.

Yeww,
António