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The news isn’t that great for Hawaii’s competitors in next year’s World Surf League men’s tour.
Only one from Hawaii, John John Florence, is guaranteed a spot in 2016. He is ranked 15th out of this year’s 34 men’s tour surfers. The top 24 after the season-ending event at Pipeline (Dec 8-20) will automatically make next year’s 34, along with the top 10 from the qualifying series. Two other men from Hawaii on tour now, No. 21 Keanu Asing and No. 24 Sebastian Zietz, can requalify for next year with big Pipeline finishes.
Another men’s surfer from Hawaii, Dusty Payne, also can still get in. He finished the qualifying series at No. 12, two spots out of automatically qualifying, but it’s possible that two spots on tour could open up if California’s Kolohe Andino and Brazil’s Miguel Pupo double-qualify. Already among the top 10 on the qualifying series, Andino (No. 23) and Pupo (No. 25) are near the cut line on the tour rankings.
On the women’s tour, world champion Carissa Moore and fellow Hawaii surfers Tatiana Weston-Webb (No. 7) and Malia Manuel (No. 10) finished the season in the top 10 and automatically requalified for 2016. The 17-woman tour next year also will include the top six finishers in the qualifying series, excluding double qualifiers, of which there are three — Weston-Webb, Australia’s Nikki Van Dijk and Manuel. Thanks to those three double-qualifiers, Hawaii’s Coco Ho (No. 8 on the qualifying series) will be on the tour. A yet-to-be-named wildcard selection also will join the tour.
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