Stats

Further to my last post, I've just seen some interesting stats which have prompted me to follow it up. When I wrote that last post I was going to look at previous years' results to see what the lowdown was on surfers who win the first two events going on to win the title, but I had too much else to do and, frankly, I guess I was being a bit lazy. Well luckily the ASP have done if for me here. But I'll happily regurgitate those statistics here and try to avoid plagiarism allegations as I go...

Unsurprisingly, if you win the first two events of the tour you are fairly likely to get the title - it really is as simple as that. So Joel Parkinson is currently in pretty good company - you may have heard of Mark Richards, Tom Carroll, Tom Curren, Kelly Slater and Sunny Garcia - apparently they were ok surfers way back when... Well they all won the first two events in various years and all of them went on to win the tour in those years. In fact, Kelly managed this three times and Curren did it twice.

You may not have heard of Cheyne Horan and Hans Hedemann (ok, Cheyne Horan is on the radar but without being rude who the heck is Hans Hedemann? I'm envisaging some teutonic blonde dude surfing in leiderhosen). They both have the dubious accolade of winning the first two but not sealing the deal at the end of the season. In fact neither of them ever lifted the title. Somehow I can't see Parko's name joining Horan and Hedemann in surfing's Hall of Moderate Success but Relative Obscurity, but who knows...

The ASP article reminded me that only one surfer has ever won three events in a row - Tom Curren in 1990. So if Parko pulls off a win in Tahiti next month, he really will be in good company, and he will be ahead of Slater in at least one surfing statistic, which is no mean feat...

Kelly slips, Joel dominates

Well what a difference a few months can make. When I last posted (a long time ago) Kelly was king and no-one else stood a chance. I was looking forward to a bit more competition on the CT, but I didn't see it happening until Slater got his 10th and finally let someone else have a go. It looks like I was wrong...

We might be only two events into the 2009 Dream Tour, but the tables have turned. The 9 times world champ currently stands at 24 in the ASP rankings, with two consecutive 17th place finishes. Ok, it's early days, but bear in mind Slats won in both Queensland and Victoria last year (and lifted the trophy in another four events that season), so the great man has truly come down to earth from a great height and with an almightly bump, or splash... I'm not saying we should write off Kelly's chances of sealing the magic 10th just yet, but there's no doubt he is in for a good old fight, assuming he can pull something special out of the bag in the next few events.

And how dangerous is Joel Parkinson looking? He's not suddenly the new Kelly, but two emphatic wins on home soil have shown how one surfer can sometimes get so much momentum on the tour that he looks unstoppable. And what's more the top 44 arrive in Tahiti for the inevitable barrel fest at Teaupo next month - Parko went all the way to the semis last year and judging by his current form, I'd put good money on him sealing the hat-trick in those lush tropical waves.

But let's not overlook the rest of the chasing pack - my favourites CJ and Taj are looking good at 5th and 7th respectively (CJ also made the semis in Tahiti last year), and many of the top contenders are looking strong - Mick Fanning, Jordy Smith, Fred Patacchia and Adriano de Souza are all representing in the top 7 and any of those guys could put the heat on Parko.

All in all it looks pretty exciting so far, and we should celebrate the fact that not only does the field look (relatively) open - assuming Parko doesn't win all the events - but also that the top 7 contains surfers from pretty much all the great surfing nations - Australia, Hawaii, USA and Brazil. My only question - where are the Brits?! Probably down the pub...