To Hawaii With Legends: WSL World Title “Injury Debate”

WSL World Surf League 

Suffering, obstacles, challenges...these are the material from which legends emerge. No legend is born without a battle, without a spiritual quest. 

In the home of Surf -Hawaii where ancient legends are still sang…the Top Elite Surf Athletes of the World, also legends in their Arena will gather for the final stop of the 2015 World WSL Surf Tour. The Tour took them around the World in search of the perfect waves. Competition was tough. The 2015 World Surf Champion, the World Ranking and who is in and who is out the 2016 World Tour will be decided in the Hawaiian surf. 

WSL brings the lowdown and break down. When: December 8 to December 20.  Where: Hawaii, Oahu.  What: Banzai Pipe Masters . Who: Men and Women Surf Elite of the WSL. Are you ready ?

The unique drums of Hawaii begin to beat it out. Once the beating stops it will be all over. The chanting comes from the traditional heart. The patron Goddess of Hawaiʻi, the hula hypnotic dancers chant, sorcery, health and cure. The words of the chanting by the sea side of the magic island where the Surf World Championship will end go like this..."Hiʻiaka volunteered to go on the dangerous journey, as long as Pele would protect her sacred grove…” Material of Legends. 

The World Surf League assures that nothing is certain in the final dispute for the crown and 2016 World Tour Gateway -specially after the last two stops -France and Portugal where new surf riders took out heavy name legend surf stars out of the heat and game and world rankings were shaken up. 

But the ocean, its force, psychological and physical challenges and its sheer power is also poised to make a difference. This year the power of the Ocean brought legendary riders to the knees and kept them out of the events and water for months at a time causing injuries. That is right, legends can be injured too...   

WSL Surf Professional Athletes train hard and are under constant and tremendous pressure and endure the sport stress and rough conditions of the competition. Injuries in Sport Stars are nothing new, all major leagues of Sport see injuries, recoveries and comebacks. WSL Surf Athletes -like all professional athletes are no strangers to injuries nor are they neither immune. 

The word “Injury” however has become a bad word for the sport and for surf. Injury is a feared because it forces an athlete to sit down sometimes throughout most of the season. This feared word is becoming every day more pronounced. Even the WSL admits that the 2015 injury list has been a meaningful one. 

The injury debate opens before Hawaiian gates do. The reason is at plain sight, the Banzai Pipeline of the Pipe Masters is as powerful as the Tahiti Stop which took down some of WSL stars. Cautious surf and training...is advised. 

Throughout 2015 Wild Card Riders emerged from the Qualification Series QS events to meet the Elite Tour Surfers. Some of the QS surfers which escalated into the Elite rounds acted as injury replacement. Other top surf riders dropped ranking due to injuries, grave or minor. This goes to show that when the showdown comes to shore injury bills run expensive. 

On October 26 WSL reported “Injury replacement surfer Frederico Morais became the star of the Moche Rip Curl Pro Portugal Sunday when he eliminated World Number 1 Mick Fanning and went on to make the Quarterfinals,” Morais stated “I had nothing to lose”. 

In July WSL Tour rookie Matt Banting withdrew from competition at the J-Bay Open after having suffered a knee injury during freesurf. WSL that same month advised its athletes on the risks of free surfing training between events.. 

On October 8 WSL released the injury update “Muniz Withdraws from Quik Pro France”. Alejo Muniz withdrew from the Quiksilver Pro France after injuring his knee in Round 1. "We are waiting for scan results to return before confirming an official diagnosis, but his 2015 Quiksilver Pro France campaign has unfortunately come to an end," said Dave Prodan, VP of Communications for the WSL. 

Other WSL Surf Athleetes injured in 2015 include Michel Bourez, Brett Simpson -injured at Huntington Beach, John John Florence -ankle injury, Michel Bourez -hurt at Teahupo'o, Stephanie Gilmore -leg injury and Jordy Smith who fell in Fiji.

But why has the 2015 WSL Injury list take on these dimensions?

“The absence of so many stars from the Fiji Pro rekindled the long-standing debate as to how Championship Tour surfers best prepare for competing with the elite: take risks while surfing outside of the jersey or surf cautiously until it's go-time?” WSL in search for the injury causes debated. 

WSL top analysts believe that professional surfers should be careful in their training, add a number of custom made exercises to keep healthy and avoid free surfing. It seems that some riders between events wramble off to unknown waves to surf for fun or what others call free surfing training. Some surfers argue that it is the best training others go for more professional techniques. 

Health and Sport reported that 84% of surveyed surfers in the World with more than 15 years of practice of the sport admit to have suffered an injury at some moment. The media assures that surf injuries are on the rise, mostly back pains, lumbar injuries and classic knee and joints injuries. 

