What's in this Name?

At the start of the 2105 Pro Tour season, the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) became the World Surf League (WSL). The main reason for this, as stated by CEO Paul Speaker, was because they believed that the new name was easier to understand, and would get the tour on a better track to serve fans, athletes and partners: “Professional surfing’s DNA remains intact. We’re about the world’s best surfers in the world’s best waves. That will never change.”

World Championship Tour

On the premier Men’s WCT tour, not a lot has changed apart from the name. There are still 11 events, with the top 9 counting to your ranking. There are still 22 surfers who re-qualify, joined by the top 10 surfers from the WQS, as well as two WSL wildcards. South Africa has one WCT surfer, Jordy Smith, after Travis Logie retired at the end of 2014. Jordy finished 7th last year, and fans will hope for a result this year that reflects his prodigious talent.

The Women’s WCT also remains unchanged. It comprises its top 10 surfers, the top 6 from the Qualification Series rankings, and one wildcard. South Africa has lone WCT surfer Bianca Buitendag on this tour, who is also ranked seventh from last year. According to the ASP:

"No. 7 Bianca Buitendag (ZAF) has had some stunning moments on Tour this year. The only South African on the women's Tour, Buitendag scored two nine-point rides at Trestles, earned three excellent-range scores on her way to a Quarterfinal finish in France, and showed off an impressive backhand attack at the Target Maui Pro. By the end of the year, Buitendag was back to the form that landed her in the Final at the Roxy Pro Gold Coast, a warning flag for the Class of 2015."

World Qualifying Series

On the WQS, there have however been some major changes. The former seven levels of events have been streamlined to five such levels, making the WQS tour somewhat simpler and easy to manage. The changes are such:

A 1-Star event is now a QS 1000 event.
The 2-Star and 3-Star events are now merged as a QS 1500 event.
The 4-Star and 5-Star events are now merged to become QS 3000 events.
A 6-Star event is now a QS 6000 event.
Prime events are now known as QS 10000 events.

Junior Tour

The ASP World Junior Championships, historically a 20-and-under age division, will change to an U18 division in 2016. This is in accordance with current trends within the surfing world, according to WSL Commissioner Kieren Perrow.

Big Wave Tour

The Big Wave World Tour (BWWT) has changed names as well, and is now the Big Wave Tour (BWT). There have been a few changes there as well, with the next season rankings as such:

The 2015/2016 Big Wave Tour field will be made up of the Top 10 finishers from the current season’s BWT rankings, six BWT wildcards, four local wildcards and the top four finishers from the new Nelscott Reef Trials.

Which means, in effect, that there are a definite 4 local South African starters in the Dungeons Challenge. This number could grow depending on the Nelscott Reef Trials of which James Taylor from Cape Town is a trialist, and the BWT wildcard selection of which Matt Bromley from Cape Town was selected last year.  

Last year there were 6 local surfers chosen as local wildcards, and the recognized big wave surfers and Dungeons chargers voted them in. It is yet to be decided how the 4 will be decided this year, but the general advice is to get out there and charge whenever Dungeons is breaking to try and garner the recognition needed. There will be more news here shortly. The waiting period for the Dungeons Challenge last year was 1 April to 31 August.

JBay

The JBay Winterfest and the JBay Open are both confirmed yet again, as well as the JBU Supertrial presented by RVCA. The winner of the Supertrial gets a slot in the JBay Open main event, which is a pretty good deal. Last year Dylan Lightfoot won the Supertrial and was awarded the wildcard. He came up against Kelly Slater in round 1 and Gabriel Medina in round 2, which was a tough draw but good experience for the JBay lightie.

Travis Logie

Travis Logie has taken on the role as deputy to the World Surfing League Commissioner Kieren Perrow, and will be concentrating on the Prime events and QS 6000 events. That’s right, Travis has a day job now. That’s a big change.

WSL

The 2015 elite men’s Championship Tour (CT) will be contested by the WSL Top 34, made up of the top 22 finishers on 2014 CT season, the top 10 finishers on the 2014 Qualifying Series (QS) and two WSL wildcards.

2014 Top 22 CT:
1. Gabriel Medina (BRA)
2. Mick Fanning (AUS)
3. John John Florence (HAW)
4. Kelly Slater (USA)
5. Michel Bourez (PYF)
6. Joel Parkinson (AUS)
7. Jordy Smith (ZAF)
8. Adriano de Souza (BRA)
9. Taj Burrow (AUS)
10. Josh Kerr (AUS)
11. Kolohe Andino (USA)
12. Owen Wright (AUS)
13. Nat Young (USA)
14. Julian Wilson (AUS)
15. Adrian Buchan (AUS)
16. Bede Durbidge (AUS)
17. Filipe Toledo (BRA)
18. Kai Otton (AUS)
19. Miguel Pupo (BRA)
20. Sebastian Zietz (HAW)
21. Freddy Patacchia Jr. (HAW)
22. Jadson Andre (BRA)

2014 Top 10 QS (minus double qualifiers from CT):
Matt Banting (AUS)
Wiggolly Dantas (BRA)
Adam Melling (AUS)
Italo Ferreira (BRA)
Matt Wilkinson (AUS)
Keanu Asing (HAW)
Dusty Payne (HAW)
Jeremy Flores (FRA)
Brett Simpson (USA)
Ricardo Christie (NZL)

WSL Wildcards:
C.J. Hobgood (USA)
Glenn Hall (IRL)