This is the only response you can have after exposing your buns to the world.
Olympic surfer Tim Elter lost his pants while competing, and he delivered the best response to having his hind parts exposed.
So many wild things will happen while competing at the Olympics. But if I had to guess, losing your pants and exposing your derriere to seemingly the whole world is probably not on your mind. However, German surfer Tim Elter was actually wildly prepared for this sort of thing. (Maybe it happens more than I think.)
When photos of his cheeky incident began flooding social media, he took the whole thing in stride and with way more humor than I ever could. He gave the best one-liner I’ve seen in quite some time, especially to something very unplanned. (Warning: NSFW language.)
This year’s Olympic surfing competition will not be taking place in France. Here’s why.
While most of this year’s 2024 Summer Olympic competitions will be taking place in Paris, the surfing competition will be taking place in Tahiti.
As France doesn’t have the ideal conditions for a professional surfing competition with its beaches (and Paris, of course, isn’t near an ocean), the Olympic committee chose Teahupoʻo in Tahiti, one of the Society Islands in French Polynesia.
Tahiti will provide much more ideal surfing conditions and hopefully the perfect waves for all of the surfing competitors hitting the surfboards for this year’s Olympic Games.
We’ll see how Team USA fares on the waves in Tahiti when the Olympic surfing competition gets going on July 27.
A surfer sitting on his board was suddenly slapped in the face with what he thought was a fellow surfer pulling a prank. It was far worse.
A surfer sitting on his board was suddenly “slapped” in the face with what he first thought was a fellow surfer pulling a prank, but an instant later he realized a fish had speared him in the nose.
Steve Kezic of Australia was at a surf school in Indonesia with eight other surfers when the freak accident occurred.
A 1-foot garfish featuring a needle-like beak came flying out of the water and pierced the cartilage in Kezic’s nose before its beak snapped off, leaving the beak sticking out of his nose.
“At first, I thought it was the boys throwing some seaweed around, as we tend to do that for a laugh,” Kezic told Perth Now. “But a moment later I realized there was a fish in my face.”
The coach from the Playground Surf Resort on the Mentawai Islands in Sumatra rushed to help Kezic.
“The coach noticed it before I did,” he told Perth Now. “He was kind of looking at me, and I was confused…and then I realized.”
Kezic, blood pouring down from his nose, was helped onto a boat and was quickly transported to shore. He began to freak out, not knowing where the closest hospital was located.
Fortunately, one of the surfers in the group was a doctor and set up an impromptu surgery station on a table on an outside deck at the resort.
Doctor Kyle Kophamel removed the beak and patched the nose with three stitches in a procedure that took about 45 minutes.
“I was incredibly lucky,” Kezic told Perth Now. “It felt like one of those up-to-the-gods chance events.”
Kophamel told 9 News Australia that the wound entered one side of his nose and came out the other, adding, “Personally, I’ve never had anyone rock up to my emergency department with a fish stuck in their face.”
Kezic told 9 News he “was really lucky I didn’t lose my eyesight, because I just turned and the garfish came right across. If it was a fraction higher it would have taken my eyes out.”
In fact, Kezic enjoyed plenty of good fortunate.
“I was incredibly lucky for Kyle,” Kezic told Perth Now. “He saved me from a world of trouble.”
Pro surfer Mikey Wright, brother of two-time world champion Tyler Wright, was involved in a dramatic surf rescue on Oahu’s North Shore on New Year’s Eve.
In a video posted to Instagram, Wright, who was in Hawaii following the Pipe Masters contest, can be seen rushing into the heavy surf at Ke Iki beach to help a person getting swept away by the strong current.
Initially, Wright was the one filming bystanders trying to help the swimmer before realizing he needed to step in himself.
“He’s gonna need to get saved,” Mikey said before handing the phone off to his wife, Shenay.
“You can’t save him,” she can be heard yelling, as he sprints down onto the beach.
Wright’s sister, Tyler, who just won the Maui Pro at Pipeline, can also be seen running down the beach to help.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CJfUY2hLydY/
The second video shows the dramatic rescue play out. Mikey Wright goes over the rocks into the water to help the woman, letting her hold onto him as the heavy surf and strong current submerges them into the water again and again. The pair make it down the beach before Tyler and other bystanders are finally able to help the two out of the water.
