Brazil 9, The Rest of the world 2.

July 25th, 2019. 

We expect Brazilian dominance or competitiveness in World Cup Football (Selecao Brasileira de Futebol) or Brazilian Jiu-jitsu (BJJ).   With Football the Brazilian National Football team has won the FIFA World Cup five times – 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, and 2002.  They also played in the 1950 and the 1998 finals.   With Jiu-jitsu…..well, the Gracie Family has just made it THE martial art, having taken something with deep roots and modernized it.  Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is now pretty much the default answer for most of us when we think about martial arts. 

Brazil has also had a large number of famous athletes; these people are so famous that when you mention their first name (or nickname) everybody instantly knows who they are and what they are famous for and most will some memory of them.  Here are a few of the famous Brazilian Soccer players:  Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Zico, Neymar, and most of all Pele.  If you want an example of a Brazilian Athlete’s excellence, please take a look at this video.  It shows Pele’s soccer skills and you will see for yourself why he was so great.  If you have never seen greatness, you will on this clip.  With Pele and Brazilian Soccer anything was possible.   https://youtu.be/8lFDHXqjbJU .  From Youtube.com 

For Jiu-jitsu there is one name, Gracie, and there are several early names:  Carlos, Oswaldo, Gastao Jr, George, and Helio.  In recent times you had Roger (10-time champion of the World Jiu-Jitsu Championships).   By the way, how many martial arts studios, that teach Gracie style Jiu-jitsu, do you have in your town?  (To see its prevalence just google “Gracie Jiu-Jitsu near me.” – I show a search total of 6 near myself.)

But Surfing dominance?  If you asked someone last year about which country has dominated CT men’s surfing, you would get country names like Australia or the United States.  The peoples’ names you would come up with would be Irons, Slater, Curren, Carroll, Richards, and John-John.  So, it was somewhat surprising to see the CT defending champions list and just how many of the events were won by Brazilians.  This is how it reads:  

  1. Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast- defending champion Julian Wilson
  2. Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach – Italo Ferreira (Brazil)
  3. Bali Pro – Italo Ferreira (Brazil)
  4. Margaret River Pro – Willian Cardoso (Brazil)
  5. Oi Rio Pro – Filipe Toledo (Brazil)
  6. J-Bay Open – Filipe Toledo (Brazil)
  7. Tahiti Pro Teahupo’o – Gabriel Medina (Brazil)
  8. Surf Ranch Pro – Gabriel Medina (Brazil)
  9. Quiksilver Pro France – Julian Wilson
  10. MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal – Italo Ferreira (Brazil)
  11. Billabong Pipe Masters – Gabriel Medina (Brazil)

Also, the year-end CT rankings paint a dominant presence of Brazilian surfing.  Seven Brazilian Surfers finished the year in the top 22.  By comparison the historical dominators, Australia and the USA, have lower numbers.  Australia has five in the top 22.   The USA/Haw have five in the top 22.  Further, of the top five surfers Brazil has three, Medina, Toledo, Italo.  With yearend results like this a bookie would give you odds that show that a Brazilian would have the best chance of winning the 2019 CT championship. 

It could have been an even more dominant season for the Brazilian CT surfers if number 13 Cardoso could have replaced the three 25th places finishes and their 420 points with three 13th place finishes; so you would have a 420 point score dropped from the rankings calculation and a 1,665 would have been added in, resulting in a point total of 28,435 versus what he has now 27,190.   This would put Cardoso on the doorstep of the top 10.    This is something that could very well happen in 2019 as we have all seen that Cardoso can win competitions, as he did in 2018 at Uluwatu/Margaret River Pro.  He could certainly go higher than number 10 in 2019.

Michael Rodriques is another who could break into the CT top 10.   He was really consistent in 2018 with all of his CT event finishes 13 or higher, except one event (Bells Beach).  When you look at his six 13th place finishes (the others were higher) and you get a sense that Rodriques is knocking on the door loudly and that it is only a matter of time before he enters the doorway of the CT top 10.   Besides, he is 24 years old and time is on his side.  If he changes two of his 6th  place finishes to 9th place finishes, his point total moves to around 29,282, knocking on the door of the top 10.

