WSL release 2016 CT schedule
The WSL has released the 2016 Championship Tour schedule, and it's identical to the 2015 schedule. At present there are 11 events, 3 of them without sponsors - Rio, Fiji, and J'Bay.
There will be mixed responses to the inclusion of J'Bay following Mick Fanning's shark encounter this year though locals and surf fans will be pleased.
Addressing this issue, WSL Commissioner Kieran Perrow said, “Athlete safety is a top priority for the League. We have been in constant discussions with our athletes, event organizers and administrators regarding the future of this event. The WSL has made significant investments in the areas of surveillance and response for all current and future Tour spots, and we are currently working with a number of firms specializing in mitigation technology that focus on both athlete safety and the safety of the marine environment.”
Perrow continued: “The strides we’re making in the areas of surveillance and response are significant, but there presently exists no technology that has been proven to be 100% effective. Our athletes are aware of this, as they have always been.”
A closer look a the schedule sees a small addition to the schedule, one that should thrill everyone concerned: North Pont has been added as a backup venue to the Margaret River Pro.
2016 World Surf League (WSL) Samsung Galaxy Men’s Championship Tour
- Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast - March 10-21, 2016
- Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach - March 24-April 5, 2016
- Drug Aware Margaret River Pro - April 8-19, 2016
- Rio Pro - May 10-21, 2016
- Fiji Pro - June 5-17, 2016
- J-Bay Open - July 6-17, 2016
- Billabong Pro Teahupo’o - August 19-30, 2016
- Hurley Pro at Trestles - September 7-18, 2016
- Quiksilver Pro France - October 4-15, 2016
- Moche Rip Curl Pro Portugal - October 18-29, 2016
- Billabong Pipe Masters - December 8-20, 2016
Comments
Get rid of margies...without the box it's rubbish!!
Surely info deserves an event!!
Yeah, send em up to Trigg Point :)
They added north point. That could be epic.
Shark shield stand by your product ....why aren't you sponsoring Jbay ?
So we have.
x3 Australia
x1 south America
x2 Pacific
x1 Africa
x2 Europe
x1 Hawai
Its quite obvious there is one two many comps in Australia, Asia is missing from the list Indo the obvious choice, and only one comp in Hawaii?
It should be
x2 Australia (obvious choice is to ditch margs)
x1 (comp in Asia obvious choice in Indo somewhere)
x1 south America (crap event but got to keep the brazilians happy and South American market)
x2 Pacific
x1 Africa
x1 Europe (France and Portugal waves are to similar and an anti climax)
x2 Hawai (come on there should be two final comps in Hawaii to make it more interesting climax)
Wave wise:
Rights x4 but both margs and trestles general favour the rights for scores, all rights are more high performance rather than heavier hollow reefs unless the box comes into play but its so damn short anyway.
Lefts x2 but both heavier hollow reefs, no real performance lefts.
left and rights x6
So throw out margs and one of either portugul or france, ideally need to pick up a left.
Asia/Indo- G-land would be perfect super consistent but mostly barrels again, Maccas would be the ideal choice for a rippable left and also consistent , all tides good even with onshore as long as not to strong but i guess a logistic nightmare and could never rely on getting It out live with internet?
Hawaii?…I guess Sunset not most exciting wave to watch but adds another element to show surfers skill.
Or better still add one more comp and have two comps in Indo :P
Can't say I disagree with ya ID.
I agree also ID, having Indo in there is key. What about Rocky point as the second last event, gets a high performance left in there, and builds the tension going into the gladiator pit that is Pipe.
Yeah true, i believe its also consistent and not far from pipe so logistic wise might favour them with all their gear to go from there to pipe…i guess there is so much more to it all than just picking a surf spot though…but its nice to dream.
did anyone ask the local lads if they could take over nth point?
wonder how they will react if it starts firing. pretty staunch crew when it gets good.
Would be epic to see any of these events stopped by locals refusing to get out of the way en masse. Nothing worse than a comp on when your local's firing.
How many times was the tour held at Gland ?
Did they always get decent swell ?
Edit: 1995-97
95 Doesn't look too bad not huge but still 100% better than most comps.
Need to fast forward to around 3:30 min mark to see a decent amount of shots from front.
I think 97 was the year it was pretty much as good as it gets, but in 98 Indonesia become very unsettled with Jakarta riots and even riots in central Java a few hundred km from G-land.
My proposed New WSL Format :
20 CT surfers
4 wildcards (sponsors/locals/former winners)
Best 2 waves scored. Only use 1 decimal point. 3rd wave is used as the decider.
Day One
Round One – Four x 1hr 6 man heats (based on yearly ranking)
Round Two – Four x 1hr 6 man heats. Same surfers as round one. Heats run in different order to Rd1 to spread/share around the conditions. Top 4 surfers with the highest combined two waves from Rd1 and Rd2 advance to the quarter finals, so 4 waves added up. Allows surfers to have a shit Rd1 heat and come back in Rd2. Also gets rid of the ‘luck’ factor.
Day Two
Quarter Finals – Four 1hr 4 man heats (places are based on yearly ranking)
Semi finals – Two 1hr 4 man heats
Final – One 1hr 4 man heat
Have a regional waiting period, not the current pre-arranged set dates (yes I am fully aware of legalities / approvals etc).
With swell forecasting improving. Surfers usually in the areas anyway. The call can be made a 7 days out that they are on watch, and the GO given with enough time for all to assemble.
And with the comp only needing two days to run, the best part of the swell and conditions can be picked.
