Tristan vs Tanner.
By Dan Dobbin.
Competition is all about, well, competition.
And the best kind of competition is one based on rivalry.
Magic vs Bird, Ali vs Fraser, Slater and Irons, Player vs Kingy. Stewart vs Severson. GT vs everybody.
Let’s pencil in Tristan vs Tanner.
Tristan, aged 24.
His IBC results this year; 2nd, 1st, 3rd, 2nd. Total tour points: 10215
Tanner, aged 23.
His results; 3rd, a quarter finals sickness withdrawal for 7th, 1st, 3rd. Total points: 9405
Their head to head results in competition stand at 2-1 Tristan’s way.
With the points left available in the remaining competitions and the top four best results model of the IBC tour, realistically it’s a two horse race for the world title this year between these two.
If Tanner was to win the up coming Maldives Pro, this would put him into the tour lead.
However, the next contest after the Maldives, the Walker Bay Pro, will go down at Tristan’s home break in South Africa and it would be a lock that he’ll be an almost unbackable favourite to take out that event.
This would set up a show down at the final event of the year during the Fronton King comp in Grand Canaria, a dream scenario for the IBC’S first tour year as the sports two best young rider’s dueled it out for the title at the tours best wave.
Thankfully the IBC has also amended the way they have structured their seedings to allow Tristan and Tanner to meet in the finals of each event, rather than in the semi finals, which has been the case in three of the four events already completed.
While close friends out of the water, the best thing for the Bodyboarding world is that these two young superstars are only just at the beginning of their careers and will more than likely be fighting it out for World titles for decades to come.
