The Assessment In Full: A Look at the ASP World Tour’s Transition
At the end of the day, it's about putting the best surfing on LIVE for the fans - Kelly Slater accomplishing just that at the Quiksilver Pro New York this season.
COOLANGATTA, Queensland/Australia (Monday, October 24, 2011) – The past 24 months have bore witness to a radical transition within the ASP. Spawned in the ASP Board Meetings of October 2009, these transitions dealt specifically with the system for determining the world’s best surfers who would ultimately decide the undisputed ASP World Champion. In August of 2010, we reduced the number of elite-level surfers from 45 down to 34 and introduced the current 36-man event format. In December of 2010, we used a bridge qualifying criteria which took a select number of surfers directly off the ASP World Title rankings and another select number of surfers directly off the ASP World Rankings.
Commencing in 2011, this transition took full flight with the launching of the ASP World Rankings and the rolling 52-week determination of an individual surfer’s ranking. In August of this year, the ASP completed its first official rotation of the ASP Top 34 with newcomers Gabriel Medina (BRA), 17, Miguel Pupo (BRA), 19, John John Florence (HAW), 19, and Travis Logie (ZAF), 32, becoming full-fledged members of the ASP Top 34 beginning with the Hurley Pro at Trestles. The ASP Technical Committee, comprised of surfers, events and ASP administrators, has been monitoring the situation closely and will continue to do so. Renato Hickel, ASP World Tour Manager and multi-decade veteran of the ASP, was kind enough to offer his perspective on a number of questions that have been debated by surfers around the world. This…is his story…
Conditions for the newcomers to break into the Elite Top 34:
It was never easy before and it certainly isn’t now – the system has never been designed for “easy access” to the elite level of competition. After all, we all want to have the best Top 34 surfers in the world at every Rotation competing at the elite level of competition.
For those who doubted the system, we have had an answer in the campaign of Gabriel Medina, a competitor that qualified into the Top 34 as seed #16. Medina beat (utilizing only opportunities in Prime and Star events) 17 of the Top 34 surfers – his best results: a First and Second-place in ASP Prime events and two ASP 6-Star wins. If Gabriel Medina did it, it is because it is attainable. Medina would subsequently prove the validity of his spot on tour by tearing through the field in only his second event as an elite ASP Top 34 member to claim the Quiksilver Pro France…but more on that later.
With less brilliant but nonetheless effective campaigns, we had Pupo and Nicol as well as Logie making their entrance into the Top 34 as well. The other side of this equation – to prove the system is working, is the case of Cory Lopez. Cory not only competed in all major Primes, but also had a start in all six ASP World Title events prior to the midyear Rotation. Unfortunately for Cory, he didn’t have a good first half of the season, placing 25ths and 13ths in all six WT events. He didn’t qualify within the Top 32, exactly the way we expected the point structure to work: If a Top 34 surfer is only having 25th and 13th results, he shouldn’t cut it come the next Rotation.
There has been criticism of adding surfers on tour midyear who cannot win the ASP World Title. This is not the point. The surfers the newcomers are replacing were not contesting for an ASP World Title either (hence they unable to remain on tour). The idea behind the midyear rotation is to have the best surfers in the world updated faster than in previous years – every six months now instead of annually.
A lot was prophesized during the course of the transition year last season and during the start of the 2011 season by the “Critics at Hand”, saying that most likely all eventual newcomers would drop-off the Elite at the very first rotation. The result of this mid-year Rotation showed us exactly the opposite. Out of the five new guys that qualified via the ASP World Rankings last December, not one was expelled from the Top 34. ALL five made this first Rotation and will continue on the Elite for the second half of the year.
Attendance and Results of Established Top 34 at Prime and Star Events
Another important aspect of the “conditions to qualify” and “number of new surfers” with this first Rotation is the much greater attendance of the established Top 34 into the Prime and even Star events in this first half of the year. Such a high number has never been experienced since the inception of the two-tier system back in 1992!
Not only that, but the Top 34 dominated the Prime events results, collecting important points with wins in six out of eight events (Muniz, Hobgood, Otton, Wilson, Gudauskas and Slater – 75%!) and a number of Semifinal and Quarterfinal berths. This all made it difficult for newcomers to break into the elite level of competition, but this is what we want – THE VERY BEST SURFERS ON TOUR. If the surfers aspiring to be part of the Top 34 cannot beat the established Top 34 in Prime and Star events, they will not collect the necessary points to make it into the Top 34 come the next Rotation, and it is indicative that they are not ready yet to be part of such an Elite group of surfers.
