Mundaka is a great place for lay days as long as you don’t mind a very quiet life. Today’s relaxed, dreamy reverie was interrupted by a fairly huge upheaval in the way the ASP World Tour runs its core business. A press conference was held, somewhat perversely, overlooking the 6-inch ripples at Mundaka…
An informal gathering of ASP heavyweights, event dudes, CT fellas and a smattering of media; hosted by Dave Prodan and featuring Mick Fanning, ASP CEO Brodie Carr and Event Council Chairman Neil Ridgeway (and a cameo roll from Parko as himself).
First up came Brodie Carr (quotes have been edited for length), “In the period leading up to the board of directors meeting in Mundaka our sport has been confronted by some unique challenges... I’m very pleased to announce the surfers and events have unanimously agreed to reconfirm their full support of the ASP.” In other words- the Rebel Tour is toast unless it can survive with the Iron’s, Jamie O and a few others. Whatever it won’t be crowning a world champ. With the events and surfers firmly backing the ASP it punts the rebel tour concept firmly out of the park- ESPN cash or otherwise. Mick Fanning then took the mic in the ‘skip to the end’ version of what he said is, “Great changes and we feel it’s the best decision for the surfers and the sport of surfing.” The surfers are employees of the surf companies so it’s interesting to know who actually got the final say in all this. Neil Ridgeway commented on the depth of the ASP system, something the blinkered Rebel Tour idea seems to have ignored, “there’s a 1000 ranked surfers in any given year out on the tour and 10,000 grommets behind them.”
Then Dave came in with what we wanted to hear, “Three key changes- 1) a transition to a one world rating system, including a reduction in the field of the CT 2) An increase in prize money and 3) Restructuring of the directors.” All good stuff, sure it’s regression not progression as there used to be only one tier but it will keep things peppy. Mick on the one world rating system, “We feel the system we’ve come up with will keep the sport evolving and keep it more interesting. Everything needs to be improved from time to time.” With 36 surfers it also reduces the amount of time needed to do a CT event so one swell event should be enough for a comp. Regarding the prize money Neil had this to say, “It’s not just about increasing prize money levels for the winners, Kieren Perrow articulated it really well, ‘it’s about getting a good spread of prize money for all surfers who are the top athletes in our sport to get around and compete on tour and to do it comfortably and do it well.’ The events have increased the base prize money from $350,000 to $400,000 and upped the women’s to $100,000; there’s also an ASP funded $100,000 bonus for the world title winner in 2010. In 2011 it’s up to $425,000 and $150,000 title bonus, that said there is no cap if licensees want to go higher.” All good news for the surfers and the tour. The ASP director stuff is a bit yawny so I’ll skip it (in essence there’ll be 3 independent members on the board in future plus 2 event and 2 surfer reps, one of which is a lady).
There was then a Q&A. Sean Doherty opened up with one for Brodie, “Has Kelly had any involvement the last couple of days?” Brodie replied with a curt, “No” and delicately slammed the mic on the table. The betrayal of a favourite child is probably the easiest analogy. GT wondered about the details of the new CT and Brodie answered, “The field will be reduced to a 32-man field with 2 event wildcards and 2 ASP wildcards that will come into place midway through next year along with the one ranking system so surfers on the QS if they are competing well will be able to quickly and freely move up to the world tour and if you are not on your game on the world tour you will drop back. We’re working on the finer details but it should be adjusted every quarter as we are conscious that the guys need to organise their travel etc, to do it after every event would be too difficult.” Mick added, “It’s more exciting for the new up and comers they don’t have to wait the whole year, they can get in when they are on fire and start taking people down. That’s what we all want, to see the best guys rise to the top and keep improving. Make it bigger and better for everyone. We’re all on the one track.”
So. There you go. Whoever is working out the maths of the new tour better have one hell of a brain on him because IT IS going to be rocket science working it all out. Aside from the official press conference a quick chat with Dave revealed a dedicated ASP media team in the works as well so there will be consistency through the webcasts and a vetting system for industry mouths whom don’t always make the best commentators.