“She was trying to come in (over the rocks) and I said ‘we have to go down the beach’, Wright told Australia’s Daily Telegraph.“We ended up grabbing a hold of her and going down with the current. I just said to her ‘don’t let go and hold on’.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEFplNkjaOw/
The video has since gone viral, making the 24-year-old Australian surfer, known for his signature mullet, something of a hero.
“Wow that could of ended really bad!! Well done,” surfer Mick Fanning wrote on Instagram.
“Closing out 2020 with some hero s**t by @mikeywright69,” Tyler posted.
The woman and Wright both escaped serious injury.
“At the end of the day she is safe and I only have a few scratches on my back,” Wright said.
“I’m not scared to say, ‘This is what I stand for.’ I want to show that surfing can be a welcoming space for LGBTQ+ athletes.”
Two-time world champion Tyler Wright made surfing history when she slid into the waters of Maui’s Honolua Bay on Monday morning by becoming the first professional surfer to compete with a Pride flag on her jersey.
It may seem like a small gesture in a sport that projects a progressive, laid-back culture, but Wright hopes to ignite long-overdue conversations about the realities of LGBTQ+ athletes who surf. She poured over the decision after spending 14 months recovering from a devastating illness — with the help and love of her partner giving her new-found strength and belief in herself.
“I have an opportunity to show up and be exactly who I am,” Wright said via phone from Maui. “This is how I want to show up in my surfing. I want to show up with my humanity first and foremost and with my values. My values are equality and inclusion, that’s what I want to represent.”
Like most professional athletes, surfers wear jerseys with their name and number on the back. World Surf League athletes, who come from across the globe, also wear the flag of their home country on both shoulders. Wright, a 26-year-old Australian, made the choice to start the 2021 WSL season with the Progress Pride flag—which highlights marginalized people of color and trans individuals—as a public nod to her queer identity.
“I don’t want to say I was hiding before, but now I am encouraged enough to lean into who I am,” Wright said. “I’m not scared to say, ‘Look, this is what I stand for.’ I want to show others that surfing can be a welcoming space for LGBTQ+ athletes.”
Tyler Wright custom jersey/WSL Keoki Saguibo
Wright isn’t the first professional surfer to compete as an out athlete — that distinction goes to 2019 Women’s Big Wave World Title winner Keala Kennelly — but she is the most high-profile. A back-to-back world champion in 2016 and 2017, Wright is a veteran of the world surfing stage and the winner of 13 Championship Tour events. Wright, who comes from a surfing family, has been one of the sport’s brightest stars, a fixture on the scene after winning her first Tour title at the age of 14.
In a year when athletes have taken a knee or staged wildcat strikes to protest for racial and social justice, it would be tempting to write off the Pride flag as a performative gesture, but Wright’s statement is more than a token nod to woke politics. It’s the culmination of a long, arduous journey and marks a major step forward in surfing’s conservative political culture.
For much of the past two years, Wright had been unable to compete as she battled post-viral syndrome brought on by a bout of influenza A she contracted in South Africa in July 2018. She was bedridden for almost 14 months, suffering from fatigue, headaches and a brain fog that left large gaps in her memory. Not only was her body devastated, but she was dealing with an emotional reckoning of who she was as a person and an athlete.
“I was away from the tour, from surfing, for almost two years,” she said. “It was a really hard time, and I had a lot of things stripped away from me. I had to sit with who I was and then think about the person I was presenting to the world. I felt like there was a bit of a disconnection between that.”
(Photo by Keoki Saguibo/World Surf League
Wright said she made it through that time with the help of her family and her former partner, singer Alex Lynn. It was falling in love, Wright said, that helped her realize the need to be more open about her queer identity.
“I feel in love with an incredible human being, and that opened my world to a whole new world that I had never realized before,” Wright said.
At first, Wright, who is bisexual, kept the relationship quiet, and only family members and a few friends knew about it.
“It was kind of one of those things … I just showed up at dinner one day with my partner at the time and that was it. I will always remember telling my younger brother (pro surfer Mikey Wright) and his reaction was just, he high-fived me and just said, ’Fuck yeah,’” Wright said.
