It’s finals day and I’m pulling out the exclamation marks! I might even double down for the finals, if someone pulls out something special. 

Can I just say, before we get into it - Strider Wasilewski, what a legend! He's been sitting down at the southern edge of the competition area all morning doing the odd call-in from the water, but for the most part the surfers have been 400m away up the beach. So what does Strider do? Between comments he’s been taking full advantage of his privileged position, pulling into multiple uncrowded pits with not another surfer within cooee. Let’s face it, I would too, given the opportunity. 

Conspiracy theories abound as we entered the final day of competition here in France. Was there a Gallic underground secretly working to sabotage Jordy’s world title run? Was the local wildcard thrown into the event with specific orders to fuck him up? 

Personally, I don’t think so. As far as I can tell, the biggest obstacle to Smith’s ultimate success will come in the form of a young, dark haired, 6’3” South African by the name of Jordy. How he bounces back from this setback when the tour washes around to Peniche will, obviously, be the difference between being the King, or the great pretender. I tell you one thing though, it’s going to sting seeing TwoJohns in that banana-yellow rashie, with his whispy little bumfluff curls and impeccable aerial ability. It’s almost impossible to hate the guy, but I’ll bet Jordy’s doing his best to find a way right now.

Joel’s defeat of Joan Duru left Marc Lacomare as the last member of la résistance française left standing. He eventually bowed out in the quarters, going down to Kolohe, but having come into the event as a wildcard with nothing to lose, he can leave assured in the fact that he’s done his beach, his town and his country proud. 

The quarters were everything we would hope for at this level. The waves just kept getting better and the energy and commitment of the surfers rose to meet them. Seabass just got the better of Miguel Pupo, much to the delight of the Hawaiian journalist I’ve been sharing a desk with for the past week. She reckons he has a great repertoire of baby jokes, which I’m a bit partial to myself, but for the thirty minutes of their quarter he was all business. 

Of all the surfers over the past few years, the one who has TwoJohn’s measure - if any can claim such a thing - is Mick Fanning. They came into quarter final at three wins apiece and for the first few minutes it seemed fairly even. But then, as with yesterday, John went Loony Tunes. Two scores over 8 had put Mick in combo and with a minute and a half to go, he threw in the towel and gave TwoJohns a congratulatory hug - at least I’m pretty sure it was a hug. Yeah, definitely a hug, no fists… Mick then caught a final wave, popped the fins free and set the crowd alight. No, hang on, that's for John who caught the wave behind him and pulled into the barrel of the competition. Talk about sucker punching a bloke when he’s already down. A second 19+ heat score soured, perhaps, by the judges’ persistent reluctance to give him a bloody 10! Honestly, what does a bloke have to do?

Joel didn’t even seem to be in the water for his quarter against Gabe. Medina grabbed the momentum early in the piece and Joel just couldn’t find a bloody wave! Those of us in the crowd going for Joel were able to enjoy a small piece of schadenfreude when Gabe’s board seemed to disintegrate under his feet as went up for a backside air. It was his second board for the heat and his step-dad Charlie must be sucking a few deep breaths after having to run the length of the beach twice.

The waves were smoking, so at about 3pm they made the call to run all the remaining finals - men’s and women’s. I made a quick call to my family to get them down here, because my daughter’s now officially joined the Sally Fitz fan club. As a card carrying supporter of Tyler Wright, I’m not sure how I feel about it, but at least with her interested in surfing I’ll be able to look forward to a few more trips to the beach as she gets older.

They hadn’t made it to the event site by the time Carissa had completed her demolition of the ratings leader. The three-time Hawaiian world champ has been looking razor sharp all through the event, both in competition and freesurfing, and Sally had no real answers to her 8.67 high score. 

Tyler and Lakey were just specks on the horizon as they chased the new west swell that hit just before their semi. The knee held up under some pretty extreme pressure, but the Californian’s aggression and speed into and above the lip gave her an advantage that Tyler just couldn’t overcome. 

The men’s semis were super entertaining, with Seabass and Kolohe trading blows throughout. Seabass pulled an 8.93 rabbit out of his hat and stole a place in the final in the last minute. Not a baby joke to be heard, just hoots from the Hawaiian contingent.

The Medina/TwoJohns semi was the heat of the event, with both guys riding the momentum towards Pipeline. I have no idea what to call what Gabe pulled off at the ten minute mark - a barrel roll?-  but it was definitely one for the highlights reel. John chipped away at Gabe’s lead in increments, but couldn’t come up with the score when the hooter sounded. One of the largest WSL crowds in recent history got way more than their money’s worth today. Particularly considering they didn’t pay to be here. How good is surfing!?

