ASP Brazil

maddogmorley's picture
maddogmorley started the topic in Friday, 2 May 2014 at 10:08am

What's the forecast looking like for the pro's in Brazil? Don't usually watch Brazil cause I'm sick of seeing air reverses but if there is some swell this year I might tune in.

stunet's picture
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stunet Tuesday, 6 May 2014 at 8:06am

Looks like they'll have some waves, MM. The forecast tops out at about 6' faces, 3'-4' surfers height, with light onshores. Just great for air reverses...

http://www.aspworldtour.com/posts/43126/official-surfline-forecast-billabong-rio-pro

thermalben's picture
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thermalben Tuesday, 6 May 2014 at 8:14am

Just had a quick look at the charts - doesn't look too flash at this stage. A small but fun, long range SE swell is due to move into the region in the next 24 hours, but it looks like we'll be on the backside of this pulse for Day 1 of the event window. Haven't had enough time to do any analysis on the low but at a rough guess I suspect we might see a few stray 3ft sets before it eases steadily during the day.

A small pulse of SE swell is due Thurs (Fri Aust time), and then a small long period S/SW swell Fri (Sat Aust) but no great size is expected from either of these sources - and an onshore SW change is due around the same time.

The only feature of interest at this stage is a weak trough modeled to form off the coast on Friday (in association with the change) which may deepen slightly and generate a fun mid-range SE swell sometime later Sat or Sun (local time). However the models suggest this trough will be pulled to the east which may reduce its potential.

All in all its looking on the small side.

thermalben's picture
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thermalben Tuesday, 6 May 2014 at 8:17am

Ah just saw your post Stu - and consequently read the Surfline forecast. At least they're now consistent with their measuring scale! 

"WEDNESDAY 7th: Good size SSE swell: 5-7’+ faces, some larger sets very possible" - that'd suggest somewhere in the 4ft range by our standards (they also clarify it by saying "we are expecting head high to overhead sets on Wednesday"). Will be interesting to see what transpires.

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maddogmorley Tuesday, 6 May 2014 at 8:21am

Surprise, surprise - looking on the small side.....also for such a big country it's surprising they don't have any reefs.....well perhaps they do but we never get to see 'em.

Looks like I'll be missing another year - bring on J Bay!

thermalben's picture
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thermalben Wednesday, 7 May 2014 at 8:14pm

Webcast has just kicked off. Looks to be a peaky 3ft fun beachie, judging by the intermittent waves they've panned too so far.

Webcast stream is freezing majorly here though. Can't get any more than about 10 seconds without the whole thing feeezing up.

thermalben's picture
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thermalben Wednesday, 7 May 2014 at 8:16pm

And - ASP press release just came through - they've called the event on.

Surf size? "Three foot (1 metre) surf. No wind. Cloudy skies."

So how do they equate that against Surfline's call for "Good size SSE swell: 5-7’+ faces, some larger sets very possible"?

I know it's annoying that some forecast sites measure surfers feet (ie Swellnet) and others measure face feet (Surfline) but the ASP has to have some consistency in their product.

thermalben's picture
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thermalben Wednesday, 7 May 2014 at 8:19pm

Argh! The webcast keeps freezing endlessly.

So I refresh the page - sit through another pre-roll ad - and then it replays the same 10 seconds as before (wide shot of a 3ft peak, with the cameraman zooming in while a surfer buggers the take-off on the left), but then it freezes in the same spot.

This is the worst start to an ASP webcast I have ever seen.

thermalben's picture
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thermalben Wednesday, 7 May 2014 at 8:30pm

Judging by the ASP's webcast page (48 pissed off comments in the first 10 minutes since they posted the live link) that I'm not the only person having problems with the feed.

I'm gonna give it 5 more minutes.

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seal Wednesday, 7 May 2014 at 8:39pm

Look I may be wrong here, but I think you'll find that since Billabong have added Occy's son to the team they haven't got enough money left for anymore than 5mins of broadcast.

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upnorth Wednesday, 7 May 2014 at 8:43pm

You aren't missing much Ben looks 2-3ft at most not a lot of action on fuel

thermalben's picture
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thermalben Wednesday, 7 May 2014 at 8:43pm

Came back for 15 seconds - at the 8 minute mark (Pottz said there was "22 minutes remaining") but it froze shortly afterwards and has been that way for the last few minutes.

