It seems like a long time ago but it’s only been six short years since Kelly rained on Adriano’s WSL title parade on that cold winter morning when he dropped that first look at the pool. 

Remember how perfect it looked? 

That “future was upon us” feeling?

Funny how quickly that all changed.

As much of California suffers through a significant heatwave, as well as a long lingering drought, which has the authorities asking all residents to reduce their electricity usage, the good ‘ol WSL is holding a comp in an electric-powered wave pool. The WSL almost seems cursed at times. 

What’s the saying? ”If you didn’t have bad luck you’d have no luck.” 

With many of the top-seeded surfers dropping out of Lemoore with mysterious injuries, or for no reason at all, the search for wildcard replacements had the WSL staff feverously working the phones. We last heard they had Buddy Llamas on the line as the 97th alternate.

A rather snazzy little clip emerged on Insta of Kelly taking apart a practice wave from a few days ago. Ripping. One wonders how many days he’s had the joint all to himself to dial in boards, wave settings, etc.

The foot does seem better too. It will be interesting to see if Kelly ends up in Tokyo for the Olympics after all and with nary a Salvadorian passport stamp.

From what we did watch, here are some observations from day 1.

Eli looked like a lock in practice but had a bit of a shocker.

A Brazilian will win.

If you can’t stomp an air, start packing.

On a more serious note, we had an idea to throw out there. 

The pool just might work if they simply gave up on a regular comp format. Roll it out as an invitational/specialty event and maybe play it out like a game of H.O.R.S.E type deal. Or S.K.A.T.E., as they call it.

Bring in 16 invitees (8 ladies?), pull um from a hat, and put 8 goofies on one end and 8 regular footers on the other with a back and forth going head to head. Two frontside waves and two backside waves each. Best two waves count. Single elimination. Done in one day. Maybe mic um up and let them call each other out after each wave? It might need a little more thought but we’re sure something of this nature would be far more entertaining for everyone, including the surfers.

More to come.

What Youth