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Posted on Tuesday February 9th 2010 at 10:55 a.m.
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The Tallying Process was unique.
* Photos were counted as a "page presence"
* One photo on one page represented 1 point.
* Two or more photos on one page represented 1 point.
* Double spreads were awarded 2 points.
* Covers were awarded 5 points
* Only editorial pages were counted.
* All headshots and surf shots were counted.
* Every SW magazine, book and photo annual was tabulated.
* Unknown surfers and empty waves (sadly) were not tabulated.
* If surfers finished with the same number of pages, countbacks were done in relation to number of covers, then centrespreads to determine placing.
* The cut off to make the 300 was an 11 page presence.
While the full list can be found in the latest Surfing World Magazine, one of the biggest surprises is 9 Times World Champion Kelly Slaters failure to crack the top 20, while an understated Aussie legend who never won a World Title ended up topping the poll.
Current SW Editor Vaughan Blakey said "These type of magazine lists are incredibly subjective. Usually a dozen or so people get asked for an opinion and all of a sudden you've got yourself the greatest surfers of all time. The end result may be a nice compliment to the guys who make the list but really it's about as relevant as Bert Newton's 20-1."
"We wanted to eliminate that sort of flakey process and come up with a list that was factual, something that could not be argued. In the end we decided to count every photo that had ever appeared on the pages of Surfing World Magazine. That's every photo published since 1962. It took us three months to complete and the result is the definitive list of SW's top 300 surfing icons. It's an amazing journey of characters and eras, represented fairly by the time they appeared in the magazine. While some of the positions are definitely surprising they are legitimate.
These are the guys who have influenced Australian surfing by having a presence in SW magazine. That is pretty damn awesome."
Did your favourite surfers make the list? Find out in Surfing World's 300th issue on sale now in New Zealand.