Friday, 04 December 2009 00:00
“Not sure where you got that from but I will say, it’s not dead,” Kelly Slater confirmed, when ASL asked him to comment on rumours that the so-called ESPN Champions Surf Tour (CST) was back.
According to those rumours, the CST has targeted a slew of surfers including Dane Reynolds, Andy and Bruce Irons, Ry Craike, Taj Burrow, Rob Machado, Shane Dorian, Mitch Coleborn, Clay Marzo and, of course, Kelly himself.
Rumours heard by ASL say the rebel tour is confident of securing the services of all the surfers they were after apart from Mick Fanning, Joel Parkinson, and Jordy Smith, who have all committed to the ASP tour. The ASP has confirmed that Andy Irons is yet to commit to his wildcard position on next year’s ASP tour.
“I will know more shortly but probably won't speak much about it 'til I'm fully aware of how it changes and effects our sport as a whole,” Kelly told ASL. “ASP had a chance to go in a new direction and chose not to. That doesn't necessarily mean things disappear. It did seem to show that ASP maintains control of the sport's direction.”
Kelly has been a vocal critic of the current surf industry sponsors’ control of the ASP Tour, who bankroll most of the events and own their own media rights to each event. The new tour’s promise of increased prize-money, mainstream sponsorship and slick packaging of events for television on ESPN helped convince Kelly that change was needed.
“I love and appreciate my sponsors but freedom of choice is a basic part of our world and our sport's structure should reflect that. It's an inherent feeling shared with all surfers,” Kelly said.
Kelly competing at the Billabong Pro Tahiti in May. Teahupo'o is a wave the Champions Tour organisers have their eyes on. pic Andy Morris
Kelly was active in promoting the virtues of the new “Champions Surf Tour,” backed by US sports network ESPN, during the Jeffreys Bay event in South Africa back in July. Meetings were held between ESPN and the surfers in California to explain the concept in more detail, and some sort of announcement was promised during the Trestles event in September, but no solid news was forthcoming.
ASP meetings in Mundaka, Spain, in October saw the ASP surfers vote to support their existing tour. At the time, it was assumed that left the rebel tour dead in the water. The surfers were able to get several of their demands met at the October meeting under threat of supporting the rebel tour - chiefly, increased prize-money, comprehensive insurance, and a restructuring of the ASP Board to include several independent board members. The surfers, sponsors and ASP publicly declared solidarity at a press conference at Mundaka and the matter appeared settled.
“I think the surfers have done the best job they could given the short amount of time they had to deal with the changes at hand and to make the best of the choices they were presented with through the Euro leg,” says Kelly. “I think there was a lot of pressure put on the surfers’ reps especially. An option exists for a reason. The question is, is that the right direction? I guess we'll still have to wait a bit to find out.”
But with surfers the calibre of Bruce and Andy, Ry Craike, Julian Wilson, Jamie O’Brien and many others not committed to the ASP tour, the rebels didn’t need to pick up too many current ASP surfers to make their tour viable. Add Dane, Kelly, Rob Machado and few hot kids like Clay Marzo to the mix and you have yourself a tour. Of sorts. With only 16 surfers on the CST, it is hard to see how they could annoint their winner a legitimate world champion.
“There are 16 guys who can possibly compete on the CST,” says Neil Ridgway, Rip Curl’s head of marketing and ASP Board member. “Then there’s 1000 surfers on the ASP rankings all trying to get to number one, and 10 000 grommets behind ‘em. You can be part of the hit and giggle, or you can play to the real game.”
Chief architect of the new tour, ESPN’s Matt Tinley, has kept his cards close to his chest since news of the CST first broke in July, and has refused to comment to the media. But behind the scenes he has clearly been working hard to shore up support for the new tour.
According to US surf industry sources, Tinley has said he is “playing with my own chips,” meaning he is funding the tour himself, with the help of private backers, and banking on attracting mainstream sponsors once surfers are locked in. It is a big gamble by both Tinley and the surfers, especially given the current state of the US economy.
