After an exciting 2013 season that ran down to the wire for crowning a men’s ASP WCT champion and the young guns shaking up the Women’s WCT, the 2014 ASP World Championship Tour for both the men and women will be the most progressive year yet for the Dream Tour. Australians Dion Atkinson and Mitch Crews have both earned a spot on the men’s 2014 Tour and rookies Nikki Van Dijk and Alessa Quizon will be joining the Women’s World Championship Tour.
Expect to see Dion Atkinson perform well and advance through events held in Fiji, Teahupo’o and Pipeline. He qualified for the 2014 Tour after steady results throughout the year and a fourth place finish at Haleiwa. Hailing from West Oz, Atkinson has been competing on the ASP World Qualifying Series the past six years, fighting for a spot on the WCT. However his powerful surfing style and confidence in big surf should prove him well-suited for the ASP WCT.
Mitch Crews was a stand-out surfer on the WQS Tour in 2013, kicking off the year with a huge win at the 4-Star Quiksilver Open in Japan and a string of solid results. Crews will be joining the tour at the age of 23 and views his slightly-older age than the average rookie an advantage.
“With age comes experience and the more experience means the wiser decisions you make in heats.” Crews said. “When I was on the junior series, I would just catch a bunch of waves all naive and unaware of the heat situations. Now I’m more selective and attentive, so I feel as though I’m way more prepared to face tough heats on tour now as to back then.”
Three world class venues have been added to the ASP Women’s World Championship Tour for 2014 for a total of nine events on the schedule. The ladies will now compete at Fiji, Trestles and Hossegor.
“2014 will see the most talented collective of female surfers ever assembled in the ASP Top 17 and the new tour schedule is befitting of their talent,” Jessi Miley-Dyer, ASP Women’s World Tour Manager, said. The 2014 tour rookies include Nikki Van Dijk and Alessa Quizon, both joining the tour at the young age of 19.
Australian surfer Nikki Van Dijk has been close to claiming a spot on the ASP WCT in recent years but her success in 2013 clinched it, including an ASP World Junior Title in Bali and a win at Pantin Classic Galicia Pro in Spain. Van Dijk has competed against the top surfers as a wildcard for Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach and the Beachley Classic but her debut at the 2014 Roxy Pro Gold Coast will make her an official competitor for the ASP WCT.
Hawaiian Alessa Quizon has proven a fierce competitor with her consistent surfing and snaps, hailing from the Westside of O’ahu. Quizon got a taste of the WCT as a wildcard at the Billabong Rio Pro, which she took a semifinal finish.
“Getting a result in Brazil definitely gave me more of a confidence boost and having had that opportunity to compete in Rio helped me gain a lot of experience at competing on a World Tour level.” Quizon said. “I had learned so much during that event and with the result I ended up with, I had proven to myself that, yes, I do have what it takes to compete as a World Tour surfer.”