As the picture above implies, the tour is no longer being held at heaving West-Australian reef breaks. Our new destination – Grumari, Brazil – brings with it a new set of conditions and a fresh slate for surfers to prove themselves. We spoke to the founder of Fantasy Surfing Tips and Brazilian local Francisco Pimentel … Read more
Kelly Slater – OUT Slater doesn’t need a reason, but here goes: because he’s down on form, doesn’t like the contest at the best of times, the forecast sucks and he has a world-class wave pool at his disposal. Does anyone blame him? Replaced by TBA Joel Parkison – OUT No reason given. Is he … Read more
Here are the numbers for the Oi Rio Pro. Below you will find a range of data fields that you can manipulate in order to wade your way through the selection process. These data projections take the 2014/2015/2016 results into consideration and give a slight weighting to 2016 form within the overall projected scores. Many … Read more
The WSL marketing phrase leading up the dramatic end-of-year Pipe contest was “You Can’t Script This”. It was pretty apt for the whirlwind that was the 2015 title race, and it worked well for them at the time. They may as well have been describing the beginning of the 2016 season though, as it has … Read more
Things have been moving around on the injury front, here’s the latest as of April 7th: Invitation Wildcard – Jack Robinson Fans of Jack Robinson will be stoked to hear that the West-Australian charger has been offered a spot in the Margaret River event. If the conditions are right for the Box or even North … Read more
Surf-Stats is proud to present the first in a new series of articles: Notes from the line-up. The premise is simple: find a Surf-Stats fan who knows the contest wave like the back of their hand, then pick their brain on who has been lighting up the free-surf sessions and showing the right kind of … Read more
In 1999, modern-day big-wave charger Shane Dorian held the famous Bell aloft and uttered the now-famous phrase “no kook has ever won Bells”. For me, this quote raises more questions than answers: was he was implying that the venue is guaranteed to sort the men from the boys? Was he suggesting that other venues somehow … Read more
We’ve cut it a little fine, with less than 36 hours until the Bells waiting period, but all of the wildcards/replacements have been announced and an updated forecast is in the bag; it’s time to ring this fantasy Bell… Conditions Analysing the conditions means having one eye on the forecast; will surfers be heaving Olympic … Read more
Bells is only days away and, with the QuikPro a distant (and, for some of us, painful) memory, it’s a great opportunity to tweak those teams into something resembling more Sci-Phi than Banana Board. Below you will find a range of data fields that you can manipulate in order to wade your way through the … Read more
He’s done it; Matty Wilko has popped his WSL cherry and gotten to home base with a tour event, the dirty minx. We couldn’t be happier for him. Wilko, who has until recently been best known for rollerblades, novelty wetsuits, good times and unfulfilled potential, gave us a glimpse of what we can possibly expect … Read more