The intention of the 6 man heats for an hour with priority given to the inside surfer, is to ensure that if you want the score you need to take off deeper and later. An hour gives all surfers enough time to catch two excellent scoring rides. The two heats removes the luck factor and allows a surfer to recover if they have a shit Rd1 heat. With four surfers progressing, if you miss out you obviously were not good enough. We are not talking about 6 blokes paddling around in shitty 2ft shifting beach breaks. 6 blokes in pumping spitting lined up to the horizon surf. Pick the best period of swell and there will be plenty of waves. Only 2 days will help keep the locals on side also.
Regional waiting periods:
Australian leg. March to April - Snapper / bells / WA
Pacific / Indo leg. May to June - Fiji / Chopes / Indo (G-land)
South Africa. July - J-bay
America’s leg. August / September – Trestles / surely there is a good wave in Brazil
Europe leg. Oct – France / Portugal
Hawaii leg. Nov to Dec – Sunset / Pipe
? ?
God you put even more thought into it than i did..
I agree with most of your ideas... but that's two extra comps a year that i guess you need to come up with sponsors for, and I think they have had problems with this? and could surfers afford that extra travel cost?…also longer waiting periods would be great but thats also means surfers need to pay for accommodation longer…could they afford this?
I think the key is to have comps where you have the best chance of good waves, hence from an idealistic point of view its crazy why there isn't a comp in Indo especially at somewhere like G-land.
Still no event sponsors for Fiji, J-Bay or Rio?
Nooo, not G-Land.
I agree with somewhere in Indo tho.
Uluwatu? Can be a performance wave when smaller.
Keramas? But that's another right.
Kuta beach? Well, it would be better than most of the dribble they have in Brazil ;-)
The lack of sponsors for Rio, Fiji, and J'Bay, plus not having a contest in the country with the best chance of waves, leads me to think the WSL is still not in complete command of the tour.
The WSL has done many things since taking control of the steering wheel, however contest locations are still being dictated by presenting sponsors, as they were under the ASP.
When the WSL choose the location and order of events we'll know there's been a significant shift. Though not having sponsors back Rio, Fiji and J'Bay isn't helping.
Indo should have at least one comp. Nias would be insane - so consistent. High performance when its under 4ft. Big pits when it is over 4ft. But otherwise Keramas or Lakey Peak/ Periscopes or G-Land.
Get rid of Bells. What a filthy p00 wave.
Margs is a p00 wave as well. North Point is way too fickle. Very unlikely to break during the window in 2016.
Brazil makes me sick. What about moving it to one of the long lefts in Peru?
Peniche is a joke too - just not consistent enough.
Nias is too short and mostly about barrels, i like the idea of Lakey peak both left and right and barrels and very smakable problem is most of the year cross on winds come up early (same deal with Keramas) Lakeys is actually still good in those winds but still somewhere like G-land or Ullus is offshore generally all day.
Bells is not a filthy P00 wave. You risk sounding like a kook you doesn't know how to surf it properly. It's not high performance but there is a real art to drawing out long steady smooth turns on it that make the wave look good. Won't Deny that Winki Pop as a main venue would be better entertainment though.
The real problem with the Bells event is that it runs over Easter, which is not prime time for the Surf Coast, unless Easter is in late April, or Autumn/Winter has a really early start. Also, sharing the 12 day waiting period with the Women is not ideal.
Bells should be late April or early May.
I think all waiting periods at events with both tours should be separate - 12 for each - but running out of sync with only six days overlapping.
I'm with crip, not G-land. The place doesn't need to be broadcast to the world anymore than it already is.
Uluwatu would be perfect.
Fixed
Even with them persisting with Rio, having a world champ and quite a few CT surfers (and QS), it baffles me why they can't get a sponsor for there.
That being the case, from a buisness point of view, you would think that it would pay (particularly in viewer #s) to fuck it off and put it in Indo or the likes.
Still got me fucked why they can't get a sponno for Fiji and Jbay.
Actually, just realised that this year's last-minute sponsor of the Oi Rio Pro (see press release from 7 May 2015) is gone for 2016, after just one event.
This is especially pertinent after Paul Speaker used the success of the Oi Rio Pro in several interviews (such as this one in July):
"In point of fact, 22 million people tuned in on Globo alone to watch Filipe Toledo claim the Oi Rio Pro in May."
Globo is Brazil's largest TV network, so you would have thought that this result would have kept Oi (the largest telecommunications company in Brazil and South America) on board as event sponsor for 2016.
Interestingly, Paul also said in this interview "The excellence demonstrated in the core digital arena of our business has fostered a number of top-of-class linear partnerships including ABC/ESPN in the US, FUEL TV in Australia, Globo in Brazil and many others."
Yet, Fuel TV ceased in November 2014 (WSL events are now broadcast alternately on two Fox Sports channels). A small point, but worth noting.
"... a number of top-of-class linear partnerships ..."
You gotta love corporate-babble!
Taking a closer look at next year's schedule, and it's interesting to see the Australian dates rejigged to provide better continuity of coverage. The Quik Pro has been delayed by almost two weeks (compared to previous years), starting on the 10th March. Then there's just two days off before the next event - which is the Rip Curl Pro (they've recorded the second and third Australian events - maybe due to logistics? Makes sense at that level). Then two days off between the Rip Curl Pro and the Drug Aware Pro. That's around six weeks of continuous coverage of the WSL from Australia.
Leave gland alone. It would be great if they cut margs out of the tour completely too as it's such a shit wave. Bring on wave pool events, nice and safe, always offshore and consistent - dubai! Heaps of potential sponsors too, halal food in the vip tent, perfect solution, chicks Could surf in burkinis
hahahahahahah
I liked the search events. What happened to them?
Thats in line with the Hurley pro QS in Manly being moved to Feb 27 - March 6. Shame as means pros stay in Hawaii longer.....was thinking late season
Good move WSL for chance of bettér waves for manly and goldy