Welcome back to Post-Script, a brief yet thorough overview of each event on the WSL's

championship tour.

Today, a recap of event three of the 2021 season, the Rip Girl Nearbeing Classic, presented by Corona. Firstly, a word of Bravo and thank you to ripcour for stepping up and paying to

our events at a time when so many other brands have pulled back and are waiting out the pandemic. The business model

where brand sponsor events was endangered, only really existing for a few tour stops. And herein,

Rip Curl saw an opportunity. The WSL had plenty of real estate for sale, presumably very few buyers.

So Ripcurl wisely came in and bought the block,

all of the new Australian events and a finals day add-on to bookend the season. Despite

Quicksilver, Billabong, and Outer Known, all having single events on tour this year,

the spread that Ripcurl owns and the media coverage of this deal

makes it feel as though Ripcroll owns professional surfing in 2021, bolstered, of course, by having at

least one team rider and sometimes two in every final of the season thus far. More on that in a moment.

Also, congrats to Corona for stepping up and continuing to support the tour this year as well.

A swift PR counterpunch to the unfortunate branding of the novel coronavirus.

When we left Newcastle two weeks ago, Edelow was a mere 500 points ahead of Gabriel,

and John John had been relegated to third. Carissa had a giant lead over Tyler Wright,

and Isabella Nichols sat third. I suggested that given the marginal forecast for Narabine,

the top performers were predictable, meaning that it would

probably be another Brazilian-dominated event with another Edelow and Gabriel final. I turned out to

only be half right. And while it would be preferred by all for the drama of these events to be

centered around the timeless and unassailable battle of man versus

ocean or of course woman versus ocean what these scarce and powerless conditions provide is a hunger

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