Wright went public with her relationship in an episode of “60 Minutes” in Australia that aired in May of 2019. She also posted about her break up with Lynn on social media, with a touching photo of the two mid-kiss. Because of her illness and then the COVID outbreak, her personal and professional life had yet to really overlap, aside from one Tour event at Maui in 2019. Despite being out, she still found herself battling her own internalized homophobia and surfing’s hetronormative culture.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CATokmbHrgj/
“I was raised in the same society as everyone else is, and that is pretty sexist, homophobic and racist. I was adament that I didn’t want to be known as a gay world champion, I didn’t want to be associated with the LGBTQ community,” Wright said of an especially painful period in her life. “It’s been a long journey to get here.”
Asked whether she thought surfing had been welcoming to LGBTQ+ athletes in the past, Wright’s answer was short and unequivocal.
“No.”
While the sport of surfing has its origins in the rebellious, counter culture movement, much of the modern surfing complex is remarkably conservative, dealing with the same issues that plague many male-dominated sports, like homophobia and toxic masculinity. There is a disconnect between how the sport is marketed — as a cool, progressive space — and the reality of what surf culture is.
“The ocean may not judge based on sexuality or gender identity, but many surfers do,” Surfer magazine Editor-in-Chief Todd Prodanovich wrote in a recent cover story about LGBTQ+ surf history. Prodanovich went on to say that while homophobic slurs aren’t as common as they once were, surf culture—which is mainly rich, white and has it’s power centers in conservative enclaves—still has a long way to go in creating safe, inclusive spaces for all athletes.
“The problem persists in different forms. You might see Stab’s Instagram post about renaming the ‘sex change’ skateboard trick the ‘Caitlyn Jenner’ in surfing. Or maybe you’ll find the post on a San Diego surf shop’s page where Kelly Slater calls a shaper he’s feuding with ‘sexually confused,’ ” he wrote.
Kennelly, who said she stopped “trying to hide who she was” around 2007, has spoken out about the pressure she felt by her sponsors to present herself as heterosexual.
“It’s like, ‘You don’t have to have sex with me to keep your job, but you have to make me want to have sex with you,’” she told The New York Times. “It’s fun seeing you in a bikini, but it’s not fun seeing you charge giant waves.’ ”
The topic has also been explored in depth in the film Out in the Line Up, which documents the struggles of surfing’s LGBTQ+ community.
“What would surfing look like if it was equal, inclusive and safe?” Wright said on the WSL’s The Lineup podcast. “That’s something I’ve really reflected on. What direction are we going in?”
While problematic remnants of the broader culture remain, the industry reaction to Wright’s decision to wear a Pride flag shows things have at least progressed marginally forward. Wright said she had no fear of losing her long-time sponsorship contract with surf brand Rip Curl and that the World Surf League did not hesitate to back her decision.
“They have supported me the entire time, from start to finish, and are still supporting me today. I’m incredibly grateful to be a part of the league that embraces standing up for equality and inclusion.”
Tyler Wright/WSL
“It was a short internal conversation on our part,” WSL CEO Erik Logan said. “We didn’t need to have meetings about it or take a vote. Our main mission is to support our athletes however we can and we’re very proud of Tyler and her decision.”
This isn’t the first time that surfers have requested differing flags on their jerseys to honor their identity and heritage. In 2019, New Zealand surfer Ricardo Christie competed with the Maori flag on his right shoulder and Australian surfer Soli Bailey paid homage to his Indigenous Australian roots by wearing the Aboriginal flag.
Wright understands, and is grateful for, the many who came before her in surfing and elsewhere that paved the way for her decision.
“This is my way of honoring that and saying thank you for inspiring me as well,” she said. “I also honor the people that have come before me in surfing, because I know they’ve struggled, I know the discrimination that they have faced.”
Wright said she found inspiration not just in surfers like Kennelly, but athletes like the WNBA’s Sue Bird and USWNT icon Megan Rapinoe whose examples helped show her the power of representation.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CF3Igfkn-AN/
“I have so much gratitude for those who have come out and spoken about it, for owning who they are. These women, these athletes, they own their sexuality, they own their gender, they own their identity, they own every part of them, and for me, I’ve taken so much from them,” she said.
It was through watching the WNBA stand for social justice and the Black Lives Matter movement that Wright started to think about her platform, her privilege and how she could best use it. Their example is what spurred her to protest before the Tweed Coast Pro in mid-September, where she cut into her heat and took a knee for 439 seconds —one second each to honor the 439 First Nations persons in Australia who have lost their lives in police custody since 1991.
