New 32: After the completion of the Quik Pro New York last weekend the ASP world rankings were adjusted and the top 32 surfer became the new tour roster for the remainder of the season. Two of the notable additions to the dream tour are the Brazilian duo of Gabriel Medina and Miguel Pupo. The pair of scrawny goofyfoots have wreaked havoc on the WQS this season, taking out several events, including a PRIME victory each. Pupo won the Nike Lowers Pro in May, beating many of the world tour surfers he'll now be facing in his first event at the very same wave.

After 3 years of falling juuuust short, Yadin Nicol finally made the tour cut this year, only to break his leg in Japan weeks prior. Yadin will be out for 4-6 months, but luckily he's expected to get an injury wildcard for next season. John John Florence is next in line, so he will be surfing the last 5 events in Yadin's place. Ironically, the 2 were surfing together in Japan for a new Kai Neville project when the injury happened. "Yadin, uh, you go on this one."

Title Race: With 2 consecutive finals together, trading wins in Tahiti and New York, Owen Wright and Kelly Slater have laid their title intentions on the table. Kelly is sitting on 34950 points, Owen has 31900. Winning an event gets you 10,000 pts, 2nd gets 8,000. So you can see how important that final in New York was, had Owen lost Kelly would have a 5000 pt lead going into one of his favorite events at Lowers. Either way, the plot will undoubtedly thicken in the next few weeks with back-to-back-to-back events in California, France, and Portugal. The Hurley Pro Trestles starts this sunday.

Hawaii: The schedule for the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing has been released by the ASP. In the absence of a women's triple crown series this year, a wildcard spot has been given to women's world champ Carissa Moore. She will have a spot in the events and Haleiwa and Sunset, with a conceivable spot in the Pipe masters should she do really really well. Despite her small stature and lack of testosterone, make no mistake, not one surfer in the draw wants to be in a heat with Carissa.

The Reef Hawaiian Pro, Nov.12-23
Haleiwa Ali'i Beach Park
6-star rated event that offers Prime ratings points
Prize purse: $145,000

The Vans World Cup of Surfing, Nov.24-Dec.6
Sunset Beach
Prime rating & points
Prize purse: $250,000 (upgraded from 2010)

The Billabong Pipe Masters, Dec. 8-20
Banzai Pipeline
World Tour rating & points
Prize purse: $425,000

Does god hate Yadin Nicol? I'm kidding of course, but after the way his luck with getting onto the world stage has gone in his career, I'm starting to wonder if the big guy upstairs has a thing for making the affable aussie weep.

Flash back to December 2008, Sunset Beach is the final event of the season, Yadin needs to finish fourth in order to qualify for 2009 season. The waves are scary-big, almost too big to hold the event. Cj wins the event and Yadin comes within one heat of qualifying, finishing at the top of the list of WQS surfers that didn't make the cut.

In a coincidence that's almost too much to be real, the exact same scenario would then play out for the following 2 seasons. Nicol would make a habit of coming as close to humanly possible to qualifying only to have his heart stomped on in the final moments of the year in Hawaii. One year the waves were huge, the next it was 2 foot kammieland, regardless the outcome would be the same for the bloke from West Oz. Also keep in mind that if the World tour hadn't whittled the top 45 down to top 34 in '09/'10, he would have made it for the past 2 seasons.

Flash back to last month, Yadin is having a stellar WQS season thus far, heading into the US Open of Surfing, a WQS Prime event. He needs a solid result to vault himself into a qualifying spot mid year. He surfs brilliantly stomping several on fire surfers including Kolohe Andino, to make it all the way to the final against none other than Kelly Slater. A win for Yadin would mean a cool $100 grand and a guaranteed spot on the tour with the 6500 points netted for a Prime win. Instead he has the shocker to shock all shockers and doesn't catch a single wave in the final, despite great conditions and plenty of swell.

So despite the loss to Slater, Yadin still gains huge ground with the final finish, putting himself at 29th in the world, and looking great to make the tour after 3 years of being gut-wrenchingly close.

Yesterday Yadin broke his fibula while chasing a typhoon swell in Japan. He is out for 4-6 months. He will be forced to give up his spot on the tour should he qualify. You have to be feeling for the guy. (photo courtesy of hurley)

Is it better to have loved and lost or never loved at all? Don't ask Yadin Nicol.

Kelly Slater has just won the Nike US Open of Surfing. The ten time world champion just made $100,000 in 30 minutes. What did you do today?

The final was more of a formality, as Yadin Nicol had the shocker to end all shockers in the heat that meant 100 grand. Nicol didn't catch a single wave until there were under 3 minutes left, while Kelly landed a huge frontside rotation on a set wave for an 8.5. He then followed that up with a 7.77 for a long right bowl that saw him unleash a flurry of turns, punctuated with a sliding reverse onto the dry sand. Yadin would never do a single turn in the heat.

Before you go calling the suicide hotline for him, by making the final Yadin secured himself a spot on the Dream Tour for the second half of this season, a feat that he has come painfully close to achieving for the last 2 seasons.

The wait is nearly over. The anticipation met with satisfaction. Finally the unveiling of Joe G and Globe's newest creation, 0000 (Year Zero).

I have been making sexual references about this film for a while now. Months that seemed like years.

Now we have a new trailer and a premiere date. Aug 3 during the US open, which is also the same venue as Kai Neville's Lost Atlas premiere.

With such films as Secret Machine and New Emissions of Light and Sound under their belts, you can bet this film is going to be the opposite of crappy.

Modern Collective composer Kai Neville has just dropped the first trailer for his latest full-length creation LOST ATLAS. The film was put together in under a year with the original MC cast, like Dusty, Dane, Jordy, Mitch, Yadin, supplemented with hot young boys Kolohe Andino, Craig Anderson, Julian Wilson, Evan Geiselman, etc etc. The cast for this film is a pretty good snapshot of progression in surfing at this moment in time. Cannot wait to see her in all her glory...



LOST ATLAS - TRAILER from Kai Neville Studio on Vimeo.