Introducing Sonia Garcia – the world’s hottest competitive surfer?

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Plenty of magazines and online sites (Dailystoke included) have written articles about this or that up and coming hot professional surfing chick.  Up-and-coming stars like Bruna Schmitz (hot), Alana Blanchard (hot), Kassia Meador (hot) and Erica Hosseini (hot) are names that you will frequently hear associated with surfing hotness.  There are a few notable others, and then other online and print references to beautiful surfer girls usually focus on some fine lady paddling on an SUP (gag!) or inadvertantly … [Read more...]

Cain Kilcullen – killing it Irish style

In recent years, Cain Kilcullen has repeatedly been called the best surfer from Ireland. Take a quick look at one of his surf videos and you’ll quickly understand why. The 22 year old Cain comes from Enniscrone, County Sligo, midway between Counties Donegal and Galway on the west Irish coast. Though he has earned accolades for his acrobatics on the water during his free surfing sessions, Cain is also the current men’s Irish national champion. He recaptured the title for a second time, after … [Read more...]

Erica Hosseini is perfect (other than the fact that she’s goofy foot)

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She's from Newport Beach, California, she surfs way better than you, and... oh yeah... she's pretty friggin hot too.  If there is any imperfection in this otherwise perfect human, it's the fact that she's goofyfoot.  We'll let her slide on that for now. Need to see more proof?  Check out her personal website, which is oozing with photos, videos and personal details: http://www.ericahosseini.com/ Erica has all intentions of making it to the big leagues.  After a long and impressive … [Read more...]

Mine! — World Tour priority rules, part two

Mine!  --  World Tour priority rules, part two - the man on man edition The man on man heat makes up the large majority of heats on the ASP World Tour.  Round 1 in a given contest begins with a three man heat, winners move directly to the man on man heats of Round 3 and losers go to Round 2, where they must compete with their fellow losers in man on man heats, and the rest of the heats of the contest are held in the man on man format.  Two surfers... one peak... seems pretty straight forward, … [Read more...]

A look at the “One Ranking” system – decoding CJ Hobgood’s lead

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With the "one ranking" system slowly creeping up on us, CJ Hobgood has taken down the first major event of 2010, and has shot to first in the world under the coming system.  But what does it all mean?  Let's take a look. ****** It's all in the Stars ****** CJ's win in the 6 Star Prime Hang Loose Pro has awarded him 6,500 points.  By comparison, Heitor Alves win at the 6 Star Maresia Ceara Surf International only scored him 3,000 points, and Jamie O'Brien's recent win at the 5 Star Volcom … [Read more...]

NRG Team rider Blake Thornton is ready for the big leagues

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Maroubra's own Blake Thornton was one of the talented 15 who pushed the envelope on the 2009 World Qualifying Series to qualify for the 2010 World Tour.  We're stoked on Blake's performance and green with envy. His sponsor, NRG surf wear, have been kind enough to share this bit of press with us: NRG surf wear is proud to announce that our sponsored surfer Blake Thornton has beaten thousands of hopefuls to qualify for the prestigious Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 2010 Dream Tour. The … [Read more...]

Two out of Three Gudauskas ain’t bad

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Following up on my 2010 World Tour qualifiers report from earlier this week, we can now officially welcom two out of three of the Gudauskas brothers to next year’s tour. Following his successful run at the O’Neill World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach last week, Tanner Gudauskas, the youngest of the Gudauskas clan, will be joining his older bro, Patrick for a freshman run on the World Tour in 2010. Not making the cut… Pat’s twin brother, Dane, who failed to secure enough points, finishing … [Read more...]

Kelly Slater’s Rebel Tour back on? So says the interweb…

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Just when you thought it was dead in the water… our friends at Surfers Village picked up on a bit of gossip from Australian Surfing Life - Kelly Slater’s “Rebel Tour”, AKA the breakaway tour, AKA the Champions Surf Tour, is alive and kicking. “According to those rumours, the CST has signed a slew of surfers including Dane Reynolds, Andy and Bruce Irons, Ry Craike, Taj Burrow, Rob Machado, Shane Dorian, Mitch Coleborn, Clay Marzo and, of course, Kelly himself.” "Rumours heard by … [Read more...]

Final WQS ranking following the O’Neill World Cup of Surfing – Who’s in and who’s out? – The Final 15, plus one

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The grind is over, the results are in, and 15 World Qualifying Series surfers are on their way to the 2010 World Tour. As it stands, we’re seeing the addition of 7 Australians, 4 Americans, 2 Brazilians, 1 Hawaiian and 1 South African. And, should Jay Thompson manage to bump up a few spots in the World Tour rankings at Pipeline and double qualify, we may see the addition of France’s Joan Duru. Duru tied Australia’s Blake Thornton for 15th place, but after a thorough auditing of their numbers, … [Read more...]

Joel Parkinson wins the 2009 O’Neill World Cup of Surfing

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Joel Parkinson took home the win on Sunday at Sunset Beach on the final day of the 2009 O'Neill World Cup of Surfing, the second event in the 2009 Vans Triple Crown of Surfing. Though, the win doesn't put him any closer to winning his much deserved World Title, it does put him in a pretty good position to win this year's Triple Crown, especially when paired with his quarterfinal finish at the Reef Hawaiian Pro. Parko snuck by Sunny Garcia in the closing minutes of the final, leaving Sunny with … [Read more...]