Christie still in the thick of it

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

THE WORLD Surf League Qualifying Series (QS) is heating up and Gisborne/Mahia surfer Ricardo Christie is right in the thick of it.

Christie sits in 15th place on the QS with 10,650 points but will need to finish the year in the top 10 (at least 20,000 points) to guarantee his place on the top-tier Championship Tour (CT) for 2018.

Tonight (NZ time) the EDP Billabong Pro Cascais begins in Portugal, one of five top events on the QS offering the winner a valuable 10,000 points towards CT qualification.

Christie has done well in the powerful beachbreaks of Cascais in the past, with a third-placing in 2014 contributing to his qualification for the 2015 CT.

However, in the past two years there he has finished in 49th place.

Christie has had a strong 2017 QS so far, earning 5200 points for a fifth-place finish at the US Open and 3000 for his win at the Martinique Pro.

A strong result in Cascais would set Christie up nicely going into the back end of the QS, however, he will be up against a huge contingent of CT surfers facing elimination for next year’s CT.

Only the top 22 ranked surfers on the CT are guaranteed for qualification for the next year and the only other avenue is to finish in the top 10 on the QS.

That means everyone ranked 15th to 36th will be in Cascais trying to hedge their bets, including Josh Kerr, Leonardo Fioravanti, Jack Freestone, Jadson Andre, Conner Coffin and Joan Duru.

Meanwhile, a number of QS hopefuls are trying to make noise of their own, including Jorgann Couzinet, Keanu Asing, Michael February and Griffin Colapinto. The 2016 Cascais champion, Jesse Mendes, is sitting in first place in this year’s QS rankings, and has already secured a spot on next year’s CT.

Christie can still qualify for the CT if he ends the year outside the top 10.

If surfers have already qualified through the CT then the next-highest ranked surfers take their places.

This happened in 2014 when Christie finished 16th on the QS yet qualified for the CT.

The forecast for the opening of the competition is for small waves, but a mid-size northwest swell is possible for Thursday and Friday, while a larger northwest swell is possible for the end of the waiting period for the competition, which ends on October 5.

Following the Cascais competition is another 6000-point-rated event in Brazil at the end of October and then two 10,000-point-rated events in Hawaii in November to finish the QS.