RAS It Up At www.surfinglife.com.au

Australia's Surfing Life has just secured the services of Mike Newman of RAS Surfing Stats to give a by-the-numbers view of the Dream Tour through the 2010 season.

Mike has been informing the top 45 surfers of everything statistical for the past five seasons. The big names know his work and have regular contact with him; Kelly Slater, the Hobgoods, Joel Parkinson, Bede Durbidge and more seek Mike out for advice on their numbers. Ronnie Blakey, Peter Mel and Dave Mailman are among many commentators who rely on his research for their webcast commentary. Mike has also been providing stats for Rip Curl and Billabong webcasts for years.

Now, stats once only delivered to an exclusive e-mailing list are going to be posted on www.surfinglife.com.au as they happen, for everyone's consumption. After each day of World Tour competition Mike will update the day's figures and at the end of every event he will give us a statistical update of the season so far.

ASL has been on Mike's mailing list for a coupla years and his stats give a unique insight into the World Tour. If it weren’t for Mike’s work none of us would know how many events every athlete has surfed, how many years guys have been on tour, the locations where they've had success, their career and season win ratios and so on. There’s too much to list and it makes for fascinating reading.


Freddy P and his wild frontside gouge. Pic: ASP/CI

Take Fred Pattachia for example. None of us would know that the first round on the Gold Coast is a big one for Freddy P. He will be surfing his 150th World Tour heat and it has taken him 5 years and 54 events to get there.

Freddy has won 69 of those first 149 heats giving him a career win ratio of 46% which is about on par with Taylor Knox, Mick Campbell, Tommy Whitaker, Dane Reynolds, Jordy Smith, Adrian Buchan and Kieren Perrow.

Freddy has surfed in 17 finals heats (quarters, semis, finals) in his career including two finals, and is still looking to secure his first win.

That’s the sort of stuff that Mike has been keeping the Tour updated with in the past and from Round One of the Quiksilver Pro, at www.surfinglife.com.au, you too can be king of surfing trivia among your mates.