Kelly, for one, obviously feels it is a gamble worth taking.
The man who pulls more crowds than anyone else in surfing. Freesurf punt in Portugal. Pic Roger Sharp
“Just the thought of a different tour earlier this year put a lot of people in a tailspin, many of whom are now pleased with the 'changes' that have taken place,” said Kelly. “That tailspin reveals some things about what we're dealing with and how obvious some of the changes should be. The Sydney Morning Herald got it right when they wrote the piece about surfing being the last sport in the world sponsored, run, and controlled by the brands and essentially blocked off from outside interests. That does offer good and maybe not so good options for the tour and the surfers themselves.”
The CST has already drastically downsized its prize-money from US$1.5 million to $500,000 per event, with $125,000 for first and a minimum $25,000 per surfer. Surfer’s contracts stipulate all travel and accommodation expenses, as well as insurance and a per diem, will all be covered for all surfers. The CST will consist of eight events, each of two days’ duration, scheduled from September to December 2010, with a ninth final Championship event to decide their own world champ. One hour TV packages produced by ESPN will be presented a week after each event.
Neil Ridgway was heavily involved in the ASP meetings at Mundaka and fronted the media conference along with ASP Director Brodie Carr and Mick Fanning and Joel Parkinson to declare unity. He has heard the rumours of the CST and is confident in the ASP's place as the legitimate world title decider of the sport.
“I have no doubt that despite the fact that ASP surfers and events voted not to sanction (the Champions Tour), that they would be endeavoring to get their tour up and running, and good luck to ‘em,” says Neil. “As for the surfers that they’re recruiting, any ASP surfer who signs with them will be walking away from the ASP and will not be able to compete on the world tour.”
ASP is adamant that any surfers who join the Champions Tour will be inelligible to compete on the ASP tour.
“Why would we (the ASP) contract surfers to the true and legitimate world title and then let them compete on a tour that claims to be a world title?” says Neil.
What would his attitude be to any Rip Curl surfers joining the CST?
“We’d listen to ‘em, hear all the reasons why they’d want to do it, then we’d make a decision about their future in the company. Thankfully, that’s not a conversation we’ve had to have with any of our surfers. All our guys are committed to ASP world tour.”
By Tim Baker, Nick Carroll and Tim Fisher. (edit: Tues Dec 8)
Click here for more updates on this story. (Monday Dec 7)
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I dont care who the best guy is who does? I surf for ME.
Get this through your thick skulls; companies selling the surfing dream to the damn kook general public is making crowds from hell and the fuckers need shooting for this.
Fuck the pro rich wankers selling what we have. How fucking dare you! you are as bad as the shit corporations you "ride" for.
Regarding corpoate involvement (Rip Curl, Billabong, Quiksilver) at the highest level. Well, surfing tried to attract multinationals in 80's. They weren't interested and the surf comapnies became mutinationals themselves. Without them there would be no pro tour. Of course the ASP Board should be independant but it should also have representaion from the entities to whom it owes its existance.
The WCT is farkn awesome as it is at the mo, rewarding surfers for baing the best surfer in the water for 20, 30 minutes for high performance, power, style, froth and the occasional punt..no doubt it takes a shiteload of hard work to get there and im sure you'll agree that i won't be complaining if this rebel tour does get scratched...?? the WCT is exciting and innovative..id love to be right there with em
Whatever your views on the worth of consumerism (best debated elsewhere), that's an indisputable fact of Economics 101.
Also important to remember that ESPN are not some benevolent entity out to improve the lot of pro surfers worldwide. They're just a small part of a much bigger and more powerful corporate (the Walt Disney Company) than any of the surf majors and will not hesitate to throw that weight around if their shareholders cash is on the line. And if they do, they will make BB/RC/Quik look like the relative minnows they are.
If this is a call to shape the future of the sport at the elite level, let's choose our partner wisely.
