ASP Tour Manager Al Hunt shared his wisdom on the new system to explain the details of last week’s rankings shakeup.

Granger Larsen (HAW), 20, moved to No. 29 on the men’s ASP World Ranking after his Semifinals finish at the ASP PRIME Telstra Drug Aware Pro.

COOLANGATTA, Queensland / Australia (Monday, April 11, 2011) – With the completion of the ASP PRIME Telstra Drug Aware Pro and this year’s Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach holding a waiting period later on the calendar compared to 2010, there have currently been some massive shifts on the men’s ASP World Ranking, which now continually shifts as surfers hold results for exactly 12 months to the date. ASP Tour Manager Al Hunt shared his wisdom on the new system to explain the details of last week’s rankings shakeup.

Several of the world’s best surfers are still wondering why they can do great in an event and actually drop in the rankings. That’s because their best scores from 12 months ago are being replaced and these days, even winning a PRIME event, you could drop if at the same time a World Tour score worth more is being replaced. Because the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach is late this year, the scores from 2010 Bells have already been dropped as of yesterday so one of their highest scores is gone. Next year when Bells runs earlier the scores will be counting twice so it will appear to be the opposite for a short time.

Overall, there is no difference though as all scores last for 12 months only, no longer and no shorter.
As soon as the WT guys earn their scores at Bells they will jump up again. If some surfers had done the Hang Loose Pro in Noronha they would also be higher but seeing they decided not to compete there, the ones that did have moved ahead.

The rankings will be very volatile all year and surfers need to look at their scores and not expect to jump up in the rankings because of a good result. A great example is Taj Burrow, who came in second at the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast, earning 8000 points. Burrow still dropped a place because he had to drop a 10,000 win, so even though he came second he was 2000 points less.

That’s the story for now,
AL

Current ASP Men’s World Ranking