Number of Newcomers Per Rotation:
We have four new surfers integrated the elite ASP Top 34 from this recent midyear Rotation. Taking into consideration that with the previous system (CT/QS), we averaged an exchange of 10 new surfers out of 45 per year (22% annually) –> to exchange four out of 34 in a six-month period (11% semi-annually which is on par for 22% annually) is exactly the same as the previous system.
Here, I would like to bring to your attention that the quantity is not really the main objective behind any designed system, rather the quality of the eventual new surfers on the Elite. We will likely have Rotations with more than four surfers and others with less, all pending on the success of established ASP Top 34 and the newcomers able to obtain the necessary points on offer. As examples, John John Florence, Willian Cardoso and Granger Larsen could easily have made into this Rotation with QF births in Star events throughout the European leg. John John didn’t even enter the European events (basically did half year of results) but had still enough points to be the first surfer in with the relinquished position of Yadin Nicol. William Cardoso and Granger Larsen simply didn’t perform in Europe.
The opportunities are absolutely there for those who wish to pursue them.
Overall ASP World Tour Appeal – Webcasting Audience/Numbers – Prime & Star:
It is undeniable. We now have a much more appealing overall package for the ASP World Tour. Webcasting numbers, worldwide, have increased dramatically in the past 18 months. This is due, in large part, to the changes made to the system – changes that not only created a more dynamic product but have also encouraged the level of surfing to reach unprecedented heights.
The hype is no longer for and around ASP World Title events, but also the revamped Prime and Star series. Never before has ASP experienced such big audiences at web level at Prime events – due to bigger attendance of Elite Top 34 surfers, better locations, infrastructure, prize purses, and, most importantly, the weight that Prime and 6-Star events have in determining those who make the Rotations. The fact that we are exchanging surfers mid-season brings excitement and expectations for the ASP World Tour as a whole, something which was very evident after the New York event going into Trestles.
Sure we can improve and the Technical Committee is keeping a close eye in all aspects of this new System and Format. If necessary, points and system structure can be adjust in the future, but for now we are pretty confident that the system is working and the best surfers comprise the Elite to deliver the best competition surf to the World.
For a look at who’s sitting where, check out the ASP WORLD RANKINGS
Category: All ASP News, ASP Editorial News, ASP World Tour News
Drug screen? It’s surfing, noone cares if a doob gets sparke now and then and roids are’nt gonna help a surfer. Please…
The fact that you guys have to continually justify this move should be enough indication that you pulled a boner. And harping on the Medina win as “proof” of anything is proof of nothing. The ASP has seen plenty of rookies and youngsters blow everyone away regardless of format. Medina obviously has the talent to win and the new “rotation” only made that happen sooner as opposed to later. Plus, had the conditions been firing barrels instead of crap that clearly favored his background I doubt he would have gotten past Slater. He sure didn’t impress in kegging Supertubos.
I guess it is published somewhere, but I wonder what the goal of the ASP is – the five year plan. I don’t expect that anyone other than the surfers and sponsors should be made aware of this. But that vision and plan does shape how surfing is going to develop.
Much though it might be hard for the purists to accept, but prize money can only come from sponsors and advertising revenue – that includes some venues seeing the arrival of an ASP event being good for tourism etc. If the sport wants money money to fund more prizes across more competitions, it has to be commercial at some level and listen to those pipers.
As I said before, there is nothing wrong with promotion and relegation from different divisions. Everyone tuning in to see a World event, expects and wants to see the best. The better the ‘second division’ gets, more viewers on the web will tune in. And so the money grows.
One of the aspects of the changes to be taken note of for all is that events now are not straight knock-out as they tended to be before. So, as a rookie, you don’t have just the one heat and if you don’t win you don’t go home. You can also go to the break a week or more before, and have probably been before over the years.
To answer the point from Redsman, that’s my choice whether to watch or not. Every year for the past eight years I have flown to Oahu to see the Pipe Masters, have bought the gear, brought revenue to the area etc. Yes, I’m in my 50s, but that’s not the point. Ever sport needs its stars, and that’s down to marketing, PR and promotion.
