A 5th for Ben Howey, 7th for Ben Skinner, 9th for Emily Currie and a 25th for Jen Pendlebury helped Surfing England got a 5th place team finish in the World longboard champs.
Skindog went down fighting losing out on a repechage final place by .8 of a point in repechage round 7. Ben Howey was on a roll but went out in the repechage final.
British longboarding has now had four surfers repping on the WSL longboard tour, and four placing in the top ten in the world at the ISA games in the past year. Add to this the surfers placing in the Noosa Surf Fest and Duct Tape events and you can say British surfers among the global elite. If Wales had fielded a team (Elliot Dudley and Connor Griffiths ?) it would have been good bet that two more would have been in the field.
Hawaiian Kai Salas won the mens title, American Tory Gilkerson won the womens title. USA won the teams.
With Facebook currently in the news insisting they’re returning the news feed to ‘family and friends’ not media and brands this seems a strange move from the WSL. But FB did push certain surf media titles a few years back to grow hugely so who knows what the long play is. Suffice to say if you want to watch the tour it’ll be via FB’s video services by the sounds of this ‘exclusive agreement’.
And aren’t all the kids long gone from FB? It’s all Snapchat, Insty and who knows what.
WSL Press Release:
World Surf League (WSL) and Facebook announced a historic partnership today that makes the social media platform the exclusive digital home for the top live events in surfing in 2018 and 2019. This includes all elite men’s and women’s Championship Tour events, the Qualifying Series 10,000 and Big Wave Tour events, as well as the World Junior Championships.
The deal builds upon the non-exclusive live rights agreement that Facebook and WSL struck last year, in which all men’s and women’s Championship Tour events, as well as Big Wave Tour events, were simulcast on Facebook and WSL’s website and mobile app. Aside from the significant reach on WSL channels, more than 13.9 million people watched a World Surf League event on Facebook in 2017 – and they came from countries all over the world. The top three countries in terms of unique viewers were in the U.S., Brazil and Mexico.
“Facebook fosters a global community and, as surfing is a sport that celebrates and centers around community, we are proud to announce our media rights partnership with the platform,” Sophie Goldschmidt, WSL CEO, said. “This is game-changing for the sport in many ways and, with current and new fans front of mind, we can retain the free offering to fans, and it allows us to deliver the world’s best surfing to even more people on Facebook’s platform.”
“We’re thrilled to become the exclusive home of the World Surf League’s live events for the next two years,” said Dan Reed, Facebook Head of Global Sports Partnerships. “This is a natural next step in our terrific partnership, which has steadily progressed over the years as the League has expertly used Facebook to distribute content and build community. This was especially true last year, when millions of fans came together on our platform to watch live surfing. We’re excited to help WSL continue to serve and grow this vibrant community and usher in a new era of surf broadcasting on Facebook Watch.”
The relationship has proved to be a model example of a flexible, innovative and collaborative relationship for both parties. All live events will be available globally on Facebook. Those in the U.S. will be able to tune in on Facebook Watch, a video platform where content, conversation and community come together. The partnership also calls for additional Facebook Watch programming, such as Surfing Sundays, which recaps each week’s top surfing action, with more programming planned in 2018 on this platform.
The shows are part of the World Surf League’s robust content offering. The League produces 800 hours of live content a year across multiple disciplines as well as a wide array of static storytelling and educational content covering the sport, history, heritage and culture of surfing, which will be available on WSL platforms alongside Facebook.
When recently analyzed in late 2017 by Sports Business Journal and third-party social measurement company Hookit, the WSL ranked in the top 3 sports leagues in the world in social engagement, alongside the NFL and NBA.
Live Events Overview
Crowning the undisputed men’s and women’s champions since 1976, the WSL’s elite Championship Tour takes the world’s best surfers to Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, Mainland USA, France, Portugal and Hawaii in 2018, all of which will be broadcast live on Facebook.
Led by reigning two-time WSL Champions John John Florence (HAW) and Tyler Wright (AUS), the first event of the 2018 WSL Championship Tour will be the Quiksilver and Roxy Pro Gold Coast in Australia from March 11 – 22, 2018.
