As usual, the vast majority of surf media publications are releasing the wrong ASP World Tour rankings.  Take Surfline.com for example, the leading website of surf coverage in terms of overall traffic numbers.  Their story about Slater winning the Hurley Pro at Trestles includes the ASP World Tour ratings.  Here is what they published.

ASP WORLD TOUR RATINGS

1. Mick Fanning (AUS) 41,250 pts
2. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 39,700 pts
3. Kelly Slater (USA) 35,450 pts
4. John John Florence (HAW) 32,650 pts
5. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 30,650 pts
6. Taj Burrow (AUS) 30,150 pts
7. Josh Kerr (AUS) 25,700 pts
8. Jeremy Flores (FRA) 23,200 pts
9. Owen Wright (AUS) 23,150 pts
9. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 23,150 pts

Instead of taking into account the lowest scores from two contests that each surfer is allowed to drop, surf industry publications include them into the rankings until literally the very end of the year.  Thus making things even more confusing than they already are for anyone who enjoys following the ASP World Tour.  The list that the vast majority of surfing and action sports websites publish is a blatant lie.

It doesn’t take a lot of work to make the proper calculations and present a list showing the actual ratings of the ASP World Tour.  The true math after dropping every surfer’s two lowest contest scores.

REAL ASP WORLD TOUR RATINGS

1. Kelly Slater (USA) 33,200 pts
2. Mick Fanning (AUS) 33,000 pts
3. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 30,500 pts
4. John John Florence (HAW) 26,900 pts
5. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 24,900 pts
6. Taj Burrow (AUS) 24,400 pts
7. Josh Kerr (AUS) 22,200 pts
8. Owen Wright (AUS) 20,700 pts
9. Jeremy Flores (FRA) 19,700 pts
9. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 19,700 pts

From the real ASP World Tour ratings, Slater has just a 200 point lead over Fanning.  When the ASP World Tour return to the U.S. mainland after the Quiksilver Pro France and the Rip Curl Pro Portugal for the O’Neill Coldwater Classic in Santa Cruz, either the World Title will be decided or the race could go all the way to the Billabong Pipe Masters.  Regardless, Kelly Slater is in the driver’s seat to win his unprecedented 12th ASP World Championship.