I don't care whether the system stays the same or drastically changes but there are some inherent problems with the current system.
Firstly, the current competition format does not encourage or reward progressive surfing, it just simply rewards the surfer who is in front when the hooter sounds.
Secondly, as per cricket in the 70's, even though the surfers are seemingly well paid, they earn virtually nothing compared to the executives of the surfing companies who run the tour and rightly argue that as the main product they should be remunerated more appropriately.
Until these two things are addressed the ASP and the main tour as we know it are always going to be threatened
So ASL, your fuckin' rumours and anonymous sources have persuaded you to publish garbage one again which is ludicrous.
So NO Taj, NO Parko, NO Dane, NO Andy, NO Clay, NO Fanning, NO Dusty, NO Jordy, and on and on.
The only person on the Kelly Tour is Kelly playing with himself.
Also, that kid's list (@Beren) below of the kids who have qualified for next year's tour, looks pretty legit. The Kelly tour is more a circus than a tour. There's no proper feeder system and there's no valid world champ.
The ASP isn't perfect, but it's pretty fuckin' good and that's a helluva lot better than Kelly's cell phone tour.
Where's the structure to nurture groms and give a true path to follow were results not a marketing model determines your place. The ASP is legit with structure from grass roots to world champ. The surfers supporting the new tour are guys that can't cut the WQS or have faded on the WCT. The new tour will be made up of has been’s or pretty boys?
Dane this??? Dane rips BUT Surfing and who is best is dynamic and objective. Any of the top guys on their day at a given time are best in world. There have been times this year where I'm sure Owen was best surfer in world. Often it's one session one wave. The ASP rewards consistent results over year. Surfers want legit so bad but then turn and discredit guys who have achieved in a legit format??? The ASP title is the best all round surfer. Does golf have a tour for the guys that do longest drive but can't putt? Does tennis have a tour for biggest serve but can't volley? Why do we need a tour that rewards guys who are limited with where and type of results they are capable of achieving.
The new tour is about a non surf corporation wanting to make money. The ASP does as well but surf companys still want what's best for surfing. They understand surfers and respect where we have come from. If the new tour fails ESPN will drop us quick as blink. Where will that leave surfing then. Slater richer.....
ASP or Rebel Tour, its all about one thing.... Fucken Money! Fuck em, I dont wanna see some already overpaid little shit get paid more for doing less. How about instead of a new better paid tour, they put on a couple of events where all the proceeds go to worthy charities? Not a new idea I know but certainly better for the image of surfing (that everyone seems so worried about).
If either of them are really interested in the future of surfing why dont they pump more money into better grom events or into better comps in better waves for the QS? Cause its not cost effective. Why dont they put more money into charities like Surf Aid? Cause its not cost effective. In the end the only people who benefit from Rebel Tour or a more improved ASP will be the companies that sponsor them and the top tier of surfers, and god knows they both really need it!
We the punters, are just being played like teenage dicks after a high school disco.
go mick!!!!!
Can't understand why the ASP wouldn't respond enthusiastically to an unsolicited email spewing crackpot ideas about how they should be doing their jobs.
Round robin format? Pretty silly to think that 4 foot waves from early in a contest should be scored and compared with 8ft waves from the next day. Heat by heat is the only way to go if you want to actually be able to critically judge surfers against each other. At least in the space of a 30 minute (or however long) heat the waves that come through are going to be comparable, conditions and size wise. If you go with a round robin format, no scale of contrast can be achieved if you are looking at scores from a number of hours (or days) apart.
I will say that if there was a contest at a wavepool, where conditions can be controlled to be as homogenous as possible, round robin would be the best way to judge the best surfer. Until then, probably not the best contest format.
You're living in cloud cuckoo land if you think anything like this happens without someone seeing a profit.
Dead set, if you were to look up a heat draw on the internet to see which best surfers are in which heat, so you can stay up and watch them on the webcast, you cannot say that you wouldn't look for slater!
And how is it possible that his time could be over if others will remain in his shadow on the new tour.