So it all came down to four - two women and two men. Carissa had Lakey on the ropes with five minutes to go, but the powerful Californian got herself back into contention with a well-deserved 8+ ride. She scrapped and scraped and I’m sure there was a fair bit of swearing going on too, but when the final siren blew it was Carissa who was chaired up the beach to rapturous applause. I was going for Lakey in the final, just because I can’t help but back the underdog. I reckon she can take great confidence from her performance here in France and should be included in future world title conversations for years to come.

Again, in the men’s final I was not very secretly going for the underdog, this time in the form of Sebass Zietz (the baby jokes tipped it for me). But it turned out to be a bit of a one-sided affair in the young Brazilian’s favour. The two contestants engaged in a bit of ritual sausage slapping before the heat started, paddling each other so far up the beach that the announcer had to stop yelling at the free surfers for a moment and turn his attention to the two finalists. 

Once they’d put their boudins back in their trousers and come back where we could actually see them, Medina got him comboed at about the 12-minute mark and there was just no coming back for Kauai’s favourite son (other than Andy Irons, of course). He spent the rest of the heat scrambling for a score, but it just felt like it was never to be. As with many heats before this, one bloke captured all the momentum and the other one was just left sputtering in his wake. 

So there you have it. Carissa and Gabe both win their first event for 2017, adding another name to the list of this year’s winners’ circle in both the women’s and the men’s fields. 

And just like the lineup here at La Graviere, there's been a lot of movement in the rankings, with most of the top 10 men out of contention by the time the quarter finals rolled around. Connor (O’Leary), Julian and Felipe left in Round 2, followed by Wilko, Jordy and Adriano in Round 3. Only two - Johns and Gabe, went straight through to the quarters via round 4, with Parko eventually joining them, while Owen dipped out in his Round 5 clash with Seabass. That’s seven out of 10 gone by the finals. How often have we seen that?

On the women’s side, Carissa leapfrogs into fourth place and into world title contention, if as an outsider. Tyler bumps Courtney Conlogue down to third, sitting just over Sally’s shoulder and they head for the final contest of the 2017 season, while the other cards in the deck just get a bit of a shuffle.

The men head to Portugal and the (hopefully) steamtrain barrels of Peniche, while the women are off to the North Pacific and the oh-so beautiful walls of Honolua Bay. If I had a choice, I’d be carrying the board bags for the women just for the chance to go to Honolua. It’s been in the top 3 of my places-I’d-most-like-to-surf-before-I-die list since I first saw a shot of it in Tracks back in the 80s. 

And that’s a wrap folks. Hope you’ve enjoyed the coverage. The swell’s picking up overnight and I don’t have to be on site before dawn. If you want me, I’ll be out the back picking off the odd choice a-frame. Adieu!

//CASS SELWOOD

Quiksilver Pro France Final Results:
1: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 16.00
2: Sebastian Zietz (HAW) 9.30

Quiksilver Pro France Semifinal Results:
SF 1: Sebastian Zietz (HAW) 16.26 def. Kolohe Andino (USA) 14.00
SF 2: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 16.40 def. John John Florence (HAW) 16.00

Quiksilver Pro France Quarterfinal Results:
QF 1: Sebastian Zietz (HAW) 15.93 def. Miguel Pupo (BRA) 14.10
QF 2: Kolohe Andino (USA) 11.60 def. Marc Lacomare (FRA) 6.10
QF 3: John John Florence (HAW) 19.67 def. Mick Fanning (AUS) 10.67
QF 4: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 15.20 def. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 1.20

Quiksilver Pro France Round 5 Results:
Heat 1: Sebastian Zietz (HAW) 14.40 def. Owen Wright (AUS) 11.73
Heat 2: Kolohe Andino (USA) 14.94 def. Caio Ibelli (BRA) 11.96
Heat 3: Mick Fanning (AUS) 15.70 def. Joan Duru (FRA) 13.37
Heat 4: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 14.03 def. Nat Young (USA) 10.24

Roxy Pro France Final Results:
1: Carissa Moore (HAW) 16.70
2: Lakey Peterson (USA) 14.50

Roxy Pro France Semifinal Results:
SF 1:Carissa Moore (HAW) 15.60 def. Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 13.07
SF 2: Lakey Peterson (USA) 17.20 def. Tyler Wright (AUS) 15.56

2017 WSL Men’s Jeep Leaderboard (After Quiksilver Pro France):
1 - John John Florence (HAW) 49,900 pts
2 - Jordy Smith (ZAF) 47,600 pts
3 - Gabriel Medina (BRA) 40,750 pts
4 - Owen Wright (AUS) 39,850 pts
5 - Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 38,200 pts

2017 WSL Women’s Jeep Leaderboard (After Roxy Pro France):
1 - Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 52,900 pts
2 - Tyler Wright (AUS) 51,200 pts
3 - Courtney Conlogue (USA) 50,000 pts
4 - Carissa Moore (HAW) 47,300 pts
5 - Stephanie Gilmore (HAW) 45,150 pts