Coming to Terms with the Dreaded Mid-Season Cut

The Cut, the dreaded Cut, is the best thing to happen to Championship Tour-level pro surfing and possibly the worst thing to happen as well.

The worst: dream-crushing, soul-destroying, family-breaking heats, controversial decisions, and every single decision by every judge highlighted with a klaxon siren worldwide as surfers suffer their fates and are forced to make life—and career-changing decisions.

The best: drama, passion, nail-biting excitement, controversy, and pathos.

See You In Ballito

At the Western Australian Margaret River Pro, the clarion call from all the South African spectators and fans, connected in various global pods and via WhatsApp groups and social hubs, as surfers fell to the wayside and were victim to The Cut’s brutal guillotine, was…See You In Ballito.

The CS might start at Snapper, but before it heads to Huntington Beach, we will see The Cut crew at the Ballito Pro. The Ballito Pro in Durban is the meeting point of Challenger Series surfers, and for many, the retort to the drama witnessed in Margarets was See You In Ballito…(fill in the surfers’ name here).’ 

Kelly Slater

Although it absolutely won’t happen, it could happen in theory, and for that reason, we can’t leave it out. Kelly Slater could surf in the entire Challenger Series, he has already surfed at Snapper, and he could drift back onto the Championship Tour without too much drama. He already has two wildcards on top of this. Slater could do a Tom Curren, come through from the trials, and win the world title. It’s not going to happen, it will not happen, but on paper, it is an open route and unhindered by any obstacles, both in theory and physically. Well, except for the old age bus that threatens to properly ride Kelly over any day now. But should he decide to do something so ludicrous, it might actually work. If so, See You In Ballito, Kelly!

As for other CS-relegated surfers at Margarets, first up was the popular San Clemente personality Kade Matson, who needed a 6.43 in the round of 32 against Italo Ferreira. He picked up a good-looking wave, cracked two solids off the top before a tumultuous but scrappy final turn, and fist-pumped to eternity as the rest of the San Clemente crew cheered on. He thought he had it, and they thought he had it, but it came in at 5.83, and it was all over.

We all thought it was close, that Kade had it, but that could have been a slight leaning towards the fandom of the 2% crew coming out everywhere. Still, it came short, and the sickness and anguish were evident on his face. Where to? Ballito is the short answer. See You In Ballito, Kade.

Totally Bizarro

At the end of the heat, things went totally bizarro. Italo came out of the water and faced out to sea, hitting the water repeatedly with his board in what looked like frustration. Had he yet to hear the results? Then he upped the ante and started head-butting his board so hard that it absolutely had to lead to a proper migraine. It doesn’t matter how much caffeine you have packed around your brain, as Italo is prone to do. That much vehemence and impact against your cranium will hurt, bruise, and crack. Then, as if it couldn’t get worse, he took to the stage and started crying with Stace for several reasons. He cried because Kelly signed his board, because of the ‘dark places’, and because he was happy; he just wanted to be happy. It was quite touching to watch the angst, except for poor old Kade.

On the other hand, when Tyler Wright was faced with the slightest chance of entering the realm of possibility of approaching the Cut, she was awarded for the best two foam climbs of the decade with a 7.83 and a safe berth at the expense of Tati Weston-Webb had already requalified, so she had no reason to do anything except hang her head at the final results.

Lakey Peterson had the ignoble task of dealing with relegation via the results of others. All that was holding her spot on the tour was young Sawyer Lindblad making the final, which was far from a sure thing. Until Lindblad banked a 9.4 against Tyler in their semis, finished the heat with a 16.57 total, and waltzed into the final. That was it for Peterson, relegated to the Challenger Series, and we’ll See You In Ballito, Lakey.

Miggy and Sammy

The face-off between Miggy and Sammy was brutal. I was busy prepping for a surf in Indo, waxing and applying several layers of suncream to get me through a few hours of the cruel sun and watching out of the corner of my eye when Sammy was interviewed by the head-bobbing Stace and could not stop crying. He could not even talk due to all the crying. Watching it was devastating, and I turned away, thinking that Sammy was out of the game. It was the other way around. Sammy was blubbering for his bro, Miggy, who he had just amputated from the tour. Miggy is a fighter, though. See You In Ballito Miggy, you champ!

But wait, there’s more. With Sammy eventually losing to John John in the quarters, he too joined the ranks of the unworthy. He will now be carpooling with his brother on the Challenger Series. See You In Ballito, Sammy and Miggy. It’ll be great. For us. To watch.

The Ultimate Ambassador

We were witness to the brutalization of Sally Fitzgibbons by Sawyer Lindblad. Commentator Richie Lovett said that he felt like the event had been running for a month. To continue a theme of the time-space continuum, it feels like Sally has been competing on the pro tour for a hundred years, all of it with smiles. She has been everywhere, won everything, and fallen off tour and climbed back on tour more times than others. Sally won the ISA World Games but cruelly has not made The Cut, nor the Olympic Team. She’s the ultimate ambassador for our sport, and many ill-tempered bad losers can learn so much from her grace and kindness.

What was quite wonderful was that after her heat loss and The Cut, she went to the beach and had a quick game of rock paper scissors with a local frothing young grom before handing over her coveted competitors’ vest. The next in line was some other grom, pawing at her equipment, so Sally took off her leggie and gave it to him with a smile (little shit didn’t even say thank you!). Then, she signed a multitude of autographs after losing and after having the guillotine fall. What a champ. See You In Ballito, Sally!

Lindblad, as mentioned, was the anchor on the sinking ship that was Lakey Peterson’s dream of requalifying, so the youngster can claim Wright, Fitzgibbons and Peterson as her scalps for the event, while the Finals berth saw her evade The Cut as well. She left Western Australia with the best career result and is now safely ranked 10th.

But wait, there’s more. Peterson gets the wildcard and sneaks back in. We probably won’t See You In Ballito, then Lakey.

“It’s pretty crazy,” Lindblad was heard to have said afterwards, summing up much of this event.

The Challenger Series kicks off on the Gold Coast and then moves on to Sydney before Ballito, but let’s never let a small thing like facts and timelines get in the way of a storyline. 

2024 WSL Challenger Series Schedule:

• Snapper Rocks, Gold Coast (Queensland, Australia): April 27 – May 4, 2024
• North Narrabeen, Sydney (New South Wales, Australia): May 9 – 16, 2024
• Ballito (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa): July 1 – 8, 2024
• Huntington Beach (California, USA): August 3 – 11, 2024
• Ericeira (Portugal): September 29 – October 6, 2024
• Saquarema (Brazil): October 12 – 20, 2024