What a train wreck.

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upnorth Wednesday, 7 May 2014 at 8:47pm

Of course Turpel thinks it's amazing

thermalben's picture
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thermalben Wednesday, 7 May 2014 at 8:50pm

And the wecbast 'concurrent viewer' numbers are plummeting as everyone cracks the shits and does other things. Just like me!

udo's picture
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udo Wednesday, 7 May 2014 at 9:01pm

Well .....drop this brazil comp ............lets have a faultless Indonesian webcast showing quality waves

bring back the G land Pro !

as much as a despise the little Medina sook he would likely win there. without doing an air.

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thermalben Wednesday, 7 May 2014 at 8:54pm

Agreed!

stunet's picture
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stunet Wednesday, 7 May 2014 at 9:03pm

You can watch it on the Portuguese stream. The scores and sound aren't working on there either but at least you get vision.

But then, it's not really showing much, just wobbly 2-3 foot closeouts.

lostdoggy's picture
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lostdoggy Wednesday, 7 May 2014 at 9:10pm

What would you have to do to get a 10 out there?
Horrible surf.

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lostdoggy Wednesday, 7 May 2014 at 9:14pm

Ace looks pretty pissed out there. I would be.

zenagain's picture
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zenagain Wednesday, 7 May 2014 at 9:18pm

I've got vision, but no sound.

Maybe a blessing in disguise.

simba's picture
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simba Wednesday, 7 May 2014 at 9:48pm

am i looking at last years event?cause it looks exactly the same,craptacular.Can only hope for a massive improvement.They should pan along the beach,forget the surf and zoom in on the g-bangers.

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Craig Wednesday, 7 May 2014 at 10:03pm

Wow looks like Manly under a peaky 2-3ft NE windswell. Boring..

mitchvg's picture
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mitchvg Wednesday, 7 May 2014 at 10:45pm

I don't mind these comps, seeing the pros in conditions that are most common here in SEQ/NNSW.
Also, there are a couple that are 4ft on the take off, and 5-7ft faces is 2.5-3.5ft surf right?

frother's picture
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frother Wednesday, 7 May 2014 at 10:51pm

The forecast on the ASP site calls 3-5ft faces with possible 6fters.... are we looking at an increase in size later in the day? Not enjoying the current grovel-fest.....

mitchvg's picture
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mitchvg Wednesday, 7 May 2014 at 11:15pm

Aaaaand why does bong advertise boardies so hard? Does that kind of say that even at a surfing event, surfers aren't really the target audience?

thermalben's picture
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thermalben Thursday, 8 May 2014 at 6:09am

It's the leadup to the northern hemisphere summer (the biggest surf industry markets) and boardies are surf brand's flagship summer products. You'll see the same thing here Oct/Nov-ish.

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donweather Thursday, 8 May 2014 at 7:36am

I would think that most of the surfers would right off the brazil event as the one they'll drop. Even when a decent size wave comes through they get about 2 turns on it before it closes out. Banks are shit and I think yesterday was the biggest it's forecast to get. Bring on J bay!!!

freeride76's picture
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freeride76 Thursday, 8 May 2014 at 7:37am

They used to when it was at the end of the Tour. Now they can't afford to.
How can they run a WCT event at a spot that isn't even a surf spot?

Sheepdog's picture
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Sheepdog Thursday, 8 May 2014 at 9:44am

Ummm... And the size of Brazil's coast?.... They choose to hold a comp there? At that shitty spot? Between Salvador and Praia do forte, there seems to be good setups.... Itacare looks great, too.... I'm sure these big regional towns/cities would love to host an event.....

freeride76's picture
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freeride76 Thursday, 8 May 2014 at 9:44am

Big top surfing, bums on seats.

mitchvg's picture
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mitchvg Thursday, 8 May 2014 at 10:09am

I suppose, but Cali for example doesn't get warm enough for boardies does it? Or do a lot of people go south to surf? Is France warm enough?

thermalben's picture
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thermalben Thursday, 8 May 2014 at 10:20am

Boardies are worn in and out of the surf, Mitch. Not just used for surfing purposes.

mitchvg's picture
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mitchvg Thursday, 8 May 2014 at 10:44am

Alright alright. One of the few industries who don't always try to upsell (to rubber, more $$$) then?

