Mid-Season Cut Gets The Chop

Words: Sean Radich

We wouldn't have seen Gabriel Medina atop to the Quiksilver Pro France podium without the mid-season rotation (but he might have won as a Rip Curl wildcard in San Francisco). Do you think Gabs deserved to contest the last five WT events of 2011? Photo: ASP/Cestari.

One step forward, two steps back? That is the question ASL asks about surfing’s premiere governing body’s decision to dispense with the controversial, and we would say, successful mid-season top 34 rotation. There have been grumblings from surfers (and not just loud ones like Bobby Martinez), and since November there have rumours about the demise of the mid-season cut. And in a sport so dominated by vested parties - that is, the surfers and major surf companies - the ASP was forced to turn around with its tail between its legs before the start of 2012.

“This has been an extremely challenging decision for us to make,” Dave Prodan, ASP International Media Director, said. “We believe that the 2011 rotation brought in some incredible talent that proved they deserved to be amongst the world’s best with their performances throughout the back half of the year.”

ASL agrees with you, Dave. After New York Gabriel Medina, Miguel Pupo and John John Florence subb’ing in for an injured Yadon Nicol all brought a late season spark to an already intriguing 2011 surf year. The only newcomer to not make much of an impact was 33rd man, tour-wildcard Travis Logie, but he had earlier surfed his way to the semis at Teahupoo as an event wildcard.

John John Florence more than proved himself in the big league in the second half of 2011 and he'll be one to watch in 2012. Photo: ASP/Cestari.

The surfers and the sponsors agree with the ASP in wanting the World Tour to have the "world's best surfers, world's best waves..." and the 2011 mid-season cut did a great job of sorting the wheat from the chaff.

Yes, the mid-season chop forced Bobby, CJ Hobgood, Cory Lopez and Gabe Kling out of the top 34, but Bobby had no interest in continuing to compete on the World Tour, Lopez and Kling were not posting significant results, and CJ made it back to the major league for 2012 with strong results at the end of 2011.

CJ’s re-entry onto the tour shows that the basics of the 2011 system worked: points were tabled from a surfer’s top eight results over 12 months in all levels of ASP contests, and the top 32 ranked surfers, plus two wildcards, were selected twice a year. CJ dipped outside the top 34 in September, but with good results he made it back onto the elite line-up after contesting just three events: a win at the Billabong Azores Pro prime, and equal-ninths at the Vans World Cup prime and Billabong Pipe Masters WT event.

Of course, not everything was perfect with the 2011 World Tour system, as Nick Carroll opined. But the ASP has been trying to progress and change, albeit in a complicated and confusing fashion, over the last couple of years. With many arguing that ASP’s lack of drug-testing regime is a major reason that surfing is being held back from being taken seriously by the sporting world, 2012 will see the introduction of a WADA-frameworked program (ASL will be reporting more on the latest in ASP drug testing in coming days). And with the addition of Fiji and Santa Cruz to the 2012 World Tour calendar, and New York being dropped, once again there is an increased focus on waves of consequence, and not big-city beach breaks.

The end-of-season trophy that every competitive surfer wants to have a fair crack at. Photo: ASP/Cestari.

The ASP is using the excuse of “scheduling difficulties” as the primary reason for the return to the old system, but from Kieren Perrow’s comments, it sounds like pressure exerted by the surfers brought the chop to the mid-season rotation.

“The midyear rotation worked out better than we could have imagined this season, but looking ahead, the surfers feel that it will not have the long-term effects desired for the sport,” Perrow said. “This is felt by the majority of the surfers from the very top of the Top 34 to the qualifiers in the Prime and Star events. What we have created is a system in which the very best surfers in the world are currently within the ASP Top 34, but the process of getting there is becoming disorganised. We don’t want that and the decision to not have the midyear rotation in 2012 is the best thing for the sport.”

But sometimes governing bodies have to make decisions for the greater good of the sport and that on the face of it are not popular with the protagonists. It is a shame that after being given only one chance to operate successfully the mid-season cut has been dispensed with. But Prodan was putting a positive spin on ASP’s most recent decision.

“The instability of the ASP schedule (especially in 2012) makes the concept very difficult to manage. Where would we schedule the rotation? How do we ensure there are fair and balanced opportunities in every rotation for surfers to qualify? As we have been since our inception, we are a sport governed by the surfers for the surfers and it is in this spirit that we have voted to deactivate the midyear rotation in 2012.”

However, as Prodan summed up, perhaps it is not the last we have seen of in-season surfer rotations: “We believe this decision (to dispense with one mid-season cut) is best for the upcoming season and we will continue to discuss the future of the rotations within the sport.”

One thing is clear: the incoming ASP CEO, whoever he or she may be, will have lots of contentious issues deal with and vocal interest groups to appease. Surfing is a sport built on passion, after all.

To see the top 34 surfers who will begin the 2012 ASP World Tour at the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast from 25 February click here.

Did Bert Martinez make some valid points back in September?