Tyler Wright/WSL
“I personally feel like I have a responsibility, as well, being in the position I’m in and with the platform that I have,” Wright said of her burgeoning activism.
While taking a knee and wearing a Pride flag can seem inconsequential in certain sports spaces, they’re a bold step forward in a sport that has long prided itself on being apolitical.
“Surfing is a part of society, and I don’t think we’re exempt from any of these issues that society is facing,” Wright said. “We’re founded on heteronormative, patriarchal ways and ideology. We have homophobia, we have sexism, we have racism, and I feel like once you know more, you can do more.”
Right now, surfing is just beginning to have these conversations out in the open. For years, groups like Black Girl Surf Club, Benny’s Club and Queer Surf Club have long been challenging the sport’s dominate narrative and pushing from the fringes for more inclusion. Wright is joining the small chorus of pro surfers, like Selema Masekela, who have been leading the way in the fight for change.
“For a long time, I did my best to be like, ‘oh cool, we’re all bros,’ even though people said dumb, racist shit to me all the time,” Masekela said on The Lineup. “Whenever I had the chance, I started to speak and be more vocal…but I did the dance until I decided I can’t dance anymore…I just wanted to be seen for what I had to give.”
Sal Masekela raises a fist in Encinitas, California WSL / BRADY LAWRENCE
Earlier this summer, as social justice protests swept across America, surfers hosted paddle outs for inclusion and equality. The unrest over issues of race in the country and around the world, became something the culture and industry could no longer casually brush aside.
It’s too early to say if Wright’s activism will spur other surfers to speak out or take a stand in similar ways, but she hopes her actions support those that have come before her and help push the sport into examining their deep and troubled history with race and inclusion.
“Keeping surfing apolitical isn’t something I agree with,” Wright said on The Lineup podcast. “People say it’s in the best interest of surfing, but it’s really in the interest of hetro, white men.”
Wright knows she has a long way to go, in her surfing and in her activism, and is just starting to find the true power of her voice. But as, she charges into the 2021 season, she’s taken the pain and struggle —physical and emotional—of the past two years and fashioned it into something she hopes will lead to lasting change.
“I’m not scared. I’m proud to be a part of the community,” Wright said. “I’m exactly who I am today and that is beautiful.”
There are also major changes coming to the 2021 season, which kicks off in November.
The World Surf League announced early Friday morning that they have decided to cancel their 2020 season, including the Championship Tour.
WSL CEO Erik Logan made the announcement.
“After careful consideration and extensive discussions with key stakeholders, we have made the decision to cancel the 2020 Championship Tour and Qualifying Series seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Logan said. “While we firmly believe that surfing is amongst the sports best suited for competition to be held safely during the age of unresolved COVID, we have huge respect for the ongoing concerns of many in our community as the world works to resolve this.”
Surfing seems like the one sport where COVID-19 risks could be minimized—athletes are able to totally social distance and all events take place outside—but the WSL also has events that take place literally all around the world, leaving too many logistical and practical concerns about spreading the virus.
Not only is so much travel potentially dangerous to athletes, but countries have varied wildly in their responses to the pandemic. While some countries have it under control, others are a total mess. Trying to shuttle athletes between boarders could be a huge public health risk.
In addition shuttering the 2020 season, the WSL has also announced multiple changes to the format of the 2021 season.
In a a major departure, the Billabong Pipe Masters, which has traditionally been the last event on the WSL’s tour calendar, will kick off the Men’s CT in December of 2020. The Women’s CT will kick off with the Maui Pro in November of 2020.
In another major change, the WSL has announced ‘The WSL Finals’ event which will decide the world title winner. The World Title, usually determined by points earned throughout the season, will now be decided in a single-day event, among the CT’s top competitors. Per the WSL, the top five men and women in the Championship Tour “will battle for their respective titles in a new surf-off format at one of the world’s best waves. ”
Honestly, that sounds incredible for viewers but a real departure from the past where World Champions have been crowned by a cumulative points total. Bringing it all down to one race at the end, pitting the best surfers of the year against each other, certainly heightens the drama.
Additionally, for the first time ever, there will be an equal number of men’s and women’s CT events. In other great move and for the first time since 2006, the women’s tour will compete with the men at Teahupo’o.
