Going back to Sunset end of last year at the Vans World Cup…
Front page frame grab: Zeke is in that insane barrel…and somehow finds a way out…until Jack Robinson…this wave could have easily won the heat…interference or not? Our opinion is yes without a doubt…intention doesn’t matter. Thoughts?

 

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“When a surfer is put in a position while paddling out that they cannot get out of the way and a collision happens due to this, it is up to a majority of the judges to call interference based on whether it is determined to be accidental or not”. My opinion is that we are “professional surfers”. The best of the best! Going off the rule, surfer in white COULD have gotten out of the way. From this video clip you can see surfer in white has enough time to make a conscious decision where to paddle. Just so happens that the line he chose is directly where I drew my line to come out of the barrel, which is the ONLY option I had. The surfer paddling out has options to avoid the surfer on the wave. He should be in the channel paddling back out. It should come down to who had priority over the situation. These 2 surfers are not equal in this specific case and the rules should benefit the surfer on the wave utilizing priority. This ride would have been the first major score of the heat, but was deemed incomplete because surfer in white chose to BAIL his surfboard causing me to fall off, hindering the scoring potential of my wave, breaking my board, and leaving white with priority. How is it okay for the interfering surfer to gain so much advantage from a collision and an interference not be called? The highlighted rule 168 section 3 ENABLES controversy and should be addressed. Thanks to everyone for all the supportive messages. Let me know what you guys think! Aloha ?? @wsl

A post shared by Ezekiel Lau (@zekelau) on Dec 4, 2019 at 11:06am PST