2018 World Surf League (WSL) Men’s Championship Tour:
Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast, Australia – March 11 – 22, 2018
Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach, Australia – March 28 – April 8, 2018
Margaret River Pro, Australia – April 11 – 22, 2018
Oi Rio Pro, Brazil – May 10 – 19, 2018
Bali Pro, Indonesia – May 27 – June 9, 2018
Corona Open J-Bay, South Africa – July 2 – 13, 2018
Tahiti Pro Teahupo’o, Tahiti – August 10 – 21, 2018
Surf Ranch Lemoore, California/USA. September 5 – 9, 2018
Quiksilver Pro France, France – October 3 – 14, 2018
MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal, Portugal – October 16 – 27, 2018
Billabong Pipe Masters, Hawaii/USA – December 8 – 20, 2018
2018 World Surf League (WSL) Women’s Championship Tour:
Roxy Pro Gold Coast, Australia – March 11 – 22, 2018
Rip Curl Women’s Pro Bells Beach, Australia – March 28 – April 8, 2018
Margaret River Pro, Australia – April 11 – 22, 2018
Oi Rio Pro, Brazil – May 10 – 19, 2018
Bali Pro, Indonesia – May 27 – June 9, 2018
Corona Open J-Bay, South Africa – July 10 – 17, 2018
Vans US Open of Surfing, USA – July 30 – August 5, 2018
Surf Ranch Lemoore, California/USA. September 5 – 9, 2018
Roxy Pro France, France – October 3 – 14, 2018
Hawaii Women’s Pro, Hawaii/USA – November 25 – December 6, 2018
Supporting the live content of the elite tier will be the Qualifying Series 10,000 events, the WSL Junior Championships and the WSL Big Wave Tour (BWT), taking the world’s best men’s and women’s big wave surfers to Nazaré, Pe’ahi, Mavericks and Puerto Escondido – all events will also stream live on Facebook in 2018 and 2019.
For more information, check out WorldSurfLeague.com.
We are a surf mag obvs, so when it come to snow; not that interested to be honest. Done some snowboarding, but let’s face it a lift pass is probably ten days in Indo…
Anyway this Candide bloke sparked some interest. Apparently you don’t need snow to ski, just some hills…Why hasn’t anyone thought of this before?
Ben Howey has made the final six at the world longboard games adding another English name to the world elite longboarders. Ben has won all his heats on the way to round four, what is in essence the main event final, before the grand final..
“I can’t believe that I’ve advanced to the Main Event Final,” said Ben Howey of Team England. “My goal coming into the event was only to not get knocked out in the first round.
“In England, we know that we have surfing talent and to be able to get to prove this on the world stage is amazing. Teamwork has been everything for us. The communication during heats, the support on the beach, and all the kind messages from back home fill me full of fire to win. Being on the teams podium would be the best thing ever. We’ve all contributed to those points.”
Ben Skinner got knocked into the repechage rounds before posting on the contest high heat scores. He will surf in repechage 6 at about 2am tonight.
Emily Currie is in heat 27 – repechage round 4.
The English team currently in third place and have three of their four surfers through to finals day three surfers through to finals Day – Emily Currie Ben Howey Ben Skinner
Channel Islands Josh Le Marquand and Aaron Rowe went out in round two of the repechage.
Wales, Scotland and Ireland chose not to send teams.
The schedule for the final day of competition will be the following:
Midnight UK – 8am-8:40am local – 2 heats Women Repechage Round 4
12.40 UK 8:40am-9:20am local – 2 heats Men Repechage Round 6
9:20am-9:40am – 1 heat Women Repechage Round 5
9:40am-10am – 1 heat Men Repechage Round 7
10am-10:25am – 1 heat Women Main Event Round 4
10:25am-10:50am – 1 heat Men Men Main Event Round 5
10:50am-11:10am – 1 heat Women Repechage Round 6
11:10am – 11:30am – 1 heat Men Repechage Round 8
11:30am – 11:55am – Women Grand Final
11:55am – 12:20pm – Men Grand Final
Villager Goods proudly presents it’s newest film featuring co-owner Jack Freestone. This edit highlights his surfing from trips to Portugal, Africa and France. Enjoy!
