Crystal Cylinders
What a year 2016 was for surfing around the globe with some groundbreaking performances, new opportunities for women, huge swells and the inclusion of surfing in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic games.
John John Florence and Australia’s Tyler Wright ran away from the field to post early and well-deserved world titles and continue to raise the level of men’s and women’s high-performance surfing in both small and big waves.
Earlier in the year at the Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau we saw huge swells pulsing into Wiamia Bay as 25,000 spectators lined the headland-to-headland arena to watch the biggest waves in the 31-year history of the event with John John Florence taking the win.
Female surfers were for the first time invited to compete on the WSL big wave tour with their own division in giant waves at ‘Jaws’ on Maui. They exceeded expectations as many had never surfed ‘Jaws’ previously and showed extreme courage silencing the keyboard critics with some big drops and spectacular wipeouts.
The WSL world tour for men wrapped up last week at the Pipeline Masters with Michel Bourez from Tahiti victorious.
Florence also won the Triple Crown of Surfing for his overall results at the three events on Hawaii’s North Shore.
Our local pro surfers fared well with Byron Bay’s Matt Wilkinson finishing fifth in the world after leading the title race for the early part of the year and then surfing under an injury cloud for most of the second half.
Lennox Head’s Stu Kennedy missed out on a possible rookie of the year award but secured a berth on the ‘Dream tour’ by finishing in 19th position. Adam Melling from Lennox Head also surfed most of the year with a serious injury and missed out on qualification after seven straight years on the Championship tour. Melling said he will hit the QS tour in 2017 and try to get back on the CT as he feels his best surfing is still ahead of him.
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