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Last year Surfski.info established a "World Rankings" system for surfski which has gained the support of paddlers and event organizers alike. However, based on feedback in the last couple of months, we reviewed the system and realized that it could be improved. (And part of the feedback was to drop the "Rankings" name - "just call it the World Series").
Why have a World Series Anyway?
What are we trying to achieve with the World Rankings? True, part of it is to decide the "best paddler in the world" but actually, the big picture motivation for it is:
- to give the sport more visibility,
- to bring the countries together and
- to get more people paddling surf skis.
- And ultimately we want to achieve a major sponsorship for a World Series and to drive the sport to the prominence that it deserves.
Deciding the "best paddler" from a small exclusive elite is not the way to do that. (Last year we featured only 33 paddlers in the World Rankings list.)
What is surf ski racing?
Perhaps most importantly, the creation of a World Series presents an opportunity for defining what surf ski racing actually is. We believe the components of the ideal surf ski race include:
- Open Ocean paddling.
- Big water movement.
- Downwind paddling.
Perhaps the ultimate in surf ski racing was seen in the 2007 ARB Surf Ski World Cup where the course was over 90% downwind in massive swell conditions. A World Series should encourage organizers to plan downwind races on the open ocean.
Other Factors
Some of the other factors in our thinking are:
- People love to see themselves in print. Guys love being on a list of "best competitors"... Even if they're number 451 out of 500 - that's 451st "in the world".
- There are races all over the world starting (e.g. one in Spain scheduled to be part of the America's Cup event in Valencia - has sponsorship, will be a success). How do we bring them into the fold, how do we increase the interest in surf ski in Europe and throughout the world?
- We need the best guys to be going to the big races. But wouldn't it be cool if we could encourage them to go to some of the smaller races too? Big names at small races = opportunities for paddlers to see big name heroes and to paddle with them = more excitement, more participation, more exposure, etc.
- Feedback from paddlers indicates that some of them are taking our World Rankings seriously enough that they're planning on doing most of races on the list.
- Feedback from race organizers also shows that being on "the list" is valuable to them in terms of motivating sponsorship.
World Series version 2.1
We believe we could change the World Rankings as follows, without completely throwing out the current arrangement:
The points extend as far as 50th place i.e. the winner gets 50 points; second place gets 49, etc.
If the race has fewer than 50 competitors, the winner gets the points equivalent to number of entrants e.g. the race has 30 entrants, winner gets 30 points, unless the race is 3-star or greater in which case the winner will get 50 points, justification being that a 3-star race is more "important" and will have top competitors.
BUT
The races are given star ratings and the points are multiplied by the star ratings. For example, the winner of a four star event gets 50 x 4 = 200 points.
We STILL restrict the points to the best six results, say, so that a guy who does all the small races can't beat the guy who does only the big races. But if you missed a big race through injury or lack of funding, you could at least make up some of the points by attending one of the lesser races.
The result would be:
- We still have a credible World Champion
- We have many more people on the World Rankings
- We can include many more races around the world (next year) giving us the opportunity to include, for example, the 20 beaches race in Australia, the Dolphin Coast Challenge, Scottburgh to Brighton (maybe), the North Sea Champs, the NY Mayor's cup, etc.
- And big name paddlers who wouldn't otherwise have competed in some of the races, may well be tempted to do so.
- We now have World Rankings that have 500 paddlers on it from all over the world and we now have a far more marketable series when we go looking for that big title sponsor...
Star Ratings: Criteria
How do we decide between 1-, 2-, 3- and 4-star races? Here are some criteria based on prize money, the course and ICF recognition.
Prize Money
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1st Prize*
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Points
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$1,000-$2,999
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1
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$3,000-$4,999
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2
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$5,000-$9,999
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3
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$10,000-$39,999
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6
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$40,000+
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8
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$100,000+
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12
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* The first prize cannot be greater than 40% of the prize pool. If it does, then the 1st prize is deemed to be 40% of the total prize pool.
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Course Characteristics
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Course
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Points
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50% or more downwind
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3
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75% or more downwind
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3
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25-35km
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1
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50% or more of the course on the open ocean i.e. not in a sheltered bay
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1
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Waiting period of more than one day (to maximize the chances of optimum racing conditions)
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1
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Maximum points
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9
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ICF Recognition
Why bother with ICF recognition? For one thing some countries e.g. France allocates funding to athletes taking part in recognized races.
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ICF Recognition
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Points
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Yes
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1
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Drug Testing
Why is this important? While other paddling disciplines such as sprint kayaking sees athletes being frequently tested for performance enhancing drugs, surf ski has no drug testing. As the prize money for races in Surf Ski increases, so does the temptation.
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Drug Testing
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Points
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Yes
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1
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Race Stars
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Race stars
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Points
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1 star
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<5
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2 star
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5-7
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3 star
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8-9
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4 star
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10-15
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5 star
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16+
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Eligible Races
Any race that scores 2 or more points from the criteria above including at least the minimum criterion for prize-money.
For example the NY Mayor's Cup would score 3 for the $5K 1st place prize money. It would qualify as a 1-star race.
How do the current World Rankings races measure up?
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Criteria
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US Surfski Champs 2007
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Hong Kong Dragon Race 2007
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Dubai Shamaal 2007 (UAE)
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Perth World Cup 2007 (Australia)
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King of the Harbour 2008 (NZ)
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Molokai 2008
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ARB World Cup 2008 (SA)
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Cape Point 2007
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Tahiti 2008
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Prize Money
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2
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3
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6
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3
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1
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6
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6
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1
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4
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Course
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3
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5
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4
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8
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2
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8
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9
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1
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8
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ICF recognition
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1
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Total
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5
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8
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10
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11
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3
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13
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16
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2
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12
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Stars
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**
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***
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****
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****
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*
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****
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*****
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*
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***
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Races to Count
A total of 6 races will count.
Tie Breaker
Should there be a tie, then the winner will be decided from the previous most highly rated race at which both paddlers competed.
What's the next step?
We're busy calculating the points for:
- Guadeloupe (2 star: yep, they had good prize money, good downwind race on the open ocean.)
- US Surfski Champs
- NY Mayor's Cup
- Dragon Run
- Dubai Shamaal
And the current rankings will be up in the next day or two.
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