How much more Green & Gold would the top 10 look like if this happened with Rodriques and Cardoso.

Back to the numbers…..Looking a little deeper into the top surfers with a view toward Heat Wins and Average Heat Score (provided by the WSL’s website), you see a very large difference between the top five and numbers 6 through 22.  Medina for instance has 36 heat wins and an average heat score of 13.64.  Compared to the number seven surfer, it is more than double the number of Heat Wins and the average heat score is 2.24 higher.  Also, Medina’s Heat Win total is 4 higher than number two, Wilson, at 36 vs 32; and the average heat score is 1.10 greater.  This is a pretty big difference between Medina at the top and surfers 6 through 22.   Even CT number four, Italo, with 24 heat wins is 20% greater than number 5, J. Smith at 20 heat wins.  Italo’s average heat score is 13.20 versus J. Smith’s 12.75; this is about 3% greater.  Take a look at the following data from WSL’s site and you can see:

Surfer                           Heat wins            avg heat score

  1. Medina 36                          64*
  2. Wilson 32                          54
  3. Toledo 28                          17*
  4. Italo 24                          20*
  5. Smith, J 20                          75
  6. Wright 19                          74
  7. Coffin 16                          40
  8. Bourez 18                          86
  9. Carmichael 16                          42
  10. Igarashi 14                          73
  11. Andino 13                          95
  12. Wright, M. 14                          12
  13. Cardoso 14                          84*
  14. Zietz 11                          44
  15. Rodriques, M. 13                          24*
  16. Flores 13                          96
  17. Buchan 13                          12
  18. Colapinto 11                          06
  19. deSouza 11                          86*
  20. Lau 12                          75
  21. Dora 11                          15*
  22. Duro 11                          96

WSL’s site:   http://www.worldsurfleague.com/athletes/tour/mct?year=2018 

 

 

Looking at Brazilian CT surfers’ Placings for each event in 2018 paints a clear picture of just how dominant they are.  They have nine 1st place finishes, one 2nd place, four 3rd places,  twelve 5th place finishes, and nine 9th places.  All the other surfers mush feel completely surrounded by the Green & Gold. 

Looking at the CT Tour Rankings for that available years on WSL’s site – 2010 through 2018 – you see a constant Brazilian presence and a growing dominance:

  1. 2010 – 1 surfer in the top 10.
  2. 2011 – 2 surfers in the top 10.
  3. 2012 – 2 surfers in the top 10.
  4. 2013 – 0 surfers in the top 10.
  5. 2014 – 2 surfers in the top 10.
  6. 2015 – 4 surfers in the top 10.
  7. 2016 – 2 surfers in the top 10.
  8. 2017 – 3 surfers in the top 10.
  9. 2018 – 3 surfers in the top 4.

WSL’s site: http://www.worldsurfleague.com/athletes/tour/mct?year=2018  . ( You can click back through the years using the links in the upper left corner of your screen. )

The Brazilians’ top finisher’s trend has grown over the past nine seasons moving from one or two surfers in the CT top ten in years 2010 through 2012 to three in the top ten over the past two seasons.  Also, they have changed their goal. It seems that Brazilian CT surfers are now opting to put as many surfers in the top four or five. 

More evidence of Brazilian dominance can be seen if you look back to 2014, the past five seasons. Brazilians have won three of the five CT championships.  This is not unlike the University of Alabama’s recent football run having won four of the last eight NCAA Football championships (’11, ’12, ’15, ’17).  And just like College Football (American) is painted Crimson, the CT has taken on a distinct Green & Gold hue.

An interested sports fan and for sure an interested surfing fan sits here on the eve of the 2019 CT season and wonders what the Brazilians will do this year.  And they wonder if they are seeing the beginning of something great, like Brazilian Football’s great run of 1958-1970. 

And just as Pele made people love soccer, we seemed poised to love Surfing because of the emerging Brazilian Greats…. Medina, Toledo, Cardoso, Italo. 

Also, we wonder if Surfing will become the third jewel in Brazil’s sporting crown. 

 

 

To see more Pele footage:   https://youtu.be/T7HFq1gKeUU  pele video “Pele-Top 20 Goals”  Courtesy of YouTube.