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.

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

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…..

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.

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?