The Qualifying Series: Who's in for 2017?
It's November and the Qualifying Series is swinging through the business end of the year. As of today, forty-six QS contests have been surfed with three more still to come, however one of those is a QS1,500 in Taiwan and it's highly unlikely it'll have any bearing on the final outcome.
The other two are QS10,000s and they'll shake up the back end of the QS qualifiers. Remembering just 10 surfers from the QS go through to next year's Championship Tour (CT).
The reason it'll only affect the back half of qualifers is because the front half has broken away in a peloton and, according to WSL numbers guy Al Hunt, have already assured themselves a place on next year's CT.
"I’m thinking [surfers on or above]18,000 should be okay so the current Top 6 are looking good," says Al. The current Top 6 are:
Kanoa Igarishi (21,750)
Leonardo Fioravanti (20,750)
Connor O'Leary (19,775)
Joan Duru (18,900)
Ethan Ewing (18,750)
Ian Gouveia (18,410)
The higher they are the safer they are. Asked to put a cutoff on this year's points, Al estimates anyone who gets over 17,500 should be safe. That puts three surfers on the bubble:
Bino Lopes (17,550)
Jeremy Flores (17,150)
Ryan Callinan (15,950)
There are a bunch of surfers immediately below Callinan but the advantage the above three surfers have is, should they place high in Hawaii, they'll be tossing out very low scores. Any increase they make up the rankings will be significant.
It's worth making mention of the increasing geographic spread of surfing. Australia and Brazil will definitely contribute new faces to the CT (O'Leary, and Ewing for Oz, Gouveia for Brazil) however Italy will have its first CT surfer in Fioravanti, and France their fourth surfer in Joan Duru (who follows Eric Rebiere, Miky Picon, and Jeremy Flores).
The Hawaiian Pro starts at Haleiwa on November 12th and the Vans World Cup of Surfing at Sunset on November 24th.
Check all QS rankings here.
Comments
Thats Frances fourth surfer , ever, and Jeremy Flores grew up on Reunion. For a country that has been a CT stop for what? Well over a decade.....it's not really evidence of any increasing geographical spread.
We've got Fioravanti...but with his upbringing in France as step-son of Stephen Bell, he looks more like an outlier than any harbinger of a new wave of talent from outside the traditional surfing powerhouses.
Where's the Japanese surfers on the CT? Indonesian? etc etc
Japanese have their own lucrative local tours, right? And the big companies won't hand over the money to the Indonesians to grind. Anyway, why leave Bali? I know a Chinese surfer who wants a bite but he is so far from the table he can't even see it. Don't even mention the British haha
We may be losing quality rail surfing from the likes of Burrows, Fanning and possibly even Parko but at least we have Leo and Ewing coming in (and most likely staying for some time). Also pretty cool to see Seabass and Stuey step up under injury wildcards!
To follow the WQS is expensive (I'm guessing $100k annual outlay) and perhaps the surf companies are reviewing their ROI on sponsoring surfers.
I know when I buy a wettie it's because of the fit and flexibility and not which pro wears it.
Hey isn't Jeremy Flores the guy who helped Sunny Garcia beat up on a kid on the Goldy?
Wonder if Kelly's wavepool once fully commercialised will genuinely broaden the geographic spread of contenders. Imagine some red hot Canadian or Austrian snowboarder come local wavepool aficionado bringing his/her wares to the tour. A Chinese kid with demanding parents. A skater from Atlanta. A wealthy kid from Kuwait. Red Bull's inevitable stable of international wavepool specialists...
Really like to see Ryan Callinan make the cut
His surfing suits the Hawaii leg
Already looking like there's gonna be a few changes since the above was written. The top 5 haven't changed - Kanoa Igarishi, Leonardo Fioravanti, Connor O'Leary, Joan Duru, and Ethan Ewing - all of them except for Igarishi (who's assured of qualifying) are still in the comp so they're at least holding their ground.
Number six is Ian Gouveia and he's been bumped out and will record no points from Haleiwa. He may already have enough points to qualify, however a good result at Sunset - not easy for a short-arse goofyfooter from Rio - will greatly help his cause.
Bino Lopes was in 7th going into Haleiwa but an early exit will see him drop down the rankings.
In contrast, Jeremy Flores who was in 8th, is still in the comp and is assured of a jump up the rankings. QS surfers count their best five results and to date J'Flo has only entered four comps. Therefore every point he earns goes into his final rankings.
Ryan Callinan was in 8th before Haleiwa and desperate for a result. He got bumped early and like Lopes and Gouveia will drop down the rankings. He now has a do or die situation at Sunset.
There are also a bunch of surfers running from about 10th to 25th on the QS who are still in the comp. Among them are Tomas Hermes (10th), Evan Geiselman (12th), Jack Freestone (15th), Jadson Andre (22nd), Mitch Crews (24th), Davey Cathels (26th), and Frederico Morais (28th). A good result both here and at Sunset will see them qualify.
I think Soli Bailey is in the mix too.
Not at Haleiwa. Got knocked in Round 2 and will surely drop from his current 17th rank.
It's Sunset or bust for Soli.
right you are, I just heard a few blokes talking about in the water today.
Good to see Jeremy Flores is still in the mix. He's in the top ten in the QS. I hope he qualifies again for the WSL.
boskophoto insta.
bosko reckons he's ripping - a comment /apology over a pipe drop in on Fioravanti by another pro .......poor bloke from Newy originally got the blame all by a board decal.