Your a dead set kook, kelly doesn't need the money...he's made more of it then any other surfer. He's looking to help the new crop of Pro's because they are better then the ASP and they deserve to shown.
Kelly is still the best surfer hands down.
a pretty good deal is not being nearly as talented as these guys and getting paid more to jet-set and party it up. the surf industry makes billions and these guys make heaps less than poker players. the brands aren't evil i don't think... but they're looking out for themselves, and the direction their interests go holds everything back. their #1 priority is to sell merchandise and maximize their marketing dollars, not maximize dollars for the tour or the quality of the tour. it shows... it's inherent... it can't change. not as long as these guys are in charge. the posturing is the thing that really bugs me. don't threaten people and say you're looking out for them at the same time.
If one tour rewards more free-surfing like style, I don't see anything wrong w/ that. Have a conservative champ and fun champ.
Fuel doesn't compare to ESPN. Doesn't broaden the audience at all. Doesn't demand better production etc.
The ASP is dead in the water if it continues to have 40+ man on man heats spread out over two weeks which are difficult to plan internet and TV braodcasts around, and even when it does shows boring tactical battles and not high action surfing.
If the CST can address these problems the ASP continues to show a resistance to progression then the CST will triumph and the ASP will perish very quickly
Just exactly how retarded are you? That's capitalism.
If I pay Taj $100,000US a year to wear my clothes and suits he is my employee. In exactly the same way Tiger is employed by Nike.
The top guys get paid heaps. Even back end 45 guys are getting 6 figures. Now I dont know about you but getting paid $100,000+ a year to swan around the world surfing is a pretty good deal. In a normal career they can pay off a house and set themselves up for life.
If you guys really want to bitch about something why not ask Red Bull to sponsor the tour? They can afford it.
The ASP and the brands are not evil. They are doing their best to bring you an awesome tour. The new tour just wants to profit from all the ASPs hard work.
I just hope this new tour doesn't sour the credentials of being crowned world champion. Please don't go down the same path as boxing where their are multiple champion belts. Lets hope short term thinking influenced by creed doesn't discredit the long term image of a champion tour.
CST are coming in waiving $$$ to skim the cream off the hard work everyone has done with the sport - greed driven. The issues - prize money; they just dropped it a bunch and it's purely a bribe to pay off those who will join; TV - well TV is broken model for niche sports like surfing. Cost of Time buys is not realistic for ASP and they should work on modern content distribution programs that connect surfers...not bowlers who are channel surfing. Tinley's ESPN deal is not about helping the sport but to to help sell sticky sugar somethings or electronic gadgets to middle america. ESPN has no effect on the real world of surfing. YES ASP needs to fix a lot things like consistent broadcast production, Webcast/VOD formats, HD content. Network TV is not the holly grail. ..they can play with FUEL and put content it where it works in valid distribution channels that are affordable.
Take the money and energy of the CST and combine efforts with ASP and the sport would take that next step we all need without dissecting a sport at it's highest level. Pay Tinely big commissions and before he rips a big new ass in the world of pro surfing, offer him an option (again if done already). Bigger is not better, non-endemic money should support and not control.
Peace, love and unity! Drop the gloves - time for the unity tour!
Taj on Twitter. Jumping the gun ASL??
The new gen wanna see guys like Dane, Bruce , Julian etc competing in a way they free surf.
I can only imagine what Kelly and these other 15 surfers will put on offer when this tours arrives!
Im all for it!!
Mick and Joel get with it, oh and i hope owen and jordy come to life to and realise they better get on it!
This rebel tour must have turned into a nightmare for Tinley, he's been backed into a corner to part finance it himself.. Is Slater putting any money into it himself? This thing will turn into the most expensive 1 hour niche tv specials on ESPN.
