Tim Boal  : photo Aquashot/ASP Europe

Red Bull Rising

Red Bull Rising: The Twin Tours

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 27 August, 2008 : - - 'Look, it usually takes about four years to make the jump from the WQS to the WCT, even for the best guys.' ASP International Head Judge Perry Hatchet, is explaining just how hard it is to make the jump from the world qualifying series (WQS) onto the top tier of the professional surfing, the WCT.

Clint Kimmins, on his first full-time year on the qualifying series, knows that all to well. "Well, there are probably 300 surfers doing the WQS full-time and at the end of the year only the top 15 ranked surfers will go up to replace the 15 surfers who will be relegated from the top tier. So that just shows how difficult it is to crack the elite level."

The World Qualifying Series is made up of over 60 events in a calendar that starts in early January and finishes in late December. However each surfer's best seven results will only count toward his final tally.

"So we try and just focus on the highest rating contests, the five and six star events, which offer the biggest points and also the biggest prizemoney," continued Kimmins, with the practiced ease of someone whose career depends on these exact details. "For example, this event, the Rip Curl Pro, is a six star, the highest rating on the qualifying series, and also is considered a prime event, which means there is an extra 15 per cent points on offer.

Basically we will target 15 or so of the biggest events around the world, and hope that we can attain a result in at least seven of them. Going on last year, the minimum keeper score is about 1400 points, or a quarterfinal place. If you can have seven of those, you should be in a position to be in the top 15 and make it into the elite tour, where only the best 48 surfers in the world compete."

Easy enough huh, or at at least a little clearer when a man of Clipper's talents explains it so well. But obviously, the reality of traveling the world non-stop, battling it out with 500 surfers for a place in the last eight of each event isn't easy.

"It takes years just to get your ahead around the traveling, the car hire, the visas, booking accommodation, and that's before you even think about the actual surfing, both in terms of improving your free surfing and heat and competitive surfing," Red Bull Rising coach Andy King explains.

"That's why this is program is crucial, we aim to fast track the athletes, by packaging our experience, coaching and training, eliminating some of the often made mistakes and bring the average four year grind, down to one or two years."

Of course, at the very basic level, that just entails the surfers winning heats. "The format at each event is pretty simple," said Kimmins. "Say for example at this event, there are 144 surfers, surfing in four man heats. In each heat, surfers can catch a maximum of 15 waves, but only the best two waves will be scored. Each wave is scored out of 10, so the maximum you can score is a 20.

The two surfers with the highest score out of 20, progress through to the next round. In an ideal world, you simply go out, score two ten point rides and come in, job done," he laughed.

"In the real world though, tens are pretty rare," says head judge Hatchett. "You really have to get the judges tingling to get a perfect score." Yesterday, that happened just once in 24 heats (with 25 minute heats that is around 11 hours of surfing), despite near perfect French beachbreak conditions.

In reality, these surfers aren't searching for perfection, just seven solid results that will enable them to end up in the top 15 of the qualifying rankings, and thus in the elite top 48 surfers for 2009. "That's why I'm here," snarled a happy Kimmins. "I'm not making up the numbers, I'm here to achieve my dream of making the elite tour."  The trouble is, he's not alone. We'll let you know how they all get on.

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Ben Mondy

Team - Surfersvillage