Kelly’s 10 titles last year hardly got a mention in the UK mainstream media. If Kelly can’t pull the media exposure for surfing, then who can.
Surfing has a huge story with KS. It has a great ‘best of format’ for events, some incredible locations. Yes, it is on the way up, but is still a long way off being mainstream. The death of Andy scored quite well in the UK media, but it’s not the story that surfing needs.
I guess most replying to this – and other stories – are rightly surfing purists. I was first on boards 50 years ago and still surf. The purists may look at things differently to me. Rights. Lefts. Beach. Reef. To me, if you are the best you will break through. The best are the best because they can do it all.
My point – perhaps partly attached to the wrong story – is that the rotation is positive, it creates more competition, and the event formats focus on seeing the best more often.
So, well done.
But the ASP needs to look at more innovations by way of competitions. Obvious ones include a ‘made for TV’ series with the top 10 surfers, and within the World Tour having the surfers representing the USA, South America, Australia and Rest of the World in a ‘World Series’ cup?
David
Despite all the changes which were made to the ASP world tour basically all the benefits which are mentioned in the article can be attributed to one of the changes-cutting the tour down to 34 members. In the old system the disparity between the top 10 surfers and the bottom 10 was huge and this has certainly rectified this… but the benefits of the new system for me ends right there.
The mid year cut-off/one world ranking doesn’t make sense for a stack of reasons. Firstly there is no doubt that the world tour or the old CT is a completely different level of competition, a level of competition which takes just about every surfer time to adjust to regardless of their abilities on a wave. Despite this well known fact the asp are kicking surfers off tour after only 5 events before many of the surfers have found their feet competing on the dream tour. Furthermore the world tour is not a homogeneous series of waves and competitions-and neither are the surfers on tour all the same; out of the first 5 events 3 are right hand point breaks. If these waves aren’t your favoured waves on tour you could be off before you even get to prove yourself at the other tour stops.
The Asps answer to this… they can always go surf primes. How are people meant to concentrate on their often rookie year on tour if they are flying off to brazil or some other corner of the world every other week to surf slop trying to get points just to stay on tour. Sure Gabriel Medina adjusted fine in the first 6 months.. but lets look at other names who didn’t Andy Irons, Dane Reynolds, Jordy Smith- and there are a heap of other surfers clearly worthy of a spot on tour who would have been knocked off after 6 months, besides the surfers who make it on at the halfway point would most likely have qualified anyway at the end of the year and should remain part of the ongoing competition on the QS until the end of the year.
The ‘better locations’ quote… maybe better in terms of endorsements but wave quality- so we traded Fiji for new york and we traded ulus/padang padang, mexico, el gringo or reunion island (take your pick) for san francisco and this is better-let alone the disparity in geographic locations of the competitions?
If the asp wants to hype surfing then it shouldn’t be to sell out the ‘worlds best surfers worlds best waves concept’ just put the prime events (which are in rubbish surf anyway generally) in new york and san fran and put your endorsement money into the prize pool-that will be enough to attract the big names anyway-besides lets face it KS, mick taj owen etc aren’t turning up to primes for the points anyway.
Totally on the money with this.
The ASP was on the mark trending towards simplifying the format by reducing the field but the mid-year cut is totally contrary to this: it is an unnecessary complication that can work against the intention of keeping the best guys on tour. AJ’s examples of some of the best surfers who would not have re-qualified under this new format is spot-on.
SIMPLIFY, SIMPLIFY, SIMPLIFY.
The ASP is creating unnecessary static in this regard. It’s like you just made a Porsche and decided to dress it with mud bogger tires. You should just avoid the mud altogether.
Why?
Kellys a great athlete and I think will prbly continue to be involved in professional surfing for long time to come – whether as surfer or administrator.
But to say you dont watch cause he’s not surfing shows you may not fit into the target market for these company(s) in any case…
KS is awesome three generations of surfers he has outsurfed and continues to – but I’m sure the sport will continue to thrive even without him competing – imagine a young kid having him as a coach or ‘mentor’ – like Parko has with Luke Egan – except the guys has WON 10+ CTs and knows every break inside and out and knows equipment better than most…
Wouldnt be surprised to see Kelly go down this path IF he ever retires from CT…..