I have a feeling it's all a bluff anyways. Take Taj. Billabong is going to drop Taj for doing something he'd like to do, surf competitively? Then the asp is going to refuse to take him back? Heh. Don't think so.
don't forget these guys are among the best in the world at the thing they do. if they were lawyers, doctors, businessmen, basketball players, poker players, they'd be getting a lot more. these goonish tactics have been preventing it.
They are quite welcome to be sponsorless and surf any tour they like.
Recently I sent them a suggestion for a new competition format which incorporated all the key issues that I have heard surfers involved in the CST mention as needing improvement in the current state of surfing, namely encouraging high performance surfing, increasing the entertainment factor for spectators, decreasing the total time for completion of the event and with a points system transferrable to the WQS. It is a round robin type of system that gives each surfer a definitive finishing place in the event (not clumps of 33,17,9 etc) and can be completed in about 30 heats.
This suggestion went unanswered for a couple of weeks and I only received a response when I pursued it.
They gave me a very short reply simply saying they can not and will not ever implement a round robin system and left it at that.
Good luck to the CST, I am sick of watching heats where a surfer gets his nose in front, gets priority and then shadows his opponent for the last 10 minutes making sure both of them don't get a wave
Once we got a leak on this Return of the Champions Tour extraordinariness and started calling people about it, it was AMAZING how many of 'em knew what was going on ... yet were behaving busily as if it weren't.
This is partly because one of the CST tactics in all of this is getting anyone and everyone they talk to to sign "non-disclosure agreements". NDAs are of dubious legal value but they sure work well when you don't want any of your targets talking to each other, or to anyone else for that matter.
I mean, it's a hell of a lot easier to get into a manager's ear and tell him "Yeah! I have Superstar X, Y and Z signed up! Don't miss this boat!" when you know he can't easily confirm it independently.
Surfing used to be the kind of sport where most things happened out in the open and people put their cards on the table. Not any more.
I like the tour, I like the events and I think the surfing is amazing.
Different judging criteria, different waves, different format, there's room for both. Pro surfing has a ton of possible variables other sports don't... the Rebel Tour can be an x, the asp can be a y.
He may be the top name in the CST endorsement, however this is not his baby. His attachment to this alone has already gotten the ASP to make unprecedented changes in prizemoney and other incentives to upgrade the tour. Aside from that, I'll be willing to bet in the next few years, the ASP will become more of a blanket corporation, just like other sporting governing bodies, where the webcasting and other coeverage is contrlled and provded by them, not individually like the sponsors. The changes were absolutely necessary, however they weren't going to come about anytime soon withough competitive pressure. This, my friends, is the beauty of the self regulation nature of the free market economy. In short, competition is not only healthy, but it is a requirement for any growth to take place, otherwise, the ASP can stagnate as long as they want. Now we have the greatest leap in change in the history of the ASP since they started the dream tour. My bet is that the Champion Surfers Tour never even get's off the ground, however will be heralded as the driving force behind forcing the ASP to grow in the direction needed or face extinction.
His time is well over.
Let's just get on with it.
CST = barrel, rodeo flip, hack, switch barrel, frontside air , barrel, critical surfing, quality waves and exciting surfers
easy choice!
Ill be watching the CST and so will everyone else!
Kelly will now be challenged and lift even more!
Parko and Fanning need to jump ship or sink!
44 per event is a joke.
i would say 24 max in an ideal number per event.
Some of the judges on ASP have been there forever and are still very ordinary including head judge, woeful Hatchett.
The CST is at least an exciting change with 4 of the best surfers Kelly, Andy, Bruce and Taj.
And as far as this report goes, sounds like a bunch of hearsay that ASL is passing on as gospel. You haven't confirmed that anyone has signed with cst, yet you imply that they have...wankers.
