October 08 Archive

ASP WQS cutoff hits 11,000

OCTOBER 31 2008

The ASP WQS cutoff hits 11,000 points as Brazilians Jean Da Silva and Wiggolly Dantas win ASP WQS 6-Star events on both sides of the Atlantic.

The ASP WQS cutoff has hit 11,000 after the second week in a row where the ASP WQS Top 15 frontrunners failed to protect their lead. Of the Top 15 going into the last ASP WQS 6-Star events, only six of them reached a Quarterfinal or better. At Lanzarote, Drew Courtney with a 3rd, at Maresia, Dustin Barca with a 2nd, in Onbongo, Josh Kerr with a 5th, at Estoril, Gabe Kling with a 2nd, Tiago Pires with a 3rd and Marlon Lipke with a 5th.

The failure of these guys to take the big points as they have all year has meant that all those below them have jumped up dramatically in the ratings, and now, with just the two ASP WQS 6-Star Primes in Hawaii left and most of the ASP Top 45 competing in them, the surfers who are able to overcome the Dream Tour combatants and hot Hawaiian locals have a great chance of qualifying.

However, seeing that the chances of that happening are slim, the current ASP WQS Top 15 look like they’ll be the goods. At the Onbongo event in Brazil, 7 of the final 8 were Brazilians with Josh Kerr the lone Aussie. Across the Atlantic in Portugal at the Estoril Pro, it was a mixed bag with 7 different countries in the final 8.

Up at Santa Cruz at the ASP WQS 4-Star O’Neill Coldwater Classic, it was USA mainland versus Hawaii for the final 16 surfers, with junior surfer Nat Young coming out on top while Mason Ho was victorious in the ASP Pro Junior division.

In the ratings, the Top 15 remain unchanged except for Hizunome Bettero (BRA) and Simao Romao (BRA) replacing Michel Bourez (PYF) and Dustin Barca (HAW), however, inside the Top 15 are major changes.

Gabe Kling (USA) has moved up from 9th to 3rd, Josh Kerr (AUS) from 7th to 4th, Tiago Pires (PRT) 15th to 6th and Marlon Lipke (DEU) from 12th to 9th, while ping down were Pat Gudauskas (USA) 6th to 11th, Drew Courtney (AUS) 4th to 7th and David Weare (ZAF) 5th to 9th. The big mover outside the Top 15 into a possible contention slot was Jadson Andre (BRA), 32nd to 18th.

Surfers carrying some low throwaways that could jump in the ratings are Dustin Barca (HAW), Jadson Andre (BRA) and Kekoa Bacalso (HAW). Those inside the Top 15 that can jump also are Phil MacDonald (AUS), Simao Romao (BRA) and David Weare (ZAF).

Guys near the cutoff like Michel Bourez (PYF), Yadin Nicol (AUS) and Jihad Khodr (BRA) are looking for 1,600 points or better so will need a Semifinal in either Haleiwa or Sunset.

The current ratings for the Top 20 are Curran,Nathaniel USA 1 13200 Davidson,Chris AUS 2 12525 Kling,Gabe USA 3 12301 Kerr,Josh AUS 4 12075 Boal,Tim FRA 5 11888 Pires,Tiago PRT 6 11750 Courtney,Drew AUS 7 11600 Emslie,Greg ZAF 8 11463 Lipke,Marlon DEU 9 11450 Weare,David ZAF 9 11450 Gudauskas,Patrick USA 11 11438 MacDonald,Phillip AUS 12 11263 Bettero,Hizunome BRA 13 11125 Muscroft,Nic AUS 14 11075 Romao,Simao BRA 15 11000 Bourez,Michel PYF 16 10900 Barca,Dustin HAW 17 10826 Andre,Jadson BRA 18 10738 Nicol,Yadin AUS 19 10675 Khodr,Jihad BRA 20 10575

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Ian Crane: Bubble Grom

OCTOBER 29 2008

Bubble Gum October: Ian Crane. After closing out last year with a National Title in the NSSA Airshow, Ian has been on a tear already early in this comp season. Opening up the WSA prime series with a win at DMJ's he followed it up with another final getting 4th at Churches. As of Nov 1st he is holding down 2nd in the U16 ratings. And if thats not enough - look for Ian in the latest issue of Mundo Rad punting a mean air.

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ASP WQS Situation Room

OCTOBER 19 2008

COOLANGATTA, Australia (Monday, October 20, 2008) - Congratulations to Nic Muscroft (AUS) and Jano Belo (BRA) for their wins in the Canaries and Brazil this week.

At the La Santa Surf Pro on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, Nic outpointed Hawaii’s Kekoa Bacalso in the Final with fellow Aussies Phil MacDonald and Drew Courtney in equal 3rd. For Nic this is his second ASP WQS title, the other being last year in the Canaries also.

Across the Atlantic in Brazil at the Maresia Surf International at Itajai, Brazilian Jano Belo has taken out his first ever ASP WQS win defeating Hawaiian Dustin Barca with Brazil’s Marcio Farney and Japan’s Masa Ohno in equal 3rds.

Now to the Men’s ASP WQS ratings and there has been a lot of major changes. MacDonald, Muscroft and Barca have moved into the Top 20 at the expense of Simpson, Monteiro and Paulino.

The Top 3 remain unchanged, 4th is now Drew Courtney (AUS) jumping up from 11th and David Weare (ZAF) in 5th.

