Preseason Surfer Profile: Adriano De Souza

Leading up to the 2016 World Surf League Championship Tour season, I will be counting down my projected Top 10 surfers for the highest level of men's competitive surfing. A preview of the women's 2016 season is also to come.

Adriano De Souza, Brazil

2016 Go Left World Ranking Projection: 5

2015 World Ranking: 1

2015 WCT Wins: 2

Adriano De Souza is the reigning WCT Champion, so some people may see my projected 2016 rank for him and think I’m disrespecting the Brazilian. It’s not disrespect; I simply think that everything came together at the right time for De Souza in 2015, and I have a hard time seeing it all shake out the same way in 2016. De Souza has quietly been one of the better surfers on tour for probably half a decade now, and he certainly deserved everything he received last season. Consistency was huge for Adriano in 2015, as he never posted a result worse than a 13^th. That’s extremely difficult to do on today’s World Tour, as the competition from top to bottom is better than it has ever been. De Souza avoiding a second-round exit in every event in 2015 is quite the accomplishment in itself.

Adriano De Souza taking flight.
Courtesy of Steven Tyler PJs

To be honest, I was not a huge fan of Adriano for quite some time. His attitude in the water and frequent claims soured me on him a while back, but every time I see an on-camera interview with him he seems like the opposite of the surfer we see in the water. I think it comes to down De Souza being a passionate person and a fiery competitor, not a guy to dislike. 2015 made me come around on him, and now I like to see him do well in events. I also have a lot of respect for the commitment he puts into his craft. The guy basically stalked Jamie O’Brien last year in order to learn the nuances at Pipe, and it paid off big-time.

I would not be surprised to see that I’d underestimated De Souza come season’s end, but I think each of the five surfers I ranked ahead of him have more upside. Adriano could very well place himself in the title race early on yet again and make me look stupid, but I have to go with my gut and rank him sixth. It could be a mistake.