The Uncertain Future Of Professional Surfing
josh hunter
- August 07 2009
- 1,922 views
- 32 comments
The most talked about topic in the world of surfing is without question the formation of a new eight-stop tour, which will feature events organized and broadcast by ESPN. According to reports the new tour is being spearheaded by Kelly Slater’s agent, Terry Hardy and cable TV sports promotions guru Matt Tinley. There have been literally dozens of speculative pieces attempting to tackle the subject, but none have really been able to answer all the questions surrounding the topic.
That could be due in part to Tinley’s hesitance to confirm certain details of the tour. He told Surfline earlier in the month that: “It’s best if we have a view of the whole system rather than piece bits of it out — it’s best to lay it out to everyone in detail all at once.” He also said that a formal announcement on the new tour would be made later this month.
But the rest of parties involves haven’t been as tight lipped. In late July Australia’s Surfing Life published the most comprehensive story on the topic to date on its Web site. The article included the following quote from Kelly Slater, which outlines his frustrations with the Association Of Surfing Professionals (ASP).
“Basically, if there’s a way to create a much better situation for surfers and a tour and this is it, I’m in,” Slater was quoted saying in the article. “Does the ASP cease to exist if this goes forward? No. Not necessarily … Has ASP failed pro surfing? I don’t think so but I also don’t truly feel it’s done the best job that can be done.”
The quote, however, was pulled from the site within 24 hours, and the article’s author, Tim Baker, added this Editor’s Note:
“NOTE: If you’re returning to this page, you may notice this story has been updated following new developments, and several quotes have been removed. ASL would like to apologize for publishing what we appreciate now was a confidential bit of correspondence.”
Soon there after The Australian published a piece that included this excerpt, which apparently came from an email Slater sent to several other ASP surfers.
“ESPN has signed on to support and fully back a tour to potentially start next year,” Slater wrote. “This is huge news and opportunity. This would include a ‘new’ tour based on what the surfers want to have in terms of judging, locations, formats, etc … It would also include a dedicated, full-time web team and signature look to all events.”
In a recent interview with TransWorld Business, Quiksilver CEO Bob McKnight offered his two cents about the potential benefits and downfalls of the new tour. According to McKnight, the sport of surfing—and in turn the industry surrounding it—would benefit from the exposure of televised tour events. “I don’t think the ASP has done a very good job looking after the surfers, getting it out to more eyeballs, and enlisting big, balloon sponsors,” he said. “It’s really a cool show for everybody in the monastery. Everybody that surfs and follows the ASP can follow the tour in surf magazines, but nowhere else. No other outside magazines, no outside Web sites, no other outside type of anything follows the tour. Why? When they follow professional bull riding and professional poker for God’s sake? There’s all these stupid things out there, but we can’t get surfing out of the freaking monastery.”
McKnight also said the idea that Kelly Slater has been a principle organizer of this newly proposed tour is a misconception. He offered this statement about Slater’s involvement:
“Kelly is one of these surfers that thinks hard, and is very intelligent. He’s watched it and seen other sports and how they’re blowing by his sport. How people in other sports have much more fame and persona than him—being the nine-time champion and—his sport. He sees other sports with balloon sponsors, and he sees other sports where the athletes have benefits. In professional golf, the guy who finished dead last makes more than the guy that finishes second in an ASP contest! Are you kidding me? So he sees all of this and he’s frustrated. And, although he admires his nine titles and would love to win a tenth, that has taken a second position to him being frustrated with the ASP. He’s gone to ASP many, many times and expressed these concerns and nothing happens.
“In the meantime, Terry Hardy [Slater’s manager] has sensed his frustration. ESPN—who came to the ASP years ago [to work with them] and has tried multiple times and has been pushed aside—kind of went to Kelly and said ‘Let’s just do a new tour.’ So Kelly said, ‘Well tell me about what your ideas are and I’ll tell you what some of mine are.’ So they got together, discussed ideas, and sure enough ESPN went off on their own. It’s not the Kelly tour. Kelly just kind of told them what is frustrating him about what’s going on at ASP. So ESPN started cooking this thing up because they love surfing.”
