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.
Kelly Slater, USA
2016 Go Left World Ranking Projection: 4
2015 World Ranking: 9
2015 WCT Wins: 0
Kelly may be the king, be he didn’t surf like it last
season. The guy is 44 years old and it’s incredible that he’s still competing
at a high level on the World Tour. However, Slater did not look like the
competitor that we’re accustomed to seeing last year. Kelly didn’t win a single
WCT contest in 2015, but what’s even more surprising is that he didn’t even
make a final. He finished third in Fiji, his home away from home, and he netted
fifths at Margaret River, Tahiti and Pipe. Kelly was also able to win the Volcom
Pipe Pro, a QS event, last month. Sensing a theme here? Is it
possible that Slater is only truly dangerous in big barrels at this point in
his career?
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| Could 2016 be Kelly Slater's best chance for another World Title? Courtesy of Oziel Marchon |
To be honest, I’m not willing to bet against the best surfer
in the history of the sport, but his 2015 campaign did give me a moment of
pause. Slater did not have those magical moments that we’re used to seeing,
pulling out heats in the final seconds with seemingly impossible scores. We
need to take into consideration that he was dealing with some nagging injuries
last year, to the extent that he even considered skipping the European leg of
the tour. He toughed it out an looked good at Pipe before going down in the
quarters, but his doing well at Pipe is certainly no surprise.
Many fans have been cringing for years now, nervous that
they’ll see a statement from Kelly that he’s hanging it up from the World Tour.
It hasn’t happened yet, and would anyone be truly shocked if he bounced back in
a big way in 2016 and contended for the world title? Still, his finishing ninth
in the world rankings last year felt odd, and hopefully it’s not the beginning
of the end for the best of the best. With Mick Fanning only surfing select events in 2016, maybe this is Kelly's best shot to win one more World Title. However, we can't be sure Kelly is going to surf every event in 2016, and this is a big reason that he's not ranked higher here. Regardless what Kelly does this season, every
surfing fan should appreciate each wave we get to see this guy ride.
Follow Morgan, founder of Go Left, on Twitter @GoLeftSurf
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