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If you needed a moment that summed up how on edge tour-folk have generally been this week at Bells, it would have to be the storming of the judging tower by Italo Ferreira after his quarterfinal loss and the subsequent nuclear meltdown that followed. 

Sitting next door to the judges doing beach commentary, we could hear Italo’s footsteps thundering up the metal stairs, shaking the whole building. That was quickly followed by the door to the judges’ room being flung open and a tirade of broken English aimed in the general direction of Head Judge, Pritamo Ahrendt. 

It was difficult to ascertain exactly what Italo was arguing. He’d just lost on a close final wave exchange with Jack Robinson, but had already been rushing the tower before that score was even read out. We could make out Italo talking about a 6.10 he’d scored earlier in the heat. Beyond that it was hard to tell, although he did at one point accuse them of “ruining the sport”. 

Italo’s post-heat moment. Photo: Matt Dunbar/WSL

Italo was pissed. I’ve been around events for a while now, often parked next to the judges, and this was a top five blow up. I hadn’t heard anything like it since the days when Sunny Garcia and Perry Hatchett would square off in post-heat cage matches. It got heavy. Tour Manager, Renato Hickel eventually stepped in to try and smooth it out in Portuguese, while security stood nearby, ready if it escalated.

Italo was eventually escorted away, but we were no closer to working out what his point was. There’d been no travesty of justice. Italo had surfed an underwhelming heat. He’d fallen on his first two waves, and his usually electric backhand was well down on voltage, as it’s been all year. He and Jack Robbo traded sixes and sevens, and when the dust settled Jack had won. 

Meanwhile, the issue causing the real tension around the place this week – the looming mid-year cut – didn’t involve Italo. He came into Bells rated 10th . He was safe. At least half the men and women on tour currently aren’t safe, and face being jettisoned back to the qualifying tour after the next event at Margaret River. They were surfing for their skins at Bells. 

The surfers knew this was coming. They collectively signed off on this mid-year cut back in early 2020, and only Covid-19’s tour derailment has held it off to this point. But the brutal reality of what it means to those facing the chop only began to be felt this week at Bells. 

Owen Wright. Lil sis won the contest, but Owen’s on the brink. Photo: Aaron Hughes/WSL

There’s a long history to how we got here, and that history all resurfaced this week. The old fault line between the sport and the surfers opened up again. 

Ever since the WSL took ownership of the tour in 2013, they have privately wanted a more streamlined, elite tour. Two reasons. One, it’s more watchable. Two, it costs less. They can run the best men and women in shorter broadcast windows, in better surf. 

At certain times, the ASP – the previous administration – also wanted a tighter format, but had run into one minor problem. The surfers owned half of the ASP and resisted it any time the idea was floated. That leverage ended a decade ago, when the surfers sold their share of the tour to the WSL. Since then the WSL has respected the surfers’ wishes to maintain tour numbers, but commercial realities were always going to win in the end. This is where we find ourselves now. 

While surfers hovering around the cut line were feeling the heat this week, so was the WSL’s Jessi Miley-Dyer. In charge of both the men’s and women’s tours, she’s had a rough week as the issue exploded. Mutiny in the ranks, half-arsed petitions and threats of surfers boycotting heats at Margaret River has made the daily call at Bells the least of her problems. 

But for Jessi, now a couple of years into the job, it comes with the territory. This week she took the issue head-on and called a meeting with the surfers. One neutral observer in the room, who’s watched these things closely for decades, commented dryly about the surfers, “It’s the same shit they’ve been whinging about for years.” 

Exactly what the surfers hoped to achieve at this point is as hard to figure out as Italo’s issues. They signed off on the cut-off, and it’s happening in a fortnight, one way or another. They also signed a 10-year agreement with the WSL in late 2019. The petition they lodged with the WSL before the meeting was a loose list of grievances that can be summarised as too many contests, not enough money… and “the cut drama” being leveraged for entertainment. It was only signed by 30 of the 51 surfers on tour, most of them currently below the cut line. There was no Kelly, John John, Jordy, Steph or Tyler. 

