Surf ContestsWill Kelly Slater make it 10 titles? 

We’re very excited about the upcoming Rip Curl Search event in Puerto Rico. It’s the penultimate of the ten stops on this year’s newly renamed ASP World Title Race (it used to be called the World Championship Tour). The event begins in three days with a waiting period which runs from Oct 30th to Nov 10th. As with most contests they will run the heats over the best 2 or 3 days of surf during the waiting period.

It’s always great when we have an event in a civilized time zone as the action tends to frustratingly culminate at 3 o’clock in the morning during the European leg. More importantly though this is the contest where we are likely to see Kelly Slater become (in our opinion) the greatest athlete of all time by winning a tenth world title. The only other guy left in the race at this stage is South African super star Jordy Smith. Here are the scenarios which will lead to a 10th title for the big man…

– If Slater finishes Equal 3rd or better, he clinches the 2010 ASP World Title.

?- If Slater finishes Equal 5th or Equal 9th, Smith must win the event to send the ASP World Title Race to Hawaii.?

– If Slater finishes Equal 13th or Equal 25th, Smith must finish Equal 3rd or better to send the ASP World Title Race to Hawaii.

?- Essentially, if Smith fails to finish higher than Equal 5th, Slater claims the 2010 ASP World Title.

As if all that wasn’t thrilling enough we may also see Stephanie Gilmore make surfing history by winning her forth world title on the trot. We often use women’s surfing, more than men’s, for demonstrative video coaching here at Surf Simply. The lines drawn by the pro girls are closer to what 99% of experienced male surfers should be trying to achieve. You simply can’t attempt the airs and fin wafts executed by the top guys until you’ve mastered the turns more typical of women’s contest surfing. So if you’re surfing a short board, even if you’re the manliest man in the water, you could do a lot worse than emulating the heavy shredding of Steph Gilmore.

– If Gilmore finishes Equal 3rd or better, she clinches the 2010 ASP Women’s World Title.?

– If Gilmore finishes Equal 5th, Fitzgibbons needs to win the event to send the 2010 ASP Women’s World Title Race to Hawaii.?

– If Gilmore finishes Equal 9th or Equal 17th, Fitzgibbons needs to finish Runner-Up or better and/or Moore needs to win to send the 2010 ASP Women’s World Title Race to Hawaii.?

– Essentially, if Fitzgibbons fails to finish higher than Equal 3rd and/or Moore fails to win the event, Gilmore will clinch the 2010 ASP Women’s World Title.

You can join the Surf Simply family (in a virtual kinda way) watching all the action live at www.live.ripcurl.com.