Chris Davidson : photo Debiky/Mr Price

Al Hunt's Situation Room

Chris Davidson jumps from 34th to 7th in the ratings

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 7 July, 2008 : - - The Mr. Price Pro in Durban, South Africa has been completed with very good surf all week and congratulations go out to Australia’s Chris Davidson in the ASP WQS 6-Star division and Silvana Lima from Brazil in the ASP WQS 5-Star division.

This is Davo’s 4th ASP WQS win, his last also an ASP WQS 6-Star event back in Brazil 2002. Davo has jumped from 34th to 7th on the ratings with fellow finalist local Durbanite Travis Logie jumping 100 places into 93rd counting only three event results.

There have been some changes in the ratings with Patrick Gudauskas reclaiming the top spot after his 3rd place finish.  In the men’s, the big movers upwards other than Davo were Drew Courtney from 14th to 6th and Nathan Yeomans 15th to 9th.  Of course when people move up some have to and the notable ones were Austin Ware from 3rd to 10th, Shaun Gossman 7th to 17th and Kekoa Bacalso 9th to 13th.

The current ASP Top 10 are Gudauskas with a good lead of around 500 points on 9119 points, followed by David Weare, Hizunome Bettero, Nathaniel Curran, Raoni Monteiro, Drew Courtney, Chris Davidson, Sunny Garcia, Nathan Yeomans and Austin Ware all with over 8000 points except Austin on 7838.

So as you can see there are eight guys all within a 1000 points of each other so expect a bit of movement in the ratings after the next event the ASP WQS 6-Star US Open at Huntington Beach in two weeks.

The North Americans are fairing particularly well as Californian Nathaniel Curran (USA) jumped up to No. 4 with a Round of 16 finish tallying 8,600 points, San Clemente’s Nathan Yeomans (USA) collecting a Quarterfinals finish to rejoin the Top 10 at No. 9 with 8,100 points and Austin Ware (USA) rounding out the Top 10 with 7,838 points.

At the halfway point this season, the North Americans are holding down four of the Top 10 spots on the ASP WQS ratings, and are the dominant region thus far. For Lima, that makes it two out of two ASP WQS wins in a row and places her at 20th on the ratings with just two events counting, while fellow finalist, France’s 17-year-old junior sensation Pauline Ado, also with just two events has moved in 42nd.

Silvana claimed the two highest scores of the event, including both men and women. with a perfect 10 point ride in both the Quarterfinal(a huge aerial, the best of the event men or women) and Semifinal (a combination of huge floaters, off the tops, pocket snaps and roundhouse cutbacks, all super critical and too many to count on my ten fingers).

From the Quarterfinal to final, Silvana placed her opponents in a position where they all needed a combination of scores to win. Now she is over her 18 month battle with a knee injury and look out for a charge at the ASP Women’s World Title.

In the ASP WQS women’s ratings Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS), equal 5th at Mr Price, eliminated by Silvana, still holds a commanding lead, followed by South Africa’s Rosey Hodge. Close behind are Brazil’s Bruna Schmitz, equal 3rd at Mr Price and Paige Hareb from New Zealand.

Rounding out the Top 10 are Alana Blanchard (HAW), Rebecca Woods (AUS), Claire Bevilacqua (AUS), Laurina McGrath (AUS), Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) and Mason Airini (NZ). All of these girls have competed in their minimum number of events required (best 5 ) except Jessi (with 4) so even a reasonable result in her next event will see the young Australian jump to around 4th place.

For the 2009 ASP Women’s World Tour, it is looking like a close race and other than Sally Fitzgibbons, no one is safe. It’s great to see two New Zealanders in with a shot at the big time. Hopefully one will qualify as it’s been a long time since any Kiwi has been seen at the Dream Tour level.

For the men, we have the ASP WQS 1-Star Super Bock Pro in Portugal and the ASP WQS 1-Star Macy’s E- Series in Hawaii this week, but the next event of consequence for the ratings leaders will be the GO211 LIVE featuring the Honda U.S. Open of Surfing pres. by O’Neill in Huntington Beach starting July 18.

That’s it for now. Until next week, Al Hunt ASP WQS Tour Manager

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