According to McKnight the new tour would bring in large non-endemic sponsors, and ESPN is going to be covering the travel expenses of those surfers selected to be on the tour. The contests are also reportedly going to be offering considerably more prize money than the current ASP World tour events. In addition, McKnight said that the new tour events will cost substantially less to sponsor for endemic companies. “They’re going to have big, balloon sponsors, and the surfers are going to have all their airfare and accommodations paid for by the tour,” Explained McKnight. “So these guys can fly around the world and they don’t have to go negative for the year. Because [the way it is now] maybe the top five guys are positive at the end of the year, and the rest of them are negative because of expenses.
“Also, the price of the events [on ESPN’s tour] are much cheaper [than ASP events for endemic sponsors]. If you talk about the eyeballs we get in the monastery now compared to what we’ll get on ESPN’s live web coverage, and when a week later there’s a program produced on ESPN 2, which will be shown multiple times, the whole thing is really exciting because it’s new and it’s fresh and it’s different.”
But there are still dozens of questions about the new tour that have left the opinions of surfers, fans, event sponsors, and media divided. Currently the event sponsor owns the media rights to the event, but the proposed new tour will give those rights to ESPN. Who will ESPN be selling these sponsorship packages to? And will those deals cause conflicts with endemic brands? How many surfers will be on the new tour? Will they be selected based on ASP rankings or by subjective means? And Finally, if there are two world tours then who will be the undisputed World Champion at the end of the year?
Rabbit Bartholomew (left) with ASP CEO Brodie Carr
Brodie Carr is the CEO of the ASP. He said in a recent interview with TransWorld Business that the organization is open to discussing ways to work together, but that there could be inherent problems with two tours operating autonomously. “We remain open to always looking for improvements we can make to ASP, the World Tour, and benefits for our surfers,” Carr said. “So we’re open to listening to these guys to see what they can bring to the table and offer. We haven’t made any decision on whether we think it’s good for the tour or bad for the tour, our surfers, and the ASP because we don’t have enough information at this stage.
“I met with Terry Hardy on the week of the US Open and then the following week I met with Matt Tinley. They’ve given us some information. We’ve had a board discussion—not a board meeting but a discussion— and coming out of that there was a consensus that we should talk to these guys and see what they’ve got to offer.”
Carr stressed the point that the ASP is always looking for what’s in the best interest of the athletes and the sport. “I’m not protective of ASP. I’m protective of what’s best for the sport,” he explained. “So we won’t protect what we currently have as the best thing because it might not be. If they have something better than what we’ve got then we’ve got to talk to them and make that available to the surfers and the events, and the fans.”
Carr said that what could prove to be difficult for ASP is transitioning away from its qualification system if that decision were made. “Once you have an organization that has been established for as long as we have, we have rules, we have qualifying, and this is all communicated to the world and to the surfers,” he said. “If all of a sudden we tell fifteen guys from the WQS who thought they’d qualified for the World Tour next year that none of them have qualified. And then if we tell 27 of the guys from the World tour that thought they re-qualified that they didn’t re-qualify either—we can’t make a change like this in one year. Not to say the change can’t happen, but ASP couldn’t make that change in one year because we have qualifying, history, and legitimacy. That’s what ASP is for. For us to make a change to go down to sixteen guys would take a minimum of two years.”
Perhaps the biggest question is how the surfers will be selected for ESPN’s tour. If they are subjectively picked based on what the network thinks will lure viewers to tune in, there will inevitably be backlash from those top-ranking ASP surfers who are not included. “The surfers will call that it’s not a fair system and therefore not a legitimate World Champion,” said Carr. “The guy that gets crowned World Champion wants to be able to say he’s the legitimate World Champion. For the top guys it means something to be the undisputed World Champion, so I think if they kind of just pick guys that’s when the surfers will call a bit of BS on them.”
According to longtime Vans Triple Crown Director Randy Rarrick, he sees fundamental flaws in ESPN’s plan. “I don’t think the companies are going to let their riders go to a tour that is detrimental to the tour they have always supported,” he told reporters in July. “You could wind up with a bunch of guys saying, ‘we’re going to take our ball and play over there (with ESPN)’, but none of them is going to be a World Champion. It would not have any meaning. It would be a great promotional tool, but does ESPN care about developing the sport? Heck, no. They only care about making advertising revenue. In three years it will be a flash in the pan. Some guys will make some money but its legitimacy will be questionable, and it will fall by the wayside. I’ve been doing this for 35 years, I’ve seen these guys come and go.”
So where does that leave us? TransWorld Business wants to know what you think. Weigh in below, but keep your comments productive and above the belt.
