John John Florence and Caity Simmers are your 2024 World Surf League World Title winners. The Champions.
The pair went into Finals Day – Friday, Sept. 6th, each sitting atop their respective division; two heat wins away from glory. Caity had to wait until noon for her first wave out at Lower Trestles. John paddled out about 40 minutes after that. A long day of nerves proved insignificant.
The surf was better than expected. On the day before Finals Day (Thursday), The Couch Surfing Show filmed the warm-up surf, where the Lowers lineup was closed for 3 hours to let the Final 10 get a surf in. It was maybe head high, and John looked like he was bogging compared to Griffin and Italo. Luckily, the next day was much better.
Speaking of Griffin and Italo – one really showed up, the other did not. Similar to Jack and Ethan. Something about Jack and Griff on Finals Day the past 2 years that can not be denied; they both look slow. Too measured and paced, not enough speed and aggression. Neither of them looked like they wanted to win. Not in comparison to Italo and Ethan.
Majority of the surf world was expecting a Caroline vs Caity Title matchup. Tatiana came really close to breaking that up, but it was not meant to be. Last year’s World Champ Caroline had her opportunity to win back-to-back Titles. I really thought she was going to do it after the first heat. Her 9.60 buzzer beater was one of the best endings to a heat I have ever seen, given the circumstances. For Caity to lose a heartbreaker like that, with a 16.87 heat total, I thought she was toast. Winning back-to-back heats to take the Title was truly amazing. Well done.
I’m going to leave it at that. I’ll have no conversation about the scoring and the judging. There has been enough of that.
So that was the last we’ll see of Lowers Finals Day for at least a year. I’ve heard a few people calling for it to be a stop back on Tour again though, which I do agree would be rad. The Challenger Series has two stops left. The Ericeira event window opens at the end of this month, the 29th, and then Saquarema Brazil starts quickly after that, October 12th. I’ll have some rundowns coming soon.
Until then.
Cheers,
hwilsin