There’s a QS1000 going on in Mexico right now, and the camera work is atrocious. Heinous. Really bad.
I had the contest on in the background for most of the day, but I actually tuned in for the last few heats. Wave looks really fun, but nothing special. And yeah, back to the cameras – I witnessed 3 missed waves in a row. Of course they have a few different angles, so (I think) they had enough people filming to get all the waves covered. They’d replay most waves, but I wonder how many actually went missed.
I turned it on yesterday for the Round of 80, and some of the surfing was worse than the camera work. I am 100% serious when I say that Chris Cote and Mitchell Salazar could have made it through that round. There were also a ton of open slots to enter. I should have gone down there..
Today was a much different story. As an example, 2024 US Open winner Alan Cleland was eliminated in his first heat (Round of 64) by Sebastian Williams and Cooper Roberts. Not sure who Cooper is, but good on him. The surfing was good, and guys were ripping. The day ended with two 10 point rides in the last 5 minutes. First, Kepa Mendia stuck a super quick air reverse into the flats – maybe a little overscored for me, it wasn’t huge. I think he might have got a turn done before the air, but the cameras missed it.. Then, counting down in the last 10 seconds, Cannon Carr, already in second place, held off his opponent with priority and hucked an upside down air reverse, also into the flats, to back up Kepa. This one was right on point – pretty fucking gnarly. Great day ender.
From this point forward the contest will be worth watching if you’ve got some free time. It’s a pretty stacked field. Taro had an 18+ point heat total; he dropped two 7’s from his scoreline. Lucas Cassity had two 8’s, Lucas Owsten was surfing really strong, those two tens at the end of the day – hopefully that wasn’t the peak of the event, and we see a good finish.
If you want to see those 10’s, watch here. I’m all about the QS events. These guys are warriors. Shoutout to my guy Titus Santucci! Hope he takes this thing out. I’ll update again tomorrow.
Cheers,
hwilsin
Drew Stanfield