WQS Update With Al Hunt

Unless you have been in a coma the past week, then you already know that Kelly has won his historic 9th ASP World Title. Congratulations to Kelly and now the big question is will he go for 10?

I remember a few years ago when Lance Armstrong won his 7th Tour de France race, they were saying he was the greatest sportsman of all time as no one has been able to dominate a sport for that amount of time. Well I say that Kelly has blitzed that record and is the “Greatest Sportsman of all Time”.

I’ve been checking the record books of legitimate sports and could only come up with one other name that may qualify, and that was Joe Davis back in the late 1920’s and 30’s where he won 15 consecutive years at the World Snooker Championships. Of course, they were only held in England at that time, so it’s not really the same, however it is a huge sport. Anyway, I’m saying it now, so let the record books of the world show it. I expect to see it in the latest edition of the Guinness Book of World Records on the stands for Christmas this year.

Other event surfing news is that C.J. Hobgood is back in the winner’s circle, defeating Joel Parkinson at the Billabong Pro Mundaka. This is C.J’s first win since Japan in 2004. Another great result for Adrian Buchan in 3rd after his win last week at Hossegor.

In the ratings, C.J. has moved into 6th and Adrian 7th. Joel is still up there on 3rd and the other Semifinalist Luke Stedman has jumped into 10th.

On the ASP WQS side, just the one women’s ASP WQS 4-Star Billabong Ladies Pro in Brazil down south at Florianopolis where Silvana Lima defeated fellow Brazilian Tita Tavares. Silvana has jumped from 22nd to 10th and still has a zero counting so after this week’s event in Rio should jump even higher possibly to around 2nd place. The rest of girls Top 10 remain unchanged except for Claire Bevilaqua making way for Silvana in 10th.

ASP Pro Junior events were all over the place this week. At Sunset Beach, Hawaii the first day of the Billabong Pro in Memory of Ronnie Burns was run with the remaining day to be completed sometime between October 27th and November 10th.

At the Billabong Junior Pro in Bells Beach, Victoria, Australia Heath Joske had his first win with Tyler Wright taking out the girls division. For Tyler it was her second win of the season. In Brazil down south with the girls WQS the junior winners were Alex Ribeiro in the boys and Diana Cristina in the girls.

In each of the seven ASP regions, juniors fight it out not only for the title of being No. 1 in their region but also for spot on their region’s team into the Billabong ASP World Junior Championships held at North Narrabeen early January to hopefully be crowned ASP World Junior Champion. These titles are more than just an ASP World Title as they guarantee the winners and runner-ups a seed into the second last round of all ASP WQS events during 2009.

As Australasia has completed their junior season they have named their team for the event and it is:

- Stuart Kennedy (Aus)
- Heath Joske (Aus)
- Tamaroa McComb (PYF)
- Jayke Sharp (Aus)
- Lincoln Taylor (Aus)
- T.B.A. - Highest rated Australasian based pro junior aged surfer from 2008 WQS ratings

I should know other regions teams in the coming weeks as each region has their last junior events.

Upcoming ASP WQS events for the men this week are the ASP WQS 2-Star Hyuga Pro in Hyuga, Japan, the ASP WQS 4-Star Ocean & Earth Pro in the Canaries and the ASP WQS 6-Star Rio International in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Reader Comments 

Posted Tue Oct 7, 2008, 11:54 AM — By Michael Spencer Taylor

I think Slater needs to release his book he has been working on for 10 years he has taped in to engery that only a few have figured out how too,its like he sees past the first DIMENSION and taps into all the other things that are going on that we don't see..Check out Slater in The Lords of Trestles Vol #1 and in The Road to Saving Trestles,,,,,INfo at www.digitalwunderland.com

Posted Wed Oct 8, 2008, 3:44 PM — By Bob

Time was, you could turn up your nose at the Brazilians on tour, like their style didn't belong in the top 45 and their surfing did not look as good as Silvana's, but they've gotten past that, and NOW the joke of the tour is that Ace and Luke are in the top ten, when it's questionable whether THEIR surf form should make the cut at all (top 45), and when I honestly would have rather watched Carissa surf Mundaca that final day. Australia needs to get past this... where is their Jordy or Dane? (Though for my money Mick's still better than those two.)

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