It would seem the spectre of the Rebel Tour might have been just what the surfers needed to get prize money and conditions moving the right way… Would they have bolted? I guess now we will never know.
Lake Mundaka today...
First up came Brodie Carr (quotes have been edited for length), “In the period leading up to the board of directors meeting in Mundaka our sport has been confronted by some unique challenges... I’m very pleased to announce the surfers and events have unanimously agreed to reconfirm their full support of the ASP.” In other words- the Rebel Tour is toast unless it can survive with the Iron’s, Jamie O and a few others. Whatever it won’t be crowning a world champ. With the events and surfers firmly backing the ASP it punts the rebel tour concept firmly out of the park- ESPN cash or otherwise. Mick Fanning then took the mic in the ‘skip to the end’ version of what he said is, “Great changes and we feel it’s the best decision for the surfers and the sport of surfing.” The surfers are employees of the surf companies so it’s interesting to know who actually got the final say in all this. Neil Ridgeway commented on the depth of the ASP system, something the blinkered Rebel Tour idea seems to have ignored, “there’s a 1000 ranked surfers in any given year out on the tour and 10,000 grommets behind them.”
Then Dave came in with what we wanted to hear, “Three key changes- 1) a transition to a one world rating system, including a reduction in the field of the CT 2) An increase in prize money and 3) Restructuring of the directors.” All good stuff, sure it’s regression not progression as there used to be only one tier but it will keep things peppy. Mick on the one world rating system, “We feel the system we’ve come up with will keep the sport evolving and keep it more interesting. Everything needs to be improved from time to time.” With 36 surfers it also reduces the amount of time needed to do a CT event so one swell event should be enough for a comp. Regarding the prize money Neil had this to say, “It’s not just about increasing prize money levels for the winners, Kieren Perrow articulated it really well, ‘it’s about getting a good spread of prize money for all surfers who are the top athletes in our sport to get around and compete on tour and to do it comfortably and do it well.’ The events have increased the base prize money from $350,000 to $400,000 and upped the women’s to $100,000; there’s also an ASP funded $100,000 bonus for the world title winner in 2010. In 2011 it’s up to $425,000 and $150,000 title bonus, that said there is no cap if licensees want to go higher.” All good news for the surfers and the tour. The ASP director stuff is a bit yawny so I’ll skip it (in essence there’ll be 3 independent members on the board in future plus 2 event and 2 surfer reps, one of which is a lady).
There was then a Q&A. Sean Doherty opened up with one for Brodie, “Has Kelly had any involvement the last couple of days?” Brodie replied with a curt, “No” and delicately slammed the mic on the table. The betrayal of a favourite child is probably the easiest analogy. GT wondered about the details of the new CT and Brodie answered, “The field will be reduced to a 32-man field with 2 event wildcards and 2 ASP wildcards that will come into place midway through next year along with the one ranking system so surfers on the QS if they are competing well will be able to quickly and freely move up to the world tour and if you are not on your game on the world tour you will drop back. We’re working on the finer details but it should be adjusted every quarter as we are conscious that the guys need to organise their travel etc, to do it after every event would be too difficult.” Mick added, “It’s more exciting for the new up and comers they don’t have to wait the whole year, they can get in when they are on fire and start taking people down. That’s what we all want, to see the best guys rise to the top and keep improving. Make it bigger and better for everyone. We’re all on the one track.”
So. There you go. Whoever is working out the maths of the new tour better have one hell of a brain on him because IT IS going to be rocket science working it all out. Aside from the official press conference a quick chat with Dave revealed a dedicated ASP media team in the works as well so there will be consistency through the webcasts and a vetting system for industry mouths whom don’t always make the best commentators.
It would seem the spectre of the Rebel Tour might have been just what the surfers needed to get prize money and conditions moving the right way… Would they have bolted? I guess now we will never know.
Lake Mundaka today...