As if Taj is going to quit trying for a deserved world title and throw his lot in with kelly's exhibition show. You bitches should do some better reporting.
you both are as clueless as they come. slater has single handedly brought more viewers to surfing than every surfer you can think of combined. he has devoted his life to the "sport" and still is on a level above everyone else(last year he dominated the tour more than anyone else in history). the cst was NOT created by slater, but was brought to him with the hopes of creating something new and better. maybe you blame slater for stopping your favorite surfers form getting a title, who knows. but to blame slater for ruining the sport of surfing is hilarious considering he is largely responsible for much of what it is today
its about time we get to see more innovative surfers going at it. slater,ai,bruce,dane,taj,julian,clay.. kind of a no brainer which one will be better to watch. neil, go ahead and keep jihad,dunn,and tiago. and have a great time watching your viewer ratings slide right on down
Never.
It's disgusting that he keeps flogging this dead horse right before the Mick/Parko showdown, and ASL (mostly Tim Baker) is sitting with his head buried in Kelly's cock.
Poor form all around.
To have any credibility, the CST would need more than just a smattering of the top pros. I think it's great to have some of the most progressive surfers involved, but without more 'names' it will be a hollow championship.
Additionally, the ASP, currently enjoys hundreds of thousands of web veiwers from around the world (including myself!). IF ESPN is hoping for a Pay-per-view program, they've picked the wrong sport.
@ No thanks, you're just too busy for this? rather be on facebook? um...
World tour will be still world tour .............and the crazy stuff can be showcased by the rebels .
So I think it'll be good to have a tour w/ a different criteria, that is more inclined to some things other guys are better at... ability they aren't getting enough credit for. Reward the Fannings and the Reynoldses.
It's unlikely to ever know for sure, but it makes sense for the judges to punish Kelly. The worse he does, the more likely they keep their jobs in the same capacity. I think he's been underscored this year. So...
When will the time come when surf journalists stop bowing down to Kelly Slater and call him out for his questionable behavior?
Whereas a Michael Jordan has done everything in his power to give back to the NBA, Slater has mounted a crusade to keep his name in lights whilst jeopardizing the entire sport with blatant disregard for the tens of thousands of upcoming surfers looking to achieve their own dreams of becoming World Champion.
Never before has such an act of selfishness gone unchecked for so long by the media, ASL amongst them.
Grow a pair you soft, fuckin' journos.
- Andy Irons
- Mick Fanning
- Dane Reynolds
- Joel Parkinson
- Bede Durbidge
- Taj Burrow
- Jordy Smith
- Owen Wright
- Matt Wilkinson
- Patrick Gudauskas
- Tanner Gudauskas
- Michel Bourez
- Dusty Payne
That sounds like a sick fuckin' tour to me, and the best part is that all these guys qualified justly. It's not some cell phone tour where guys who can't hack it get together to blow one another.
If Kelly doesn't want to compete anymore, that's fine. He's done a lot. But he shouldn't be trying to tear the house down on his way out - that's just bad form all around.
Did these journalists of such high-esteem ever bother to check up on any of the surfers who have been "locked in" by the rebel tour? No. They're using "rumours" and "anonymous sources" to verify this information.
And if anyone has been paying attention to the webcasts in Hawaii, Andy Irons has stated time and again that he's fully committed to a full year on the 2010 ASP World Tour. The public who watch the events know this, but ASL's big scoop doesn't. Do us a favor and stop reporting bullshit.
So, the only way for surfers to get improvement from these guys is from competition from another tour. If asp and the brands keep underpaying their top guys, there's an option out there for them, and the rip curls and billabongs will be forced to respect it. That's a very good thing... in light of all these miniscule Mundaka, it's something, and it never woulda happened without competition, some reason to make things better. Its hard to believe things will get better without competition. It'd be awesome to have everything be perfect now. But it's not... and the core structural problem of the asp, conflicts of interest and corruption- that has rip curl speaking on behalf of them, trying to scare the surfers for them, having an in to keep their costs and surfers pay down- remains, and it's been show they don't help anyone except their brand unless they have to.
The logic of, "there can't be more because imagine what it'll be like if there's 100" really isn't very good. Sorry.
The Rebels are just following the (hypothetical) money. Take the cash out of the equation and they won't show up.
