She Knows Surfing
On an international level there are six professional surfing competitions or "circuits".
These include the ASP World Tour, the ASP World Qualifying Series (WQS), the ASP World Longboard Tour (WLT), the ASP Pro Junior Series, the World Masters Championship and specialty events. Surfers from seven different regions: Africa, Japan, Australasia, Europe, Hawaii, North America and South America compete on the word's most challenging waves.
What is the ASP World Tour?
The ASP World Tour is the top level of competition, and has both men's and women's divisions. The men's division is comprised of the top 45 male competitive surfers in the world, and the women's division is made up of the top 17 females. Surfers qualify for both the men's and women's ASP World Tours via the ASP World Qualifying Series (WQS). Every season, World Tour surfers compete with one another for prize money and the highly coveted ASP World Title. ASP World Tour events are held in top surfing spots around the world. With ten events a season for the men and seven for women, exotic locations and big prize money, the ASP World Tour is the most sought-after professional circuit in competitive surfing.
How do surfers qualify?
The only way to qualify for the ASP World Tour is through the ASP World Qualifying Series (WQS). By accumulating points throughout the season, WQS surfers are then rated, giving them a chance at qualifying for the ASP World Tour. The points are totalled from the competitor's best 7 results. The top 15 surfers from the men's WQS are awarded spots in the Men's ASP World Tour, while the top 6 surfers from the women's WQS are awarded spots in the Women's ASP World Tour.
Each season's men's ASP World Tour is made up of the top 27 rated World Tour surfers from the previous year, the top 15 rated WQS surfers from the previous year, and potentially three ASP World Tour surfers who were awarded the ASP Wildcard the previous year. Each season's women's ASP World is made up of 17 surfers (the top 10 rated World Tour surfers, the top 6 rated WQS surfers, and 1 ASP Wildcard).
Fast Fact
Kelly Slater has the most ever ASP World Championships with 9 to his name, and he is still hoping for more!
Advertisement
How are points awarded?
Points in competition are awarded by a panel of judges who are looking at criteria such as length of ride, difficulty of manouvre(sp?), position on the wave, and possibly a few others I have forgotten.
There are also ranking points which are awarded for final positions in the various contests (or 'connests' in the vernacular). These are somthing like 1000 for a win in a 5 star event and the rest of the places get a reduced amount.
Note that the places are 1st, 2nd, equal 3rd, equal 5th, equal 9th, etc as there are no 'surf-offs' for these positions. Meaning if you lose your semi-final you are given third place without having to surf against someone else.
Of course the concept of surfing competition reduces the sport in many eyes and should be taken with a grain of salt, sand and seaweed. Just go surfing!
hopefuly these steps will help me surf