IS THE ISA WORLD GAMES DIFFICULT FOR CT SURFERS?

Firstly we want to say congratulations to all of the surfers that have qualified for the 2021 Olympic Games coming up soon and well done to Sally Fitzgibbons for winning the women’s 2021 ISA world games.

During the event we got up every morning here in Sydney to check the scores, heat results and overall team results and noticed an interesting consistent that with the exception of Sally Fitzgibbons no CT surfers really connected with the ISA world games contest in El Salvador.

Then, in the interest of fact checking we went back to the 2019 ISA world games and no current CT surfers made the final there either? 

Yeah, you could argue that a lot of the CT surfers surfed their heat and then left after round one but even then, it was the QS campaigners that seemed to be the most dominant throughout the many rounds of the women’s draw based on heat scores and overall performances.

It also looked like a predominant left hander and we have made the point before that the modern day CT surfer seems to prefer a right hander but even then, the CT surfers didn’t seem to “click” in the event at a higher level.

Then we thought…. Maybe it’s not the CT surfers, maybe it’s the format.

For the CT elite to make the final of a CT event, they only surf 6 heats maximum, that takes into account if they didn’t make the first round and went to the elimination round, if they won their first round they only surf 5 heats.

To do well in a ISA competition structure and make the final you can surf close to 10 heats, almost double that of the CT.

Also the judging structure may be different? From our understanding the CT is more about connecting your turns and making a wave an “overall performance” where the QS (and maybe the ISA’s) is more about each turn on a wave…. (we hope that makes sense)…

Yes, Sally won and she is on the CT… But she was the only CT surfer doing 1 stars for the Australian Regional Qualifying leg this year, which could have put her into a QS mindset maybe?

On top of the criteria and the amount of heats surfed, you have to take into consideration the type of waves Japan will have on offer for the Olympics, they will be most likely suited more to a QS campaigner than a CT surfer.

So what’s our point you ask?

Well we have 2.

Firstly (with the exception of the Carissa factor) we suggest put some money on a QS campaigner to win Gold, Silver or Bronze. 

Secondly, we think anyone coaching a surfing team for the Olympics coming up soon, find a serious QS grinder to train your team with and start setting up heat drills in small waves.

Think Sophie McCulloch, Leilani McGonagle, Alyssa Spencer, Amuro Tsuzuki, Yolanda Hopkins etc…

They should be training your partners for Olympic heat drills based on what we have seen from El Salvador.

Good luck to all the Olympians!!