»
August 7th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Not in the surf industry so my thoughts would be embrace this change. ESPN is the real deal, Fuel TV is cool and all but so much smaller. Props to Slater. Surfing always has been more mainstream then any other boardsport.
It's win win situation. The small "core" brands can hate on this and appeal to their audience, and the big brands can get TV time and the exposure they need to continue to get large PO's from the mainstream chain retailers.
August 7th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Decent commentary will make a huge difference , there is usually one or two guys that have it pretty down and 3 or 4 guys from the companies channeling Billy Mays poorly , subtle is not their strongpoint. Just listen to Dodger or Cardinals games and mimic ….
August 7th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
The question is "who" is surfing? Is it the athletes? the public who surfs? the public who doesn't surf? Quik, Billabong, Hurley and Volcom? Monster, Red Bull, Boost Mobile and Gatorade? ESPN? FUEL?
Who benefits from the change? It ain't Marlon Lipke or Tiago Peres or the ripper grom you see in the lineup.
(cont'd)
August 7th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
(cont'd)
The athletes want to make more money - we get it. Clearly, this new "format" addresses that issue - for the top 16. The surf companies just want more exposure but will lose here because they can't affort $3-5M sponsorships. You think Quik (who is basically broke) is happy to pay $1.5M for each of its CT events this year? They are basically broke, remember. They would love to see their athletes increase the "Q Rating" by appearing on shows, etc., but surfers hate that stuff. Remember "Boarding House North Shore" - certainly didn't turn Sunny Garcia into the next Dyrdek or Bam. The surfers need a personality too, and they simply have yet to have one that translates into a national focus.
Trying to stay up to watch a 3am Jeffrey's Bay heat live on a crappy webcast with terrible announcing (no offense GT , but if I fucking have to hear "there's Parko having a look …" one more time …). Jesus, those webcasts are TERRIBLE, amateurish and never start on time.
(cont'd)
August 7th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
(cont'd)
Heats decided by a lull or lack of waves is terrible too, but that can be remedied by sudden death finishes where the two riders are within a point at the end or where there have been lulls, or other heat changes to increase the competitiveness.
There is certainly room for improvement but the ESPN format doesn't always work. It's a made for TV spectacle that won't do much, in my opinion. The "Dew Games" are on NBC (that's a pretty big deal) but let's face it, who cares and who actually watches or follows or knows who the "Dew Champion" is). It means that Pastrana and Shaun White become household names, but that means money just to those two and to their list of non-core sponsors such as Target and Suzuki.
(cont'd)
August 7th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
(cont'd)
If the world hungers for "cool" and if as we all know surfing is the coolest sport going, something is leading to a disconnect here - and that disconnect has been evident since Gidget went mainstream. This is another brainchild of Hollywood types who think they know more than anybody and can change a 50 year old pattern. Surfing won't ever be a mainstream sport. Period. Just deal with it and enjoy it for what it is and for those cool jobs it is able to create and support, which are plenty.
August 7th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
ESPN should make G.T. the first Harry Carey of Surfing ….He's a Bud Man …He could sing "Take Me out to Da Pipeline " between the Semi's and Finals … , Jack Johnson singing "God Bless American Apparel" , Lopez getting spit outta the 1st. Barrell , Wool " bathing suits " for Uniforms day ; Fan Appreciation days and the ASP vs ESPN for a World series , Actually , it sounds like a lot of fun ! Serious about G.T. though , webcast are painfull…
August 7th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
Who care about Marlon Lipke and Tiago Peres.
August 7th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
There are some books to be read boys short and to the point .
August 7th, 2009 at 10:31 pm
Uniformity of announcers and talent of announcers (actually on air personalities is a better term as this is what we need) is huge and so is creating personalities. There are surfers that are unique and interesting outside of their sport. It is all about creating personalities and stories. Look at the UFC- the fights are actually pretty boring except for the occasional knockout but they tell stories and explain the technique and training and everything in between. Viewers are drawn to the show, storey lines and build up of the event. How they prepare, their families and wives, what they think of their competitors, what it means to them (survival versus a new crib in south beach). This carries onto the ref (herb), to the announcer (Rogan) etc. They need to package everything and tell a unique storey that has a beginning, middle and end. With that it will resonate with more folks and it will grow the sport and opportunities for all involved.
