Wins a thousand American dollars and custom Panda surfboard.
BeachGrit’s Surfival League launched this season as an alternate to Fantasy Surfer.
Think NFL football “Survivor League” for surf.
Pick one surfer to advance past Round of 32 and you survive.
Survive longer than everyone else and win a thousand American dollars and a custom Panda Surfboard.
The Surfival League came down to the final event, where 11 members (including 2001 World Champ CJ Hobgood) battled for the top spot.
Mark Bocksch, from Frisco, a pretty little ski town in Colorado, outlasted 300+ Surfivors to take the title.
He had Gabriel Medina winning and picked a combined heat score of 34, only .11 away from the actual total and .03 away from runner-up CJ Hobgood.
Bocksh, who grew up surfing, moved to Colorado twenty years ago to bang his snowboard down mountains (four resorts are nearby, Breckenridge, Copper Mountain etc.)
He heard about the Surfival League while listening to The Grit! podcast with Chas Smith and Davey Scales.
“t seemed easy enough. I’ve never played any kind of fantasy surfer before but decided to give this a try,” he says.
His strategy was simple.
“Definitely didn’t want to pick who David Lee Scales and Chas Smith were picking (Editors note: they were both out within the first four events) and I didn’t try to get fancy. I just picked the best surfer at each event. My strategy for the final was picking Gabe and for the combined heat score I just cracked a beer and thought about it. I came up with 34. The final heat score was 33.89.”
How’d he feel when he won?
“I couldn’t believe it. I was watching the final and reading the BeachGrit comment section and just could not believe I Surfived.”
The last time Bocksh surfed was in mid-July in Encinitas, real close to Chas as it happens. He says he’ll be back out there in November where he’ll shred his new custom Panda.
Says he’ll be ordering the Dolly Dagger from the Panda site, maybe the Shiitake.
“I actually only looked this morning at the website because I didn’t want to jinx it. The dolly dagger looked interesting and also the shiitake. I’m not the smallest guy so I want more foam.”
What else?
“I’ll take my jet ski parade whenever you guys are ready. Thanks so much for putting this on, it was a blast. I’ll be drywalling and smiling the rest of the day.”
See y’all at Pipe in January!
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Medina will take a break in 2022 WSL Tour, planning not run some events
“I need to stop thinking about competition for a while, because everything I do today, food, routine… It’s all about competition, so I can be 100% in all disputes. I never missed an event. It’s been hard to do this for years. I think the time has come when I need to take a break,” said Medina.
“This year was difficult, I went from one trip to another, I almost didn’t return home. It’s been ten years that I have to be at the same level, training, making choices to perform better… It’s very intense, it demands a lot. I want to give myself a while, but it’s something that I’ll still stop to think about, leaving it day after day. Let’s see how it goes,” added Gabriel.
https://www.waves.com.br/no…
I thought he missed Snapper and Chopes?
I don’t remember… and if he missed an event, why… But I think consciously, willingly, it’s the first time
Baby on the way.
For sure, a baby’s on the way
Well done, Frisco kid!
I knew a man who hung drywall
He hung it mighty quick
A trip or two to the blue room
Would help him do the trick -Primus
I dunno about the closest to the pin thing to decide the winner; but maybe it is only an issue in a shortened season where not enough guys got eliminated each comp. Fuck I thought I was going to win it but Toledo let me down.
What about a leaderboard based on points won on each surfer, each comp. Combined heat score seemed too arbitrary.
Beers on Marky Mark! Congrats dude
OT: looks like Gabe will take next year off
Congrats! You really constructed a good strategy… I bet when you found out you won there wasn’t a dry wall in the house…
Dolly Dagger is sick.
it paddles insane so you don;t need to go massive
Her love’s so heavy, gonna make you stagger