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WAVE POOL INFO

“I’ve seen bigger waves in a toilet.”


It’s that time of year again! The most hotly debated contest of the WSL’s entire existence is upon us. Not only is this event back at a wave pool, this one is located in Abu Dhabi, an area where human rights are held precariously. It is such a controversy that there’s an entire subreddit of surfers who are boycotting the event. They’re even making merch about boycotting the event! What a time to be alive. 


Anyways. I’m still in two fantasy surf leagues, both with some money on the line. Of course I’ll be watching. Not to mention, I want to see this pool in action. The last time they ran a pool event (2023), I thought the night session was actually pretty cool to watch. Looked hard to surf; entertaining nonetheless. So, that being said, let’s get into a preview. Maybe you can pick some stuff from here to fine tune your fantasy squad.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about writing previews in the past couple of years, it’s to keep shit as vague as possible. My predictions are laughably erroneous, 9 times out of 10. I’ve made a mental note to stick to data, if possible. So I’ll present you with that. Have a look.


4 CT events at Kelly’s Ranch

2 Regular foot winners 

2 Goofy foot winners

2 Regular foot runner up

2 Goofy foot runner up


3rd place finishes

7 of 8 Regular foot


5th place finishes

9 of 16 Regular foot

7 of 16 Goofy foot


As far as wins go, we’ve got a 50/50 Regular/Goofy split.

Runner up is the same.

3rd place is dominated by Regular foots – 87.5%.

5th place is nearly back to even.


Let’s look at each surfer’s individual numbers.

First and foremost, there are a handful of surfers with no CT experience in a pool. That list is:

Jake Marshall

George Pittar

Al Cleland

Joel Vaughan

Marco Mignot

Ramzi Boukhiam

Edgard Groggia

Jackson Bunch

Alejo Muniz

Sammy Pupo

Imai deVault


That’s at least ⅓ of the field, inexperienced. Let’s see if that comes into play.

Now, for the rest we’ll just start at the top of the rankings. As a side note, these are all weighted averages. If a surfer has been in the 2019 Ranch event, say they surfed 6 waves, they have an average for that event. Then maybe they surfed in the 2021 event, they surfed 8 waves, they have an average for that event. I took those 2 averages, and averaged those. I did not grab each individual wave. Okay, here we go.


Barron Mamiya

2 events

11.70 Heat Average

5.10 Wave Average


LeoFio

2 events

13.87 Heat Average

6.38 Wave Average


Ian Gouviea

1 event

14.33 Heat Average

5.14 Wave Average


Italo

4 events

14.43 Heat Average

6.25 Wave Average


Miguel Pupo

2 events

13.78 Heat Average

5.45 Wave Average


Kanoa

4 events

14.51 Heat Average

6.46 Wave Average


Seth Moniz

2 events

13.16 Heat Average

5.83 Wave Average


Filipe

4 events

16.15 Heat Average

6.56 Wave Average


Ethan Ewing

2 events

14.44 Heat Average

6.23 Wave Average


Joao Chianca

1 event

10.67 Heat Average

4.74 Wave Average


Jack Robinson

2 events

8.82 Heat Average

3.41 Wave Average


Jordy Smith

3 events

13.53 Heat Average

5.84 Wave Average


Connor O’Leary

3 events

11.50 Heat Average

5.54 Wave Average


Matt McGillivray

2 events

8.77 Heat Average

3.80 Wave Average


LOB

2 events

10.25 Heat Average

4.02 Wave Average


Rio Waida

1 event

8.72 Heat Average

4.87 Wave Average


R.Cal

3 events

11.01 Heat Average

4.01 Wave Average


Griffin Colapinto

4 events

14.90 Heat Average

5.84 Wave Average


Cole Houshmand

1 event

9.54 Heat Average

5.76 Wave Average


Deivid Silva

2 events

12.97 Heat Average

5.26 Wave Average


Ian Gentil

1 event

12.17 Heat Average

4.86 Wave Average


Yago Dora

4 events

14.42 Heat Average

5.94 Wave Average


Here are a few notable results I am looking at –

Filipe – never finished worse than 3rd

Yago – 9th (2018), every other year 5th

Griffin – 13th (2018), 3rd, 3rd, win

Kelly – 3rd (2018) 5th (2021)

Ethan – 5th (2021) 3rd (2023)


And here are the official past years results of the Surf Ranch events

2018 –

Winner – Medina

Runner Up – Filipe

3rd – Kelly, Kanoa

5th – Owen Wright, Julian Wilson, Seabass, Miggy Pupo


2019 – 

Winner – Medina

Runner Up – Filipe

3rd – Owen Wright, Griffin

5th – Julian WIlson, Yago, Ace Buchan, Jordy


2021 –

Winner – Filipe

Runner Up – Medina

3rd – Kanoa, Griffin

5th – Adriano, Yago, Ethan Ewing, Kelly


2023 –

Winner – Griffin 

Runner Up – Italo

3rd – Filipe, Ethan Ewing

5th – Yago, LeoFio, Medina, Joao


So, there you go. That’s my preview now. None of my opinions, no predictions, I’ll save all of that. I am simply giving you the same info that I used to select my fantasy team.

I’ll share my team as soon as the event is underway and the teams are locked. I don’t want Nathan stealing my team again.


Good luck.

-hwilsin

-Drew Stanfield

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