Current WQS #4 Jay TompsonHi Everyone,
I have been getting a lot of emails lately regarding the number of points required to make the World Qualifying Series (WQS) to Foster’s ASP World Tour cutoff.
As you may or may not know, the Top 15 surfers on the WQS move on into the Fosters Men’s Tour each year. Last year’s cutoff was at 8,545 points for best seven WQS event results.This year with the introduction of PRIME ratings bonus points of 20% at six event sites you would expect the cutoff to be around 20% more and after yesterdays completion of the French Lacanau Pro 6* event the cutoff is 9,113.The same time last year after Lacanau it was 7,285 so that makes it around 25% more currently. If this trend continues then we can expect the cutoff to be around 10,800.
More than likely though, the surfers have most of their points and are looking to upgrade their low points of around 875 (most have one or two of these low results). These 875 pointers should be replaced by ones of around 1,125-1,375 so I guess we could expect to add say 800 minimum (over two events) to those with these scores pushing the cutoff up to around 10,000.
Of the current Top 15, the top four all have well over 11,000 making them a safe bet for 2008 and Jihad Khodr at #5 on 10,875 also quite safe. Both Jordy Smith and Ben Bourgeois at #1 and #3 have low 875 throw-away events, so expect them to be a lot higher points-wise come the end of the year. For the others in the Top 15, not much movement is to be expected other than any event winners and Aritz Aranburu, Kieren Perrow, CJ Hobgood and Jarrad Howse who all have an excellent chance of jumping up the ratings with any semi-final results.
Once we start looking at those outside the Top 15 down to around 40th, the low scores the surfers need to replace are the same, so again, unless any of these make finals then not much movement is expected.
To sum up, who knows what it will be, but expect 10,000 to be the minimum for 15th spot and up to 10,800 a possibility.
CURRENT ASP WQS TOP 10
1 - Jordy Smith - (ZAF) - 12,200 points
2 - Tiago Pires - (PRT) - 11,900
3 - Ben Bourgeois (USA) - 11,688
4 - Jay Thompson (AUS) - 11,225
5 - Heitor Khodr (BRA) - 10,875
6 - Heitor Alves (BRA) - 10,400
7 - Dane Reynolds (USA) - 10,038
8 - Neco Padaratz (BRA) - 9,963
9 - Aritz Aranburu (EUK) - 9,957
10 - Kirk Flintoff (AUS) - 9,675
For more on the ASP WQS Tour, visit www.ASPWorldTour.com