Cheers,
MR
August 7th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
ADD ON TO LAST POST as I rambled to much*****
How can you have a flourishing organization based in a country with 20 million folks and a GDP like Cali? You need to be in the mix in NYC and LA rubbing elbows daily with the non-endemics and building relationships and selling the value prop. IE- lifetime value of the marketing dollars, intense ROI, (20 year old versus 50 year old golf or nascar enthusiast? Core followers, demo benefits etc.
I'm personally excited to see a good production on ESPN. Have you seen the clip on Marzo on ESPN? That is telling a storey and getting an emotional connection from a viewer. We need to take some notes from the mainstream as they know what they are doing. Just need to keep some authentic surf peop's in the fray so they keep it relevant and don't water it down,
Cheers,
MR
August 7th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
This is going to be great… we'll all going to see the best in the world bigger and better than ever before
August 8th, 2009 at 5:58 am
Great topic and article, Mr. Hunter. The unfortunate thing with pro surfing is it has become so intrenched in the Business Of Surfing, which has taken a massive hit of late. It is easy to call out big biz and say all of this new tour hub-bub is all about cashing in. I however, cannot jump on that bandwagon. Besides, look at what an amazing event Nike money put on in Huntington Beach. Yes, the surf was ordered up and it did deliver. Still, it was the corporate, public company dollars that put the whole thing to work.
So here is my two cents (even though the words of Mr. Samuels are hard to follow after): At some point there needs to be a true governing body that is completely free of the rule of major sponsorship holding the event stop and tour. An unbiased and free thinking board of highly qualified associates to reign over the tour, completely. Then, eventually the ASP and ESPN (or whoever becomes the factor) will have no choice but to JOIN FORCES and bring professional surfing to a new level of viewership, sponsorship and marketability.
I have much respect for Randy, PT, Rabbit and Ian and take nothing from their abilities or contributions to the sport. Yet, no one can argue that they have had their time and are obviously unable or unwilling to help make the transition to allowing pro surfing to be viewed more readily by all, worldwide. The surf industry has been huddled into a "Good ole' Boy" mentality and regardless of whether they like it or not, bigger industry is creeping in (Insert Nike $ again here) and cashing in.
If we are all unable to step back and truly do what is best for professional surfing, as I believe Mr. Slater and Mr. Tinley are trying to accomplish, then the same thing will happen to the ASP that happened to surf retail. While surfing CEO's were getting fat and rich and lazy (and possibly elitist) Abercrombie snuck in and opened 200 surf shops in shopping malls across America, selling surfing to the unsurfing masses, while surfing industry princes were hitting golf balls out into the set waves. They are still scratching their heads and par cards about it… Market share simply stolen away because they chose not to believe it could happen.
Just that we know as much about this new tour as we do, means that wheels are in motion. I look forward to the drop-in….
August 8th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
G.T. has the ability to make any surf contest, snowboard event, or company legit.. To this day, I don't know who I enjoy commentating better, Sal, or G.T.
August 10th, 2009 at 1:43 am
I'm confused as to why you don't post some postings?
August 10th, 2009 at 5:05 am
FACT: Kelly has never brought his gripes to the ASP. He has never attended a Board meeting or volunteered to be the surfer rep on the Board. Kelly is a smart guy and I have heard that the ASP Board HIGHLY respects Kelly and would have loved to hear his ideas (many of which are great) from him rather than in the press.
FACT: ESPN has never been "pushed aside" by the ASP. ESPN executives openly state that the ASP has been in constant contact with ESPN (for years) about media coverage. ESPN would love to air the ASP events, however, somebody needs to buy the air time or sell the ad space and neither ASP nor its sponsors had the cash.
FACT: Per ESPN this Rebel Tour is NOT the result of ESPN approaching Kelly. Kelly's manager and a boxing promoter approached ESPN, not vice versa, and offered to buy the air time outright…how could ESPN say no?
FACT: Quik sits on the ASP Board and is responsible for how the ASP is run. If they have a different approach now that's cool. Bring it to the ASP Board rather than to Kelly's manager and a boxing promoter.
August 10th, 2009 at 5:17 am
FACT: But for golf and tennis and the traditional ball sports (baseball, basketball, etc.), the top surfers as a whole make more money than any of the other action/bord sports.
FACT: While the Rebel Tour may pay the travel fees, etc. and increase prize money for for the top 16 guys, with just a few exceptions those guys already make more just from their sponsors than they will make on the Rebel Tour. The money in sports has never been in "prize money" (except boxing), but rather the money is in sponsorships and endorsements.
FACT: Everybody seems to agree that the ASP needs to change and that Kelly, God bless him for all he has done for our sport, has some great ideas.