The regular practice of any sport is associated to body postures which alter the normal posture. Each posture belonging to a specific sport. It is important to be familiarized with the alteration and consequences of alteration of postures of each sport to avoid them with training exercises and specific ways to avoid injuries as long as possible. 

“Today the this need is greater because surfers are specializing at younger ages. This had led to the observation of more frequent consultations for injuries in younger surfers which suffer adult suring injuries,” the Health Specialized Media reported. 

Health and Sport added that given that the average surfer performs an average of 3 to 4 maneuvers per wave with a frequency of 30 waves in 2 hour session estimations of maneuvers made in one month exceed the 2 thousand manvers. Being destabilized in just one of these maneuvers could lead to injury. A center of calm and meditation is required. 

The media linked postures, body positions, hyperextension, sudden and violent movements and maneuvers, explosive compression maneuvers, raquis rotation and continual vibration as the factors which influence surf injuries. Health Surf preventive injury exercise training has been released to face the demands. 

But not all injuries are a direct result of lack of preventive training exercises or free surfing. “The Muniz Tube Incident” is one of these cases in which sheer luck seems to be a factor. Alejo Muniz from Brazil had to withdraw in the recent Quiksilver Pro France due to an injury in his knee in Round 1. Muniz had been taking home big points ranking 32 in the World Elite Jeep Ranking and Ranked 4 in the QS Qualification Series WSL Ranking. 

While tube riding a wave in France the swell decided to break entirely and Muniz could not find an open spot because the wave broke down onto the rider. The shore of France, its sand floor and shallow waters gave the ride a negative fall. Muniz fell awkwardly on his knee and had to be washed out from the sea by the security team equipped with water bikes. The incident led to social media heated debate on the readiness of the safety measures installed.  “It's fun but also dangerous,” the live commentator of the WSL said while Muniz found safe land. The injury while not extremely grave left Muniz out of the France Stop.  

WSL assured that Muniz performance throughout the year has almost surely secured him a spot back on the Elite Tour for 2016. 

The most inspiring words on the 2015 WSL Injury Debate are perhaps the words of John John Florence ranked 15 in the Elite World Surf Tour. 

In May Florence suffered an ankle injury that sidelined him for two weeks. He returned in August and made his comeback in no other location than the dreadful magical waves of the Billabong Pro Tahiti. Florence in Tahiti wiped clean the table and earned huge scores. Only the World Champion Legend Gabriel Medina could put a stop on Florence´s inspiring magic. 

“Some have called their heated battle the best of the event,” WSL stated. Florence in a long interview with the WSL mentioned more times the word “fun” than “injury”. When questioned on the pressure of riding against Medina he simply said he felt “inspired by his surf”.  Keeping an upbeat spirit was key for John John Florence. 

“It's funny, it seems like a lot more surfers are getting injured. Airs are getting bigger, waves are getting bigger, barrels are getting crazier alongside everything else,” JJ Florence found his own reasons for the injury list. 

“I've been injured a few times now, so I'm learning with each time what to do more and more. It's pretty crazy because you get injured and you're done. After my last one I wasn't in the water for 2-3 months. And you're spending those two months just sitting and watching events go by. You watch good swells go by and it can be pretty taxing,” John John admitted. But when he had to sit the summer out due to his injury he preferred to sail the oceans with friends than to lament. 

John John detailed his injury recovery program in California and admitted he still dreams of winning a World Title and will continue to surf for it.  

WSL top minds assure that injuries are grave and can impact a career but also recognize that there has been times in which surfers still take the crown despite of them. According to Al Hunt, the men's Tour Manager since 1984, there has been only one instance in pro surfing history where a surfer has missed an event and still won the World Title: Kelly Slater from US was injured for Rio in 2012, the year he won his 11th Championship. Yet the alternative -holding back outside of heats -requires a big shift in mentality.

Surfers say that injuries become an internal battle, a battle which one fights in the water, when the time comes. At Hawaii -stage for the Banzai Pipe Masters the Ocean continues to do its thing, it throws in wave after wave, tube after tube...it seems it too to be practicing to reach perfection. 

Surf Athletes are also preparing, not for injury but for the ride of their lives. The 2015 World Championship is on countdown days. 2016 World Tour gates wide open for the taking.  

WSL calls to Hawaii...with legends. Upcoming December. Top Athletes to lines, Filipe Toledo, Mick Fanning, Adriano de Souza, Owen Wright, Jeremy Flores, Gabriel Medina and so on. 

And again…

“The unique drums of Hawaii begin to beat it out, once the beating stops it will be all over. The chanting comes from the traditional heart. The patron Goddess of Hawaiʻi, their hula hypnotic dancers chant, sorcery and cure, the chanting by the sea side of the magic island where the surf World Championship will end goes like this..."Hiʻiaka volunteered to go on the dangerous journey, as long as Pele would protect her sacred grove…” Material of Legends.”