As much as I admire Kelly, the WTC is still going to be rad w/o him. Someone will step up. He wont have the same run. but it will be exciting every time, as long as the waves are compelling. No one is irreplaceable. Before him it was Tom Curren, and he may still be an icon, but he is not even thought of much because surfing has taken his best, and moved upwards. As for the rotation, I don’t like it. In fact I think it is counter-productive, because it usually takes a new-comer to the top 34 a year or two to figure it out. So the new standard is actually fairly insular to the top 16. Those guys are very consistent and they will stay up there unless e newcomers are groomed for at least a year. It takes so much effort to get there, it is unfair to not even get a chance to acclimate. So I’m with Bobby Martinez on this one. Not down with how he expressed his opinion, but definitely down with the opinion itself. And I am also down with surfing isolated places where the waves are world class: Lances Right, Cloudbreak, Uluwatu, Nias, Honolua Bay, Jeffries Bay. Maybe not Bells. That wave’s too flat… (got it, MR?).
ASP: Goofy vs. Regular
Favoritism, injustice, lack of vision, commercialism or a regular foot conspiracy?
Being a goofy footer, I question the world tour schedule/rotation a lot, and after the Bobby Martinez incident, I feel compelled to write about it.
First let’s analyze this new midyear rotation or ‘cut off’.
During the first half of the 2011 ASP year, before the rotation, surfers have to surf 3 right points(high perfomance), 2 beach breaks and 1 left.
Even a blind person can see that this scenario favors regular foots.
If that wasn’t bad enough, for the second half of the year, the tour has 3 beach breaks and 2 reef breaks. And although one of these reef breaks (Pipeline) is lefts-only when it’s big, more often than not it’s mostly rights – tricky, down-the-line hard-to-surf-backside Backdoor waves that greatly favor high regular foot scores.
Pipe and Chops as the lefts, cause the type of wave is even better tosurf them backside….
So the question is whether the current rankings and even the record of past World Men Champions (8 goofy footers vs. 25 regular) is skewed by an unfair schedule. Are regular footers better than goofy footers? Or is it just the places/waves where they compete?
It would be interesting to have the statistics on how the ASP administration and the industry sponsoring them stand, regular or goofy. I happen to know the president of the ASP is a regular foot,
and the real question is whether this stance is having a subconscious influence on where the contests should be run.
Surfing needs to be aware that in KS, the sport has a global star. Without him competing, I suspect the ASP has a problem and knows it. With better event and Quiksilver marketing, if you keep him on tour surfing could get a lot more coverage and thus sponsorship. My wife and I watch in the UK on the web, and with KS not in South Africa, we didn’t tune in. I wonder if the audience data showed any dip for that event? I don’t know how big surfing wants to get. What is the five year target for sponsorship revenues and media coverage?
Many sports have promotion and relegation from the divisions. It’s essential, and the twice-yearly rotation is a brilliant concept. It adds excitement and interest, and helps to create a media story. The ‘rookie’ coming in and doing well creates a buzz for everyone.
Sporting stars these days need to do more than just be a star athlete. They need to be star media performers too – which is where Kelly is again so brilliant.
The debate will reach fever pitch again in the next few weeks – should KS retire? As a marketing and PR man with 30 years of experience behind him working for some major global brands, surfing and the ASP needs him more than he needs you. There is far more innovation and creativity that needs to go into the ASP’s planning and the creation of new events in the years ahead. Don’t get complacent.
Bring in the new stars. That’s essential. Bring the ladies into events too – surfing ‘doubles’. 2011 is progress. It’s not the destination. Good luck. Remember one thing. NASCAR, the World Series, NFL etc is televised showbusiness as well as being a sport. For surfing to break through, you’ll need every star, every media story and every gimmick and every trick in the book to get there.
Or perhaps that isn’t the goal?
Drug screening? Whose mum are you? You have large web viewing numbers because of KS. Period. A contest w/o KS would be like a golf tournament w/o Tiger..who cares. Kiss Kelly’s arse and beg him to come back next year.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we eventually have a rotation with no newcomers, or maybe just one.
Will you please implement a mandatory drug screening policy starting next contest season? Thanks, JM.