'CT 2010

I was down in Huntington Beach at HSS for Brett Simpson's Send off Party to the WCT. Brett joins the Tour as a rookie along with slew of others such as Dusty Payne, Owen Wilson, the Gudauskas brothers, Jadson Andre, Dan Ross and Nate Yeomans to name a few. With the first event of the Tour finished, let's check out this year's World Tour.

Snapper Rocks was the much anticipated return of Andy Irons to the 'CT after a year off. Everyone wanted to see if he can come back and make a run for the Title. Unfortunately he didn't have a strong result and was knocked out in Rd 3 against a rejuvenated Bobby Martinez. Bobby's strong performance at Snapper was a big surprise making it all the way to the semi-finals before losing out to the event winner Taj Burrow.

I predict Bobby Martinez will continue to do well this year and make the Top 32 since he is now sponsored by O'neill and doesn't have to finance being on the Tour himself. Less pressure obviously is helping his surfing, but he also did win last year's Tahiti event financing himself.

For the 2nd half of the year with Kelly Slater clearly out of the World Title race, there was much talk about the Rebel Tour. After the ASP revamped this year's tour, nothing has been heard about the Rebel Tour. For right now, it seems like Kelly will stay on the 'CT and have fun testing out his new equipment in pursuit of this 10th World Title. Kelly is Kelly; consistent and technically awesome. No reason for him not to be in the Top 10.

The Aussies will be a strong force this year on the Tour. Joel will be hungry to grab that elusive Word Title. Taj has been building momentum since his win against Kelly at '09 Pipemasters. He's won 3 events in a row. Mick will be defending his World Title.

What we will be looking for this year it to see Dane Reynolds wins his first 'CT event. He just ran out of batteries last year at Trestles. His fans just really want him to be rewarded with a win for being the most interesting and fun surfer to watch.

Right behind Dane will be Jordy Smith and the rookies anxious to prove themselves on Tour. Brett did pretty well for this first event making it through to the third round before losing to Mick Fanning. Mick wasn't going to lose to Brett again. Dan Ross had the best result of the rookies making it to the 4th round.

These first 5 events are extremely critical because after the 5th event, the number of surfers on Tour will be reduced to 32. Much of the next 4 events, we'll see surfers fighting for every win to make sure they stay on the tour especially with the less experienced ones. They need to surf smart, have a strategy, and stay focus.

Let's see how my Fantasy Surf team will do at Bells.