If you’re bummed that you won’t get to see your favorite surfers tear it up until November, CT tour stars will also be participating in regional events in less pandemic ravaged countries like Australia, France, and Portugal over the next few months. The WSL is also hosting a mixed-gender “Rumble at the Ranch” contest out in Lemoore, California later this summer.
If you’re still with me, here’s the full 2021 Men’s and Women’s CT schedule, pandemic permitting.
Shiseido Maui Pro, Honolua Bay, Maui, Hawaii: November 25 – December 5, 2020
Billabong Pipe Masters, Oahu, Hawaii: December 8 – 20, 2020
MEO Pro Peniche, Portugal: February 18 – 28, 2021
Snapper Rocks, Gold Coast, Australia: March 18 – 28, 2021
Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach, Victoria, Australia: April 1 – 11, 2021
Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia: April 16 – 26, 2021
Oi Rio Pro Saquarema, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil: May 20 – 29, 2021
Surf Ranch, Lemoore, California, USA: June 10 – 13, 2021
Quiksilver Pro G-Land, Indonesia: June 20 – 29, 2021
Supertubes, Jeffreys Bay, South Africa: July 7 – 19, 2021
Teahupo’o, Tahiti: August 26 – September 6, 2021
The WSL Finals, Location TBD: September 8 – 16, 2021
After surviving a wipeout in the dangerous surf of Portugal’s Nazaré, pro surfer Alex Botelho very nearly died during the subsequent rescue.
After surviving a wipeout in the dangerous surf of Portugal’s Nazaré, a famous big-wave destination, pro surfer Alex Botelho very nearly died during the subsequent rescue when he and his partner, who was driving a jetski, were sent flying by colliding waves.
The incident occurred Tuesday during the World Surf League’s Nazaré Tow Surfing Challenge, and it had those watching from shore holding their collective breath.
After the wipeout, the Portuguese surfer was picked up by partner Hugo Vau on a jetski, but they were unable to outrun a wall of whitewater and went airborne when an approaching wave slammed into them. Moments later, another wave washed over them as the cameraman panned the water.
Anxious moments passed as spectators watched in hopes that Botelho would pop up to the surface. Vau had already been located.
Finally, near the shore, Botelho was spotted unconscious and floating facedown in the water. Rescue crews from shore were quick to reach him and place him on a spinal board. Botelho was rushed to the hospital.
The WSL announced later that he was “stable and conscious,” and that he was to remain hospitalized for further evaluation.
“Today I was confronted with the reality of our sport, heartbreaking watching my brother Alex Botelho between life and death right in front of the eyes of the world,” fellow Portuguese big-wave surfer Nic Von Rupp wrote on Instagram. “Honestly, very few would have survived, just a beast of a human like Alex [could] pull thru…not only because the strong human he is, but mostly for the love many people have for him praying to pull thru.”
Alex Botelho riding at Nazaré in 2016 (above) and walking away with his broken surfboard (below).
The Guardian reported that this was the first time the WSL’s Big Wave world tour has visited Nazaré where Brazilian Rodrigo Koxa set a world record for surfing the biggest wave at 80 feet in 2017.
The WSL was quick to recognize the efforts of the rescue crew, writing on YouTube, “A heartfelt thank you to the safety and medical teams for their quick response. We are wishing Alex a full and speedy recovery. The work of the Water Safety Team in rescuing and saving Alex’s life was incredible.”
Photos of the incident courtesy of the World Surf League. Photos of Alex Botelho riding out a big wave and later carrying his broken surf board at Nazaré in December 2016 by Lars Baron/Getty Images.
With the men’s championship on the line at the Billabong Pipe Masters in Hawaii, Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina, who’s ranked No. 2 in the world behind countryman Italo Ferreira, performed one of the most controversial moves in surfing to keep his title hopes alive.
During his must-win heat against fellow Brazilian Caio Ibelli, who is ranked 16th, Medina dropped in on Ibelli’s wave when Ibelli clearly had priorit. Medina’s drop-in stopped Ibelli from surfing a wave that could have earned him a possible high score for the heat.
A REGRA É CLARA 📚🌊
Gabriel medina interfere a onda de Caio Ibelli para evitar uma possível virada. Mesmo perdendo uma das notas, o bicampeão avança para as quartas.
