Surf-Stats Featured Member Balyn McDonald is back with a recap of Tahiti, word on his new Facebook Blog The Fantasy Wash Up and why he thinks we all need to get a WSL Fantasy Group together for Trestles.  We put up a post-event Picks Rankings Table, so check it out as well, but this will serve as our recap as well since we’ve started crunching for the Hurley Pro.  Onto The Wash Up…

The Fantasy Wash Up

First, let me congratulate Jeremy Flores; he was on a tear at Tahiti, taking down Parko,  4 x event winner Slater,  reigning champion Medina and former champion (and competition Lazarus) Clifton James Hobgood.  All of this was on top of overcoming the physical and psychological hurdle of his recent injury.  So,  félicitations Jeremy;  you screwed me over,  but I’m not mad at you.

Results Breakdown:

How’d you all go?  Tahiti offered up a great combination of high-scoring heats and quality options across all tiers.  Below represents the best possible team from the 2015 Tahiti Pro:

Tier A:

Owen Wright (32% owned) – 110.37

Kelly Slater (25%) – 101.42

Tier B:

Gabriel Medina (64%) – 134.08

Jeremy Flores (19%) – 131.36

Josh Kerr (7%) – 97.33

Italo Ferreira (10%) – 88.31

Tier C:

C.J. Hobgood (22%) – 85.89

Bruno Santos (2%) – 73.73

Perfect Total:  822.49

The top scores for the event went to Louis Lips and Ove’s Picks with 790.98 each (their only ‘mistake’ was choosing JJF over Italo).

In a nutshell:  C.J. payed back those who hadn’t completely lost their faith with a feel-good,  A.I. Commitment Award-winning performance in his last year on tour,  Kerr gave the finger to the complete lack of trust placed in him by fantasy players (7%, that’s cold) to produce a solid result,  Santos and Aritz lived up to their barrel credentials and Owen,  Medina and Slater again showed some building form at the right time of year.  Flores,  who was on my team in Fiji and would normally have been a lock-in at Chopes,  stung me by absolutely killing it.  After being duped by Jordy at JBay I promised myself that I wouldn’t pick an injured surfer again,  but Jeremy showed the world that it is possible to produce more than a half-arsed effort when carrying a significant injury.  Were you watching,  Jordy?

Predictions Breakdown:

My team,  MF Boom,  fared OK,  but there was nothing to really brag about;  I scored 594.84 and climbed just 56 positions to 823^rd overall.

Owen and Slater were on song for me,  and Gabriel,  Aritz and even Wiggolly did well.  Ace fell early to the event dark horse Kerr,  and JJF disappointed everyone from fantasy fans to event organisers by drawing Medina in R3 and narrowly losing the best heat of the event.  Kolohe skunked me big time and is now on my 2015 black list.

The Surf-Stats team,  based purely on the forecasted event totals,  predicted a total of 801.27 and this was fairly inflated compared to the actual total of 415.55.  Wilson and Parko were the big disappointments,  but that’s nothing new for Parko this year and Wilson will bounce back I’m sure.  The Surf-Stats total points projections for Slater and C.J.  were pretty bang-on,  and they wisely told you to avoid ADS and Bourez.  They have done their own recap here,  giving a ranking out of 100 for every surfer in the event;  it’s almost as good as this article.

That’s it for Tahiti.  A deserved shout-out to my mate Dave,  whose team Felonious Crunk absolutely smashed the rest of my group this contest.

Trestles is only 2 weeks away;  once the draw drops I’ll post another pre-contest article tackling the big issues – such as whether the reigning champ Jordy is worthy of your pick, which Tier A Brazilian to choose and what Adriano can possibly do to manufacture another shark attack on his opponents.  There’s also talk of an official Surf-Stats group on WSL Fantasy,  giving keen players a chance to test themselves against their fellow readers and claim the undisputed bragging rights.  Until then,  you can find me on Facebook as The Fantasy Wash-up,  or maybe even get out there and catch a few waves yourself.

See you in the water.

– Balyn

Balyn McDonald grew up on the east coast of Australia,  nourishing his passion for surfing through a diet of empty beach breaks,  Taylor Steele VHS cassettes and poor amateur competition results.  If you buy him a beer he’ll most likely bore you with anecdotes of who he thinks will win the title or list the reasons why goofy-footers have it harder on tour.  He has recently spent more time building his fantasy team than actually surfing,  a fact which is particularly sad considering he is only ranked 823^rd.  His surfing/WSL tour related Facebook page,  The Fantasy Wash-Up can be found here.