Welcome back to PostScript, a brief yet thorough overview of each event on the WSEL's Championship Tour.

Today we recap event number two of the 2021 season, the Rip Curl Newcastle Cup presented by Corona.

The disruption caused by COVID-19 continues to prove unwieldy for the WSL as they dance one beat

behind the unpredictable spikes and ever-changing protocols of various governments and

regulating bodies. Flying 100 surfers and staff around the world, observing quarantine and

then holding a surf competition seems almost impossible to execute anywhere in the world.

And in fact, it was impossible for the first 11 months of 2020.

Throwing a Hail Mary and an abundance of caution to the wind, the WSL landed in Hawaii in December

and completed the first event of what was scheduled to be an 11 event season.

And that's where PostScript left off on December 22nd, 2020,

with a John John Florence and Gabriel Medina final, with John John securing his inaugural

pipe master's title. In that event, Gabriel would also avenge his previous year's final loss

to current champ Idaolo Ferreira in the

semifinals, and Kelly Slater would reassert his relevance as a title contender with a third place

finish. Despite the five-day interruption of that event due to the WSL's CEO and staffers

testing positive for COVID-19, the event finished in great waves

and executed what has been the goal of the professional surf tour at some times and in some

of its various incarnations. That is, putting the best surfers in the best waves in the world.

More on that later.

During that pipe event, what was perceived to be a COVID-19 hiccup proved instead to be a

harbinger, and perhaps in fact the defining incident that would derail the rest of the season.

The result was the cancellation of surf events in Hawaii for the

...