PAYDAYS & POWER RANKINGS – Chapter One

While point scores are the traditional method to measure who is the best competitor in Surf Sports, I think we need a far more pointless, gossipy and unfair system to rank athletes.

So, I present PAYDAYS & POWERANKINGS 

This will come out roughly 8 times this summer with 2 sections:
PAYDAYS – Will total up all the prizemoney athletes have collected from the sport this summer, so you can actually find out who has the skills to pay the bills

POWER RANKINGS – Literally just my opinion on who are the top ten men and women in Surf Sports right now – doesn’t matter what event you do – it’s how well you’ve performed that’ll get you on the rankings – think of it like the pound for pound crown in boxing… it’s not real, and will cause arguments – that’s the point…

Also see the terms and conditions before taking this seriously.

PAYDAYS 1 – As at Oct 15, 2023

WOMEN 

	ATHLETE	EARNINGS
1st	Lana Rogers	25000
2nd	Courtney Hancock	12000
3rd	Lucy Derbyshire	6000
4th	Jemma Smith	5500
5th	Tiarnee Massie	4000
6th	Dani Richards	3500
7th	Hananh Scully	2500
	Harriet Brown	2500
	Lizzie Welborn	2500
	Piper Harrison	2500
	Dom Melburn	2500
12th	Jasmine Rayward	2000
	Bianca Rayward	2000
	Carla Papac	2000
15th	Lily O’Sullivan	1500
	Claudia Slaven	1500
	Liv Corrin	1500
	Jaimie Perkins	1500
	Georgia Laird	1500
20th	Judit Verges Xifra	1000
	Pheobe Savage	1000

(25 athletes total have collected prizemoney so far)

MEN

	ATHLETE	EARNINGS
1st	Ali Day	25000
2nd	Matt Bev	12000
3rd	Cory Taylor	6000
4th	Tom Norton	5500
5th	Cory Hill	4500
6th	Kenj Louis	4000
7th	Oscar Jones	2500
	Zac Morris	2500
	Jake Morris	2500
	Joe Collins	2500
	Riley Harland	2500
12th	Brayden Casamento	2000
13th	Hayden Cotter	1500
	Harry Stone	1500
	Stewart McLaughlin	1500
	Sean Riley	1500
	Corey Fletcher	1500
18th	7 Athletes	1000

(27 Athletes have collected prizemoney so far)

POWER RANKINGS 

WOMEN

1. LANA ROGERS – Won the Shaw and Partners Cooly Gold, enough said.
2. JEMMA SMITH – Dominated the downwind ski race @ the Gold.
3. COURTNEY HANCOCK – Never misses, the best of all time
4. LUCY DERBYSHIRE – Excellent in her Shaw and Partners Gold Debut 
5. TIARNEE MASSIE – Strong in the international Surf Rescue Challenge and backed it up in the Cooli Gold.
6. GRACE HARRIS – Her short course Gold showed how much she has improved over the winter.
7. SARAH CLEVERLY – 5secs off winning the short course as an u19 is special. 
8. NAOMI SCOTT – International Surf Rescue Challenge was strong, good form early in the season off the back of her Australian title.
9. DOM MELBURN – Newport young gun delivered in the swim leg of the short course teams and deserves a mention.
10. CARLA PAPAC – Tough day as the defending Gold Champ but should be proud of the effort.

MEN

1. ALI DAY – 9 starts 9 wins. Selfish, the guy hates to share. But well done.
2. CORY TAYLOR – Controversial, but you add his dominance in Texas to his podium at the Shaw and Partners Gold and he might be the most all around inform Ironman in the sport right now.
3. MATT BEVILACQUA – Hung it out there but the extra-long swim hurt him in the Gold.
4. TOM NORTON – Downwind and teams win at the Gold. Strong performances.
5. CORY HILL – Literally just a step behind Tom, can’t fault the performances or effort.
6. KENJ LOUIS – Half a run leg short of a podium performance, and the most honest post-race interview – full respect to the veteran.
7. JOE COLLINS – His run in the Teams event got Northcliffe home over Manly.
8. THE RAZOR – Brayden Casamento came home in the final run like a freight train to finish 5^th overall. The fastest run of the day @ 3.51 per km was quality.
9. AIDEN CARBERRY – u17 South Australian finishes 51secs off the podium in the Short Course race at the Gold…. The big boys were running scared.
10. LIAM BLAIR – Son of Ironman Series great Josh Blair got a win in the u12 Cooli Gold Youth Challenge. As I told him stories about how I looked up to his dad, he mentioned that its all everyone talks about… but we also figured out his dad had never won a Cooli Gold title, so its 1 nil to the Young Bloke.
11. Special mention – Lachie Mercer getting it done in the u17 Youth Challenge; The whole beach smiles when a Mercer wins a Cooli Gold event.

TERMS & CONDITIONS
1. If you’ve read this far I appreciate it 

2. This is just for a laugh 

3. Prize Money calculations is at major surf events & the Downwind race at the Gold was included but not any other AORS events.

4. Team event prizemoney will be split evenly because any other way to do it is weird.

5. This does not include sponsorship, pokies wins, club payments or work – just prizemoney.

6. The top 20 money earners are included – the rest can be found online

6. If you feel hard done by in the power rankings, you are probably correct.