Demon,
Not arguing that the "sport" of surfing would be better off if it were only controlled by creative and financial geniuses non-aligned to any of the major brands. However, surfing isn't a traditional "sport", and I don't care how good a promoter Mat Tinley is or what a great network ESPN is, neither will ever turn surfing into golf, tennis, basketball, baseball, soccer or football. So, when the massive sponsorships don't come in to keep the whole CST idea afloat after the first few seasons, remember, you heard it here first. If Tinley and Co. prove me wrong, then more power to them, and I'll be the first one to eat my ASP ball cap!
Just a few lines from this article in the Las Vegas Review: http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2002/Mar-19-Tue-2002/sports/18336344.html
Does pro surfing need more changes than those that were offered up after the Mundaka Meeting? Yes.
Is Mat Tinley really the messiah who will bring those changes to the sport? I don't think so.
BM: America Presents advertises itself as "a boxing promotional company designed for the 21st century". What does that mean?
MT: Here's what America Presents is about: Ninety-five percent of the public is turned off on boxing because of some of the shenanigans a couple of people have pulled. America Presents is not about that. We make sure the fighters are treated with respect, that they get paid what they're supposed to be paid. We run the company as a proper business. There's still a rogue element in boxing, and that's kept sponsors away. It's not the [television] ratings. Sponsors don't want to associate themselves with something that's not right.
BM: I might argue that the rogue element is part of boxing's appeal, part of what makes it different from other professional sports.
MT: No, I don't think that's applicable at all. I'm not talking about boxers, I'm talking about bad judging, ratings, one promoter having all the fighters. Look at Mike Tyson. It can happen to the biggest act in show business. That's gotta stop. One hundred different organisations, each with a title- it's not good. You don't have six Super Bowl champs.
The surf industry needs to be saved now!! This isn't an acceptable norm, I don't care how normal it's become!! Their talent deserves more of a reward than some marketing department stooge.
plus, because enough of them have sponsorship contracts w/ the surfers, they are more powerful than their number of votes suggest, because it gives them room (they believe) to make threats like ridgway is here. you see, they aren't only 'events.' it's just a moniker. they control the money and they get to control who gets to control the money. the same ones. forever. so there's no incentive for sponsor $$ to get maximized. they like the current model because they get to close the sponsorship market and so limit the amount of money they'll have to spend to sponsor- in turn, limiting the amount of $$ surfers can make. they get to set their own prices for the surfers, and their own quality standards for fans. like they have. um yeah i can see that they may not like it, but it still is sinister... especially if threats like these are being made.
the brands fund the ASP world tour events & surfers...
this is not about an industry exec speaking about the sport, its about a sport of 30yrs building on what has been built to date.. all sports need a governing body to run effectively, it just so happens surfing's G body has been build from the industry and saved by the industry many times in the past and will be many times in the future..
peace
Rip Curl should not be the ASP! They should not be making threats on behalf of the ASP! They should not be the same thing! I understand why the want to resist this, it'll make it harder for them to sell t-shirts, maybe, maybe not, but don't give us this bs about the betterment of surfing, especially if you're going to try to intimidate the surfers. People should just be aware.
They're using scare tactics. I mean, do the powers that be (a corporate brand man as a spokesman) realize the guys they're trying to muscle up are the guys responsible for their paychecks? Be a little nicer.
ridgway is issuing an open threat to asp surfers here. they are trying to bully the talent.
tough not to be cynical.
I get to watch more surfing, awesome. How I look at it.
This is a huge conflict of interest. Less sponsorship dollars equal less money for surfers, and less money that can be put into the organization itself for things like better production for fans.
Yeah I kind of agree with BD - Mick Fanning is a legend but an Executive at Rip Curl's comments doesn't carry that much weight.
aka rip curl (and the other asp owner not names quiksilver i'm sure) is trying to muscle these guys up, threatening to revoke their sponsorships if they don't keep playing into this brand-controlled system. threats. threats. threats. threats. not cool.
a-hole corporate bullies.