Tuesday, November 8, 2011

DMatt Rankings Post Ripcurl Pro

Excuse the font size and type switch up. Little tweaks sometimes elude me.


The Ripcurl Pro Search at VFWs is over. The 17-year-old stylish air-hucking and power surfing protege, Gabriel Medina, took the thing. Yep, he was on my team and will be for the rest of his career. In fact, I’ve had someone on my team in the final in every event (except Jbay where I did soooo horribly - had both Kelly and Dane on my team). In SF came in 190somethingth place, still leaving me at 1700something in the overall rankings.


Medina surfed SF better than I’ve ever seen anyone surf it, except another Brazilian, Alex Martins. Truly all the guys hacked and boosted and floated so well out there, but then again, all but Medina fell a lot and had off and wonky heats, proving that OB is no easy slice of pie even for the world’s best. I bet a lot of OB surfers felt vindicated after watching the event whether live or online. Marcus Sanders’ article on Surfline seems to point in that direction. I know I was sure feeling good about myself. Not that I’ve ever surfed OB as well as Gabriel and Parko et. al., but I’ve had some pretty darn good surfs out there in the past ten years. It’s also more fun when “junky” than most people suppose - which the world’s top 32 made crystal clear. And bad surfers can make OB look really BAD, which happens probably about 200 out of 365 days a year. No offense to the locals, most of whom are decent, but hey, it’s a big city. Big cities have a high kook/beginner factor - it’s just the way the kookie crumbles. (I did make myself laugh right now.)


If I were to power rank the top 32 after this event I’d still have Ke11y at #1 because of Teahupoo. Until we see Gabriel in pumping pipe pits we can’t place him above #3, even though on the beachbreak circuit he’s clearly #1. Who for #2 then? You know, Parko is a cheeky devil, and he’s still got all the tricks plus retarded awesome style. He will be deadly at Pipe, as I think will Kerr. We’d nearly forgotten about Taj and Mick in the SF comp with old dogs like Knox and Perrow throwing tons of power flash and young pups like Pupo, Muniz, and Medina showing us that they clearly have the whole bag. Without much explanation this is how I’d rank the boys after SF:


  1. Kelly: 11x world champ. Nuff said.
  2. Parko: The age-mate gets the nod. Good in all conditions. Looking solid for Pipe.
  3. Medina: Most stylish and well-rounded surfer to ever come from Brazil.
  4. Wright: What happened in that quarter final?!! Otherwise, solid.
  5. Kerr: Is going to put it together. Extreme consistency. Needs to push past 1/4s.
  6. Muniz: 3 semifinals. Vertical backside merciless hacks. Retarded rotations.
  7. Wilson: Has multiple wins in him.
  8. Knox: Power is not dead. We all knew that. It just took Knox + OB to remind us.
  9. Bourez: Eye of the fking tiger. Stop whining about beachbreaks. But deadly.
  10. Taj: What are you doing this far down?
  11. Fanning: The hoody is ugly. Take off the booties. Pipe watchout.
  12. Jordy: We’re still waiting for complete rib injury recovery. 95%
  13. Wilko: Madman. Tailwafts to die for. He’ll grow up and cut the hair eventually.
  14. Pupo: 2nd most stylish and well rounded surfer ever to come from Brazil.
  15. John John: If you don’t put him on your team at Pipe you’re an idiot.
  16. De Souza: Determination and all the moves. Lacks style - always has.
  17. Simpo: My favorite surfer from CA right now.
  18. Jadson: Pupo and Medina make him look choppy, but he still rips. Watch the kids!
  19. Perrow: Barrel master. Best barrel of anyone at OB in the whole comp.
  20. Freddy P: Elite pro surfer of the middle ranks. Surfs better than you.
  21. Durbidge: Also surfs better than you, but not better than some of his mates.
  22. Davo: Wildcard. Thought OB was his jam. Forgot to butter the bread first.
  23. Ace: I love Ace’s surfing. It’s not boring to me, but he’s not winning.
  24. Gudauskas: So weird to me that he’s not up in the top 15. But he’s not.
  25. Monteiro: 3rd most stylish Brazilian. Pipe darkhorse.
  26. Dusty: Too Volcom Hawaiian for the tour. Btw, it was a dolphin.
  27. Logie: In France we believed. In SF we doubted.
  28. Ottz: One o’clock backside hacks. He gets the worst heat draws.
  29. Ross: Power in plenty and a bit of flash. Something stiff in the lower back region.
  30. Pires: Another age-mate I want to see put it together. Wave selection!!!
  31. Flores: Injury, otherwise in the tens.
  32. Heitor: Injury, otherwise in the teens.
  33. Dane: make Tshirts and ride weird boards. We still love you.


So that’s my rap. Didn’t surf today actually. There are little nuggets and I do have a surf in me this week.


-D

3 comments:

  1. I thought Medina looked flicky at times, but it seems I'm in the minority.

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  2. Yeah I don't think he's too flicky. I do see what one might think can be construed as flicky: his casual transitional carves. If this is how he's surfing at 17, however, just imagine what a few more years will do. And for chrissakes, J.O.B. called Slater "fidgety". Everyone has a bobble now and again. Waves are weird.

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  3. Also, the final was won on full backside man turns. It was the fact that Medina won the thing ultimately on solid turns that solidifies him as the real thing.

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