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Sheepdog Thursday, 8 May 2014 at 10:56am

True, free ride... But Salvadors population is bigger than Sydney..... Sydney ranked 94th, Salvador - 90th...
http://www.worldatlas.com/citypops.htm
No problem re' bums on seats.... ps - Even sleepy little Praia do forte has 1/4 million people....
They have to think beyond Rio.... I mean our biggest city doesn't host a "major'.......

freeride76's picture
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freeride76 Thursday, 8 May 2014 at 1:14pm

They get plenty at the Gold Coast, accessing both that and Brisbanes pop and Bells gets a shiteload of Melbourne people.
It's the only formula that works SD.

Thats why Rio has a sponsor but J-Bay and Fiji do not.

donweather's picture
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donweather Thursday, 8 May 2014 at 1:20pm

Wow, forecast looks TOTALLY uninspiring. When they finally get something reasonable size wise to surf, onshore winds also accompany it. Cya's all in Fiji!!!

seal's picture
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seal Thursday, 8 May 2014 at 5:46pm

After watching some of those heats in Brazil, I really don't think the pros are getting paid enough to surf it.
Glad the ASP aren't still telling us they're the worlds best surfers in the worlds best waves and FFS how the hell do the Brazos learn to surf so well in that Shit!!

thermalben's picture
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thermalben Thursday, 8 May 2014 at 8:23pm

Good to see they got the webcast sorted today. Running super smooth for the last 30mins.

maddogmorley's picture
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maddogmorley Thursday, 8 May 2014 at 8:28pm

Pity it's almost flat...

thermalben's picture
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thermalben Friday, 9 May 2014 at 7:59pm

Not very inspiring on the webcast right now, surely it'll be a layday.

Looks like we'll see a decent increase in short range punchy SE swell over the coming days but it'll be onshore at the same time (so quality will be low). Nothing of any significance on the charts beyond that either, so they'll have to make the most of this upcoming bumpy swell.

Why oh why do they persist with Brazil?

simba's picture
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simba Friday, 9 May 2014 at 8:11pm

Change the venue to Gland fuk the bums on seats.

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carpetman Friday, 9 May 2014 at 8:15pm

I assume the webcast ratings are dismal for Brazil? So what is the reason for a continued competition in Rio?

thermalben's picture
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thermalben Friday, 9 May 2014 at 8:30pm

Brazil has a large surfer base (ie ready-to-go audience) and there are a large number of Brazilians on the WCT. The potential local audience is massive. However the event is being held in Rio due to the obvious factors of (1) easier to get crowds to the comp site at a suburban beach, and (2) logistics are cheaper and easier to coordinate, compared to a remote event.

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carpetman Friday, 9 May 2014 at 8:55pm

So are there any past event locations that would fill the rio prerequisites and but actually have surf? Surely theres somewhere?

simba's picture
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simba Friday, 9 May 2014 at 9:22pm

Have they had a crowd there yet?i havent tuned in long enough to know.Are they getting bums on seats.?

maddogmorley's picture
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maddogmorley Friday, 9 May 2014 at 9:28pm

Saw highlights from 'QS contest there a few years back at Saquarema (I think it was?) and they got pretty epic waves - looked like it had a lot more potential.

thermalben's picture
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thermalben Monday, 12 May 2014 at 8:11pm

Holy shit, Slater just scored a perfect ten (!) for the first ridden wave of the day. It's slabbing - we're gonna see a lot of broken boards.

seal's picture
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seal Monday, 12 May 2014 at 8:54pm

No Zillars left in their own comp!! Serves them right for holding it such shit waves when there is bound to be better elsewhere in the country. Bet they don't hold it there next year!

seal's picture
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seal Monday, 12 May 2014 at 9:01pm

And I don't know about you guys, but I think I would sooner see the tour at Keramas than that dog's breakfast in Brazil.

thermalben's picture
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thermalben Monday, 12 May 2014 at 9:04pm

Can't see anyone arguing with you there.

carpetman's picture
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carpetman Monday, 12 May 2014 at 9:32pm

That wave was a miracle... haven't seen much worth watching since though :(