The big movers upwards this week other than Drew were Gabe Kling 15th top 9th, Phil MacDonald 21st to 10th, Nic Muscroft 26th to 10th, Dustin Barca 25th to 14th, Kekoa Bacalso 44th to 22nd putting him a possible position to make the cut with another result like this one and Jano with his win jumped from 166th to 91st.

Unfortunate losers in the ratings were Marlon Lipke 6th to 12th, Michel Bourez 8th to 13th, Yadin Nicol 10th to 16th and Hizunome Bettero 12th to 19th.

As you can see from the list below we now have 11 guys with over 11,000 points, which was the magic number a few months ago and I still feel they are safe.

The Top 15 qualifiers for next year’s Dream Tour are as shown as there are no double qualifiers so the cut off for now is at Tiago on 10,750.

With two ASP WQS 4-Star, two ASP WQS 6-Star and then the two Hawaiian ASP WQS 6-Star PRIMES left I don’t think much will change from now on.

The reason being is that at the 4-Stars, unless you win one of these, the points won’t help as nearly everyone is carrying a low score to be replaced of around 1,000 points. For the 6 Star in Brazil and Portugal this is basically every ones last chance to make more points as in the last two Hawaiian big ones nearly all the Top 45 Men’s Tour surfers and hot locals have entered and as usual expected to take all the top spots. Perhaps one or two other than them may get a Final but that’s it.

Surfers carrying some low throwaways that could jump in the ratings are Simao Romao (BRA) and Kekoa Bacalso (HAW). Those inside the Top 15 that can jump also are Phil MacDonald (AUS), Josh Kerr (AUS) and Dustin Barca (HAW).

Guys near the cutoff like Bourez (PYF), Lipke (DEU) and Muscroft (AUS) are all looking to better 1125 points so need 9ths or better.

The current ratings for the Top 20 are: Curran,Nathaniel USA 1 13200 Davidson,Chris AUS 2 12525 Boal,Tim FRA 3 11888 Courtney,Drew AUS 4 11600 Weare,David ZAF 5 11450 Gudauskas,Patrick USA 6 11438 Kerr,Josh AUS 7 11325 Emslie,Greg ZAF 8 11188 Kling,Gabe USA 9 11163 MacDonald,Phillip AUS 10 11075 Muscroft,Nic AUS 10 11075 Lipke,Marlon DEU 12 10950 Bourez,Michel PYF 13 10900 Barca,Dustin HAW 14 10826 Pires,Tiago PRT 15 10750 Nicol,Yadin AUS 16 10675 Khodr,Jihad BRA 17 10575 Romao,Simao BRA 18 10500 Bettero,Hizunome BRA 19 10375 Henrique,Pedro BRA 20 10263

Upcoming ASP WQS events for the men this week are the ASP WQS 6-Star Estoril Coast Pro in Portugal, the ASP WQS 6-Star Onbongo Pro in Brazil and the ASP WQS 4-Star O’Neill Cold Water Classic in Santa Cruz, California. Both Estoril and Santa Cruz events also have an ASP Pro Junior division.

Story courtesy of www.aspworldtour.com

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Taylor Thorne wins WSA Prime

OCTOBER 12 2008

The Bubble Gum Grom team is dominating the WSA Prime under 16 division!

Taylor Thorne heads the list of the Bubble Gum Grom team this weekend, and it was a big one indeed. Between the WSA Prime and the NSSA Explorer the Bubble Gum Grom team was well represented!

Taylor backed up his 3rd place finish in the WSA Prime event #1 with a win this weekend in the second of six stops on the WSA Prime Tour. Current sitting in 1st in the under 16 ratings.

Ian Crane - After winning event #1 in the WSA Prime Ian placed 4th this weekend and sits in 2nd in the under 16 ratings.

Jared Thorne - Two stops on the WSA tour and two finals for Jared a 4th and a 3rd puts him in 3rd in the ratings for the under 16.

Just inside the top ten is Josh Giddings at 8th in the under 16 ratings.

Also in the under 14 ratings Bubble Gummers Kanoa Igarashi and Taylor Clark hold down 1st and 4th in the ratings. In two events Kanoa has a 4th from event #1 and a 1st from this weekend. Taylor took 2nd for event #1 but ran into an interference call in the quarterfinals this weekend that has pushed him lower in the ratings . . . . temporarily!

Meanwhile at the NSSA Explorer event in Huntington Beach Matt Lewis took 2nd in the Boys, Cooper Jones won in the Juniors and Britt Galland got 2nd in the Mens.

Great Job Bubble Groms! Congrats on an exciting weekend at the comps!

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Bubble Gum / NSSA Hawaii

OCTOBER 02 2008

Bubble Gum Surf Wax Signs on as Official Wax Sponsor for NSSA Hawaii

Bubble Gum Surf Wax’s co-founder, Britt Galland announced today that the brand has signed on as the official surf wax sponsor of NSSA’s Hawaiian Conference.

“We’re pleased team up with NSSA Hawaii to support amateur surfing,” Galland said. “Serving as a product sponsor for NSSA Hawaii will not only elevate Bubble Gum’s exposure in the Hawaiian surfing community, but it will give us the opportunity to have our newest wax blends tested by some of the world’s top amateur surfers.”

The Bubble Gum brand is on the move, recently opening a new online store to make it fast and easy for consumers and dealers to purchase Bubble Gum’s wax, branded apparel and surf accessories. To celebrate, the company is offering discounts and a chance to enter a drawing to win free Bubble Gum products

For more information, or to check out the new Bubble Gum online store, surf over to the newly re-designed website at www.bubblegumsurfwax.com For information about the NSSA’s Hawaiian Conference, go to www.nssahawaii.org

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