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Preview: Meo Rip Curl Pro

Julian Wilson threading a Supertubos barrel

While Pipe may be the ‘Superbowl of surfing’, Portugal certainly punches above its weight when it comes to world title speculation. Throw in the race for Olympic qualifications and a decent forecast, and we have plenty to get psyched about for Portugal. Medina, Seabass, Filipe, and Jordy et al. may have ensured that most fantasy … Read more

2019 Fantasy Surfing Preview

So, we’re here. The new WSL season is upon us. Before we dive in for another 9 months of pro surfing across 8 countries and 770 heats (men and women), we thought it might be worth covering the various changes that 2019 will bring. Fantasy Of course we’re opening with this. If you played FSS … Read more

Preview: Meo Rip Curl Pro Portugal

Julian Wilson threading a Supertubos barrel

So, here we are: between European legs, and things are tight. A tight turn-around, a tight title race, and tight fantasy contests. How good was Rhino? How sweet is it to have a proper title race? With the short turn-around between events, this preview will be a little brief, but the stats will still be … Read more

Preview – Portugal 2017

Have you had time to catch your breath? The dust has only just settled on the QuikPro France, and yet Portugal is already building momentum. Are you in the running for anything fantasy-wise? Maybe some beers or dollars at your clubhouse friends’ expense? Maybe the whole shebang? Portugal is where the world title picture really … Read more

Contest Metrics – Portugal 2017

Our heat score projections and stats are taken from 2014-2017 WSL contest data. Some 2017 rookies include data from previous WSL events, but many do not have relevant results in significant categories, including data for this particular venue. Their modelling is much less reliable and they may have skewed projections due to their averages being … Read more

Contest Wash-Up – Portugal 2016

The Winnner Destiny: has there been a more over-used word in professional surfing these past 72 hours? Maybe it’s just my jaded world-view, but destiny is a bullshit concept that serves to undermine the true elements that lead to success (like focus, hard work, talent and maybe a bit of good fortune). Destiny Attained was … Read more

Contest Analysis – Meo Rip Curl Pro 2016

The post-France-pre-Portugal window is always pretty tight and the deadline is looming, so we’ll cut the fluff and jump straight in (although the WSL has decided to write up a nice little pre-amble, if you’re into that sort of thing): Conditions France and Portugal offer pretty similar conditions parameters, so the modelling will be fairly … Read more

Meo Rip Curl Pro Portugal Projections

*Please note that wildcard Frederico Morais’ data is based purely on his scores from the 2015 Portugal contest (in which he was a quarterfinalist) and his AHS for the 2016 QS season. His projections are not entirely reliable for this reason. This data takes the 2014/2015/2016 results into consideration and give a slight weighting to … Read more

Men’s Portugal Recap

Wow,  the Moche Rip Curl Pro was intense!  We saw some very unexpected results with ratings leaders Mick Fanning and Adriano de Souza eliminated in R3,  Julian Wilson and Owen Wright out even earlier in R2 and Gabriel Medina unable to capitalize with a QF loss (moving up only one spot).  The biggest jumps were … Read more