Pro Surfing and Contests
Ricky Basnett and other South African woes
South Africa’s pride, Ricky Basnett was just unfortunate enough to pick up his tenth consecutive 33rd of this year’s contest season. Ten events on the 2008 World Tour and ten last place finishes. He has yet to win a single heat this year and has only one contest left to prove his worth. His chances of requalifying are nonexistant as he sits in 45th place, only in front of injury replacement surfer, Nic Muscroft (AUS) in the rankings. Even Nic was able to pull off a heat win in the Mundaka event. To make matters worse, Ricky hasn’t fully doubled up on the WQS, where he is currently sitting in 206th place, with little room for improvement.
Ricky obviously has the talent to mix with the world’s best, given his 3rd place finish on the 2006 World Qualifying Series and his equal 24th place finish on last year’s World Tour, where he didn’t have a single event lower than 17th place until the Pipe Master’s, where he placed equal 49th. Again, things are not looking good for Ricky heading into Hawaii. Even if he miraculously pulls off a win in Hawaii, his earlier results will keep him in the back of the pack.
If there is any consolation in this, Ricky will likely be joined by at least two of his fellow South Africans, Royden Bryson (36th) and Travis Logie (40th) in getting dropped from the tour, unless one of them wins at Pipe, or Travis is able to pull off back to back wins on the Hawaiian leg of WQS (where he currently sits at 51st). In perhaps an even more shocking twist, South Africa’s greatest hope, Jordy Smith is now sitting at 25th on the rankings, easily surpassable by any number of guys behind him in the rankings, should they do well at Pipe and he falter. O’Neill can not be happy with his freshman year performance, given the million dollar contract he locked in with them.
Stay tuned to the Hawaiian contests to see if any of this year’s South Africans will be back on tour next year. At least Saffos, Greg Emslie (8th on the WQS) and David Weare (9th on the WQS) have all but locked in seats on next year’s World Tour.
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