I think whoever can handle the pressure the best is gonna win. That’s what it’ll come down to – Griffin Colapinto Are you excited by the Surf Ranch event? Does it tickle any of your fancies? It’s certainly going to be a bit of a fantasy dud as far as contest formats go, but let’s … Read more
“(at Teahupo’o) There is nowhere to hide and nowhere to run” – Joel Parkinson Event and Forecast If J-Bay is one of the most respected waves in the world, then Teahupo’o has to be the most feared. Surfline’s slightly dated but incredibly detailed ‘Mechanics of Teahupo’o’ gives an insightful overview as to the background and … Read more
For this year’s J-Bay event, we’re trying a new format of delivery. The hope is to make your contest preparations a little more streamlined by putting everything in one place. Sure, it means that the full preview will be have to be completed in stages as the information becomes available, but it also means that … Read more
Is this a proper preview? Hell no; everybody’s teams are already locked in. This is more of a basic overview from a stats persepctive, and maybe some insights for those who don’t mind a little bit of casual betting here and there. Join us while we join the dots on this Frankenstein’s Monster of a … Read more
The Oakley Pro at Keramas was debuted on tour in 2013. We’d seen video footage and heard plenty of stories, but nobody really knew what to expect. It was like a search event, and most were psyched. Once it started, the waves and surfing both fired, and surf fans seemed stoked with the tour’s new … Read more
Contest Wash-Up The lead-up to Rio was a little undercooked, to put it mildly. The Founders Cup had just finished, and the surfing world was almost universally under-whelmed with pool wave contests. It turns out that most surfers actually wanted the unpredictable imperfection of the contests about which we so often complained. We were happy … Read more
The cancellation of the Margaret River contest left many surf fans with a bad taste in their mouths. We lost all narrative tension regarding the contest rounds and emerging champion, we were starved of any real title race variation, our fantasy teams were all shot to pieces, the potential for a Mikey vs. Jesse heat … Read more
I have waited long enough for the WSL to move on from their wave machine experiment and get back to the core business of managing the world tour. There is still no heat draw or mention of wildcards (as of publishing), so I’ll offer what I have for now. I’ll try to update in time, … Read more
We needed something to fill the void after the Margaret River Pro fiasco. While the quasi-Olympics-team-event isn’t a part of the tour, its novelty and immediacy put it slightly above the Oi Rio Pro when it comes to quenching my pro surfing thirst. Plus, there’s a guarantee of no sharks. So let’s grab a shitty … Read more
As a proud Australian surfer, even I have to admit that 3 events is a lot for one country. No other country gets more than one (except the USA, which has one event in a pool that is hours from the coast and one event in Hawaii, whose surfers generally don’t identify as American). … Read more