2015 Fact Sheet
Date
Where
Status
Surfers
WSL Wild Cards
Event Wild Cards
WA Trials
Competition days
Event date range
Event history
No. of Spectators
Spectator entry fee
Online viewers
Television
Broadcast
Destination unique
point
Staff & volunteers
About World
Surfing League
(WSL)
Current World
Champions
Scoring
Prize pool
Men’s prize money
15 – 26 April 2015
Surfer’s Point, Prevelly, Margaret River
One of 11 men’s and 10 women’s World Surfing League (WSL) Championship
Tour (CT) events in the world - the highest tier surfing competition
Men’s: Top 32 ranked male (plus 1 WSL and 1 event wild card entries).
Women’s: 17 ranked female (plus 1 event wild card entry)
Men’s: C.J. Hobgood (USA) and Glenn Hall (IRL)
Women’s: Dimity Stoyle (AUS)
The WA Trials will take place on 14 April and only open to Western Australian
surfers. The winner and runner up of the men’s and winner of the women’s
category will each get a wild card entry into the Pro to surf against the world’s
best.
Over 12 days, surfers will compete on the days producing the best conditions
as determined by the WSL judges. If their call is ‘Off’, then no competition will
take place that day.
The event date range is set to be longer than required to take into account
possible lay days. The exact days of the competition heats and finals is not
known beforehand and called on the day to ensure surfers compete in the best
conditions available.
The inaugural event was held in 1985. This year is the 30th anniversary of the
Drug Aware Margaret River Pro. This year is the second year the Pro has had
CT status.
30,000 spectators are expected
Free
4 million viewers in 200+ countries are expected to stream the live event online
Tens of millions viewers will watch the one-hour highlights television broadcast
that is beamed globally. In Australia it will be aired on Fox Sports.
Margaret River is the only wine region in the world that also has world-class
surf breaks worthy of a World Championship Tour event.
300 event staff and volunteers
The original governing body of professional surfing, the International
Professional Surfers (IPS), was founded in 1976 and spearheaded by Hawaiian
surfers Fred Hemmings and Randy Rarick. The next evolution was the
Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP), founded in 1983 by Ian Cairns and
giving birth in the 90’s to the company philosophy of “world’s best surfers,
world’s best waves”. 2015 saw the ASP officially become the World Surf
League.
Men’s: Gabriel Medina (BRA)
Women’s: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS)
A panel of five judges scores each wave on a scale of one to ten. For every
scoring ride, the highest and lowest scores (of the five judges) are discounted
and the surfer receives the average of the remaining three scores. There is no
limit on the number of waves that will be scored, but the two best scoring waves
(each out of a possible 10) are added together to become a surfer’s heat total
(out of a possible 20).
Men’s total prize pool US$550,000
Women’s total prize pool US$262,500
First prize US$100,000
2nd US$40,000
3rd US$20,000 (x2)
Media Contact: Dianne Bortoletto, Pronto PR, [email protected], 0439 997 075
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Women’s prize
money
Official Charity
Awards
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
YouTube
Official hashtag
Website
5th place US$15,000 (x5)
all lowest finishing surfers US$9,000
First prize US$60,000
2nd US$25,000
3rd US$16,250 (x2)
5th place $12,250 (x5)
lowest finishing surfers US$9,000
SurfAid
Winner 2014 WA Tourism Awards Major Festivals and Events
https://www.facebook.com/WSL
@Surfing_WA @WSL
@surfing_wa @WSL
https://www.youtube.com/wsl
#MargiesPro #thisisWA
http://www.worldsurfleague.com/
NB: The World Surfing League Championship was formerly ASP World Championship Tour
Comparison 2012 to 2014
%
INCREASE
50%
Description
2012
2014
Visitors from Outside Region
4,474
6,702
Visitor Expenditure from Outside Region
$2,723,717
$4,414,930
62%
Total Visitor Nights from Outside Region
12,301
25,643
108%
Visitor Expenditure from Outside of WA
$884,517
$1,517,332
72%
Average Length of Stay
10.3 Days
13.7 Days
33%
25,000
40,000
60%
Total Event Spectator Numbers
Live Event Webcast (Unique Viewers)
748,099
3,435,218
359%
2,028,593
14,519,686
615%
250,000
12,700,000
4980%
Digital Event Related Content Watched
-
1,300,000 hours
-
Supplementary Margaret River Content Viewed Online
-
9,300,000 mins
-
Online Media Content Reach
-
1,600,000,000 readers
-
Event Website Page Views (Unique)
Social Media Reach
Drug Aware Margaret River Pro Past Winners
Year
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
Men’s
Mark Occhilupo
Tom Carroll
Tom Carroll
No Event
Dave Macaulay
Barton Lynch
No Event
Tom Carroll
Gary Elkerton
No Event
Barton Lynch
Chris Gallagher
Taj Burrow
Jake Paterson
Luke Egan
Women’s
No Women’s Event
No Women’s Event
No Women’s Event
No Event
Wendy Botha
Wendy Botha
No Event
Jodie Cooper
Pam Burridge
No Event
Wendy Botha
Pam Burridge
Lynette McKenzie
Prue Jeffries
Kate Skarratt
Year
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
Men’s
Mark Bannister
Mick Fanning
Joel Parkinson
Mick Campbell
Neco Padaratz
Troy Brooks
Mark Occhilupo
Kieren Perrow
Tom Whitaker
Dan Ross
Josh Kerr
Damien Hobgood
John John Florence
Dusty Payne
Michel Bourez
Women’s
Melanie Redman
Melanie Redman
Melanie Redman-Carr
Heather Clarke
Dara Penfold
Yvonne Byron
No Women’s Event
Jacqueline Silva
Paige Hareb
Melanie Redman-Carr
Chelsea Hedges
Courtney Conlogue
Courtney Conlogue
Carissa Moore
Carissa Moore
Media Contact: Dianne Bortoletto, Pronto PR, [email protected], 0439 997 075
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