of Fernando De Naronha in a week filled with quality surf. Muniz started his tear quietly, advancing with 2nd place finishes in the rounds of 96 and 48. But in the man-on-man rounds he caught fire, and his victims came from every corner of the planet.
Tim Boal of France, Glenn Hall of Ireland, Masatoshi Ohno of Japan and South Africa's Travis Logie were all sent packing by Muniz before he took down Australia's Dion Atkinson in the final.
The only nation he didn't get to punish was the USA, because the American contingent was having a shocker. Of the roughly dozen representatives who made the trek to Brazil, only one, Tanner Gudauskas, made it to the Round of 24.
Cory Lopez, Nat Young, Tim Reyes, CJ and Damien Hobgood, Chris Ward and Nate Yeomans were eviscerated in the Round of 48. Most of them left town with about 650 points, while Muniz gobbled up 6500 for his win; the same amount the two surfers who finish 3rd place at Snapper will earn.
In an effort to open the door for fresh new blood on the World Rankings, the ASP has modified their allocation of points in 2011, giving Prime events even more stature than they had last year. The goal
is to make it tougher on those who don't perform, regardless of what tier they're on. While Muniz would have earned the same amount of points last year for his win, Atkinson, Logie and Ohno benefited significantly from the new changes. Atkinson's runner up finish netted him 5200 points, the same as if he finished 5th place in a World Tour event.
Ohno and Logie walked away with 4225 points, nets them 225 points more than a 9th place result on the tour this year. That's 569 more points than last year, when an equal 3rd earned less than a 9th place tour finish. And with 11 Prime events on this year's schedule, the implications of the 3rd in a Prime being worth more than a 9th on tour are massive.
With the new One World rankings locked and loaded, and another mid-season cutoff looming in September, rest assured there will be more power players showing up at Prime events like the Drug Aware Pro in Margaret River, the Nike 6.0 Lowers Pro at Lowers and the US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach.
I'm not sure how the surfers feel about their busier schedules. But pro surfing fans can't lose.
Resultados of Hang Loose Pro from Fernando De Naronha
1. Alejo Muniz, BRA
2. Dion Atkinson, AUS
3. Travis Logie, ZAF; Heitor Alvez, BRA
5. Masatoshi Ohno, JAP; Jihad Khodr, BRA; Hizunome Bettero, BRA; Shaun Joubert, ZAF
9. Glenn Hall, IRE; Kai Barger, HAW; Gabriel Medina, BRA; Dylan Graves, PRI
Click here to see who was ultimately punished in Brazil.
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