Essa é a diferença entre um atleta e um campeão, Medina usou a regra ao seu favor e continua na busca pelo tri. pic.twitter.com/Oh9cW43F7L
The conditions at Pipe have been poor for days, but with the contest window closing, the World Surf League (the governing body of surfing) has had no choice but to run the event despite the lackluster waves. Poor wave quality has meant that surfers have to maximize every chance they get, since scoring waves have been pretty scarce.
Per WSL rules, surfers are given points for each ride, with the top two rides being tallied for an overall total. In the 45-minute heat, Medina rode a handful of waves that he crashed out early on. For his best ride, Medina earned a respectable 4.23. His second best ride earned him a 2.3. Ibelli, who has no chance of winning the world title but still hoped to make a strong showing at Pipe, had 5 waves, all scored under a point.
In the closing minutes of the heat, Medina gave up priority to Ibelli as a wave with a good scoring potential opened up. It could have been Ibelli’s best ride, but Medina, sensing that even one good ride from Ibelli would kill his chances of advancing at Pipe and thus eliminate him from world title contention, dropped in on it.
It was a bold, shocking move that has caused plenty of outrage. Medina was issued a priority interference penalty for his actions, which means that he doesn’t receive points for the wave he dropped in on, and that his second best wave is discounted from his total score.
Still, due to the terrible conditions and Ibelli’s inability to get any really solid rides in, Medina was able to advance to the quarterfinal with just a 4.83.
After the heat, Ibelli spoke with the WSL and said that he heard Medina’s coach and stepfather, Charlie, yelling at him from the beach.
“He was saying, ‘now you can burn him, now you can burn him‘,” Ibelli said.
Medina’s drop-in may have been a tactically genius move, since he knew that, even with the penalty, he’d still win the heat, but it’s also still really poor form and sportsmanship.
In his post-surf interview, Medina said he simply used the rule book to his advantage.
This also isn’t the first time Ibelli and Medina have clashed. At their last meeting at the MEO Rip Curl Pro in Portugal in October, Medina similarly dropped in on Ibelli’s wave, for reasons that are still confounding, and cost himself the chance to lock up the world title right there.
“He plays dirty, and he’ll do anything to win and that’s the mindset of a champion,” Ibelli said.
Kelly Slater already holds 11 world championships and is a seven-time Pipe Masters winner but the 47-year old isn’t done with his surfing dominance.
If you’re unfamiliar, the Billabong Pipe Masters on Hawaii’s North Shore takes place every December as the final event on the World Surf League’s Men’s Championship Tour. The spot is known for big waves that break in the shallow water of the reef below, making it fast and dangerous.
On Wednesday afternoon, Slater showed the world again why he’s considered surfing’s GOAT with a perfect 10-point ride at Backdoor. (If you swing right, the wave is called Backdoor, if you go left, it’s Pipe.)
Kelly Slater’s perfect 10 point ride at Pipe just minutes before he was set to be eliminated from Olympic contention. 🤯pic.twitter.com/U1Gu465zum
Slater drops into the wave perfectly, spending so much time inside the barrel as section after section of whitewater keeps falling down before making a clean exit still on his board. Slater’s timing also couldn’t have been better. He was trailing Frenchman Joan Duru with his hopes of remaining in Olympic contention fading, when, with only 10 minutes left to spare, he scored his perfect wave.
It’s the kind of next level surfing that people have come to expect from Slater who has a history of shining at this particular wave. It’s one of his favorites, and one of the most difficult waves in the world to surf.
“It’s best the wave I’ve had out here in the past few years here,” Slater said after his ride.
After decades of dominance in the world of surfing, Slater is still competing on the World Surf League’s Championship Tour among the best surfers in the world. Even though he’s out of contention for this year’s world championship title, is still chasing a spot on the first ever men’s Olympic surfing team and his chances hinge on his finish at Pipeline
For surfing, competitors will be decided by their rankings on the World Surf League’s Championship Tour. The top two finishers from each country will lock in spots for Tokyo in 2020. American Kolohe Andino from San Clemente has already locked in one spot for the men, but the second spot remains up for grabs and depends on the Pipe Masters results.
Currently, Slater has a chance if he finishes two spots above Hawaiian John John Florence, who was sidelined for much of the year with an ACL injury. Follow Hawaiian Seth Moniz also has a slim chance of making the team.
The window for Pipe Masters runs through December 20.
