The King Returns

Ok gang, I’m sure you’re all aware of what went down in Tahiti over the last few days. I’m sure you’ve probably also read an article or two or three, and seen news clips, and watched the entire replay, and been bombarded by instagram and twitter etc., etc., etc. So I’m going to keep this fairly brief:

• It was an epic contest, finally giving fans what they want by running smoothly from start to finish – in the first half of the waiting period – with conditions far better than were originally forecasted. Hallelujah!
• Teahupo’o looked incredibly fun at 3-6’ don’t you think? Did anybody else get the (misguided) feeling they could actually give it a crack and get tubed off their ‘nanas out there?
• Just about every surfer you’d expect to be in the finals was there.
• The judging was, for the most part, pretty spot-on.
• The yellow jersey has finally been passed on. Wilko’s faltering in round 3 left the door wide open for JJF to snatch it away. Wilko is now barely holding down 2^nd position on the rankings, with an ever-dangerous Gabriel Medina hot on his heels. It’s going to be a tough run home for Wilko this season.
• Kelly… I don’t even want to begin rattling off all the things that could be, should be, will be, and ARE written about this man. What a spectacle. Bravo. The King is back, long live the King! (although one stat is that, in his 4-heat final day of competition, Slater scored 77.34 points out of a possible 80, beating most of the fantasy field with only half a contest).
• There were 6 surfers who LOST their heats with excellent totals in the final two days.
• Alex Ribeiro won his first heat of the year! Keanu’s 9th, Kai’s 13th and Bruno’s 5th means that he is still stuck in 38th position though).
• The back half of the 2016 season is shaping up to be an absolute cracker!

Results Breakdown

Congratulations to the following fantasy winners:

Surf-Stats WSL group (overall) – Durkos 8 is still holding down the top spot by a decent margin.

Surf-Stats WSL group (event) – Ice Cream Burrito finished with a very tidy score, ranking 55th overall

Surf-Stats FS group overall –The Badger is still out in front, but his 945 dropped him to 10^th overall, down from 3^rd place.

Surf-Stats FS group event – billstar91  killed it with a score that placed him 54th overall

Best Possible Team (scores prior to final, via @fantasyWSL)

Worst Possible Team

Surf-Stats Projection Reflections:

Surf-Stats WSL: 632.92

Numbers WSL: 702

Surf-Stats FS:  1052 (three straight 1000+ scores, baby)

Numbers FS: 1023

Our recommendations and warnings all pretty much went as predicted, with most of our hits and misses doing exactly what we said they would. Our sleeper picks were a little off, with the exception of Jadson Andre in Tier C, who put in a very solid campaign this year.

Event awards

These winners are in the running to claim the overall SS awards at the end of the year:

Best wave: Take your pick. With 10’s dropping from Kelly’s pockets like loose change, a bunch of other surfers hitting the mark too, not to mention a plethora of epic 8’s and 9’s which probably would be given perfect 10’s too on any other day of the year, somewhere else in the world…it’s like a sizzler buffet of surfing excellence really. If pressed to choose one though, I’d have to go with Julian Wilson’s incredible behind-the-foam-ball barrel in his Quarter Final against JJF. With a minute and a half on the clock, and in need of a 9.67, a bleeding Julian dug very deep and exited the beast with flare. And you just knew it was a 10 pointer straight away, with all 5 judges concurring.

Best heat: Who can go past the new-school match up of Semi Final 2, John John Florence v. Gabriel Medina? A slugfest of deep barrels, a race for the yellow jersey, and the face of a new generation of professional rivalry all rolled into one. This heat was competitive surfing at it very best.

Biggest disappointments: Hard to say, there was so much to love about this contest. While the waves were far better than anticipated, there were definitely lulls and pulses. Depending on which heat you were slotted in, you either scored or were dudded. Some surfers got the raw end of that deal, such as Adriano de Souza, going into the contest ranked 4^th, bowing out quietly in the 2^nd round to a blazing Alex Ribeiro of all people, with a heat score of 5.70 and only needing a measley 3.24 to move forward. The Brazilian combo of Italo and Wiggolly seemed to ruin a lot of teams this contest as well.

Most impressive: I almost don’t want to say Kelly, but I just have to. 5^th Tahiti Pro win, 55^th WCT win, 4 x 10’s, a perfect heat, and the winner of the prestigious AI Award. A mini comeback in itself, moving him back into Tier A at number 8 in the world, all at the ripe old age of 44. Inspirational stuff.  Alex Ribeiro’s fist heat win of the year, against none other than the reigning world champ came a very close second…

Trestles is our next destination, kicking off on September 7^th. The Surf-Stats crew will be off for a desert adventure in WA, surfing Tombstones and Red Bluff for the next week-and-a-half, but fret not; we’ll post the sortable Trestles data before we go…