Steph didn’t win here, but she did edge up above the cut-off — and she didn’t sign the petition, either. Photo: Ed Sloane/WSL

You get the feeling this guy isn’t too bothered either way. JJF in autograph mode. Photo: Dunbar/WSL

Jessi was once on the other side of the table as a surfers’ rep on the ASP board and understands the next few weeks will be rough for some of them. Sally Fitzgibbons is languishing on the ratings and was in tears at Bells after losing in the quarters. She might go. Owen Wright made the quarters at Bells and jumped eight places but is still below the cut line. Even Steph Gilmore needs to make heats at Margaret River to be safe. 

But talking with Jessi this week, she’s keeping the big picture in mind… and when we say big picture, we mean the business of running the sport. The common belief is that the tour runs at a substantial loss and has ever since the WSL took it over. That won’t be allowed to happen forever. The product needs streamlining – and a good haircut – if it is to survive long term.

There have been some interesting cameos on site this week as all of this has gone down. Christian Beserra heads up the WPS, the old surfers’ union originally founded in 2000 with the backing of tour benefactor Greville Mitchell. He told us he’s looking for some clarity on behalf of the surfers about what the “big picture” actually is. He feels they’re being kept in the dark. 

On the other side, WSL CEO Erik Logan has been on site all week, the man “leading us into a bright future” if you believe the broadcast. He’s the man in charge of this big picture. He attended the surfers’ meeting and wrote a formal reply that signed off with, “We are in the best position we have ever been – now is not the time to change course.” 

The other guy on site who’s been watching on with interest this week has been Mick Fanning. Surfing in the event as a wildcard, Mick has found himself swept up in the drama. Mick was the long-time surfers’ rep on the ASP board, and nobody fought harder over the years to preserve the numbers of surfers on tour. Whenever the idea for an elite tour was floated, Mick stuck up for the back-markers. It was reported Mick was encouraging the surfers to take a stand… whatever that stand looked like.

Fanning, always on the side of the underdog, even if he isn’t even remotely one. Photo: Sloane/WSL

As the tour moves on to Margaret River next week an old Arab proverb comes to mind: “The dogs are barking and the caravan moves on.” The tour will move on from Margaret River to G-Land with less surfers, but you can expect some barking before it does. As one surfer quipped, “You wouldn’t want to be contest director at Margarets.” 

But maybe the barking is the point. Maybe this is part of the grand design. What would usually be just another Bells event suddenly means a lot more than just the bell being rung. There’s another layer of drama, to be harvested and packaged up. 

When Italo stormed the tower, the first person there wasn’t the Security Manager or the Tour Manager, it was one of the cameramen working on the second series of Make or Break, the AppleTV series modelled on Formula One’s hugely successful Drive to Survive. These guys have been all over the contest site, and they’re like bloodhounds. The slightest drama or controversy and they emerge out of the sand with a gyro-stabilised camera. 

There’s hope within the WSL brass that Make or Break will finally be the WSL’s big break, the show succeeding where Kelly’s wavepool, The Ultimate Surfer and Get Sendy (RIP) all failed. When it premieres on April 29, they are hoping it will do for surfing what Drive to Survive did for F1, finding a huge non-endemic audience. 

Maybe that explains a few things about Saturday afternoon. The surfers are already conditioned to the cameras and mics being there. They know the Make Or Break crew have access to everything. They see and hear everything. And what do they say, “true character is what you do when nobody is watching”? Well what about when you’re being watched all the time? When Italo stormed the tower, in the back of his mind was he thinking about how this would look for the cameras? 

If so, get ready for the Margaret River episode when it drops. 

True believers. Tyler, Filipe, Bell, and presso crowd. Photo: Sloane/WSL

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