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Why World Title Surf-Offs Are So Compelling
Ben Collins
A World Title was decided in a winner-takes-all final last year, and it was one of the most exciting moments in over a decade of competitive surfing.
When Gabriel Medina and Italo Ferreira paddled out at Pipeline, only one of them was going to bag surfing's greatest prize, and we all knew neither of them was willing to give an inch.
That was the Holy Grail of our sport -- a title race that went down to the very last heat of the year. But the the trouble is, they don't come around often.
That's about to change. World Surf League CEO Erik Logan has announced that, under a revised Tour format for 2021 and beyond, the World Title will now be decided with a two-person surf-off.
For another example of why this change will be a pressure cooker for compelling, get-you-on-the-edge-of-your-seat moments, you only need to look back to the last time, prior to 2019, that the Title went down to a final at the year's penultimate event.
It was 2003, and Andy Irons and Kelly Slater were engaged in the fiercest rivalry surfing had seen, and probably ever will see. The Title was decided in the final event, in the very last heat of a year in which Slater had made a full-time return to competition following an extended break.
Andy and Kelly had been squaring off for months. Slater was already surfing's biggest name, and Andy an explosive star on the ascendancy. It came down to the wire.
Andy secured a second World Title, pouring even more fuel on the fire between these two athletes. This was a match-up that forced to you to pick a side (Joel Parkinson even infamously blocked Kelly for Andy in the four-man final) and to take notice, much like last year, when two equally-talented but unquestionably different athletes had to go head-to-head at Pipe.
You only need to look at the faces of Italo Ferreira and Gabriel Medina, or Andy and Kelly in 2003, to see how much emotion, passion and competitive fury is involved with having to fight right until the very last buzzer.
And we won't have to wait 16 years between World Title surf-offs anymore.
Joel Parkinson
Featuring Filipe Toledo, John John Florence, Frederico Morais, Julian Wilson, Mick Fanning, Caroline Marks, Yago Dora, Gabriel Medina,
Featuring Gabriel Medina, Cole Houshmand, Italo Ferreira, Tatiana Weston-Webb, Yago Dora, Gabriela Bryan, Jordy Smith, Samuel Pupo, John
Featuring Yago Dora, Filipe Toledo, Caio Ibelli, Ian Gouveia, Kelly Slater, John John Florence, Gabriel Medina, Julian Wilson, Adriano de
Paul Fisher, Kelly Slater, Stephanie Gilmore, Mick Fanning, Chelsea Hedges, Joel Parkinson, Mark Occhilupo, and Dean Morrison takeover
Icons of surfing take the Bonsoy Gold Coast Pro by storm, celebrating Kelly Slater in a World Champ's Super Heat. A lineup that compiled
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