APPLICATION OF FACTS TO PRACTICAL REALITY: Give the existing body (ASP) the chance to respond and change. Let's not end up like Boxing, Snowboarding, Extreme Skiing, and soon to be Formula One with two governing bodies running two world tours and namimg two world champions…huh?
Lot's of good respectful opinions…good passion on this issue and happy surfing!
August 10th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
We've always decried the lack of mainstream recognition for pro surfing, while at the same time we've successfully pushed the boundaries of our industry into the mainstream on every other level. This conflict is part of the ongoing evolution of our industry that WE have set in motion. I'm not saying its going to be good or bad, its too early to tell. But lets all accept responsibility.
August 10th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
A brief but comprehensive documentary on espn versus asp can be found at
http://www.surfinglife.com.au/videos/random
cheers
August 11th, 2009 at 4:13 am
Keep in mind that in this country of 20 million folks surfing IS mainstream, with the top guys just about household names, surf reports on tv nightly (in Queensland at least) and some of the biggest companies in the world hailing from here.
But - part of 'mainstream' is due to the fact that 80% of aussies live in the coast, surrounded by waves, and probably another 10% live within an hour or two of the coast. So the beach and surfing is just part of the aussie psyche. So in unfortunate places like North America and Europe, when a huge majority live landlocked in crap locations, they can't really relate to surfing and have little interest in watching it on tv or the web or where ever. (They will still need to buy boardshorts and bikinis for the pool/lake/river though)
(cont'd below)…
August 11th, 2009 at 4:16 am
And i guess the ASP is based in Oz because australians invented surfing as we know it today. I don't give a crap about a few hawaiins bobbing around in the waves on tree trunks 100 years ago, or even the beach boys singing about hot chicks on the sand - it wasn't until a bunch of aussies saw this pastime as a sport, treated it as such and started the 'sport' on the road to professionalism and 3 aussie companies took over the world with their surf product that surfing became the monster we know it is today.
So historically it probably made sense that aussies ran the tour - whether they still should now is a different matter. But, why be based in LA or NY? Yes potentially more sponsors, but shouldn't it be located in the 'heart' of surfing? From the Goldy it's only a 12 hour flight away to LA. It's interesting when living in Cali i've seen that there is really no surf culture pervading there, as i would have expected. As i said before, most americans (except for a few who live right on the sand) can't relate to surfing and prefer basketball, baseball, golf, soccer and gridiron.
(cont's…again!- why can't i post what i want?)
August 11th, 2009 at 4:16 am
(Cont'd - final!)
But having said all this - from the little i know about the tour, and from reading what Slates has been saying, yes, it does look like it needs a shake up in terms of a central body controlling the media releases and tv coverage and trying to get more of the comps on TV.
August 11th, 2009 at 9:05 am
Please leave surf underground!!! At least what's left of it…. If Kelly wants to go, let him do it. Maybe a reality show for ESPN… ASP is not perfect by any means but the tour is pretty exciting to me.
August 11th, 2009 at 9:40 am
I don't beleive I hold the truth but here is my take on that:
this is just a run for money and recognition. I reckon the surfers deserve better income, and a less full on competition year.
let's just have a look to what ESPN has brought to other boardsports I love more than everything (snowboarding and skateboarding). through the X-games they just managed to put on an blurry freak show that never did anything good to these sports. good money for them though and a better paycheck for the competitors (well at least some of them when you see how their judging criteria are usually the worst ever encountered).
Does the world of surfing really want to turn into a circus running for fame and glory? do we really need other shaun whites, shaun palmers or travis pastradas? I would rather not.
Then, good point, the ASP hasn't yet managed to offer the surfers the tour they would really dream of.
Maybe it's time for them to get up their sleeves and find some way for better covering of surfing events through mainstream media.
maybe they need to completely reorganise their tour as many agree 45 surfers with a free ticket for a one year dream tour is not necessarily a good thing, especially when they can do a couple of wqs aside and requalify for a next slacking year.
but one thing is for sure, I really don't want to see a worldtour nor a world champ' on the throne based on freak shows and text messages voting systems.
The good thing with the asp world tour is surfers really have to fight for their crown with their solely surfing, with espn they would have to fight for image and crowd pleasing… come on.
August 11th, 2009 at 10:46 am
"So ESPN started cooking this thing up because they love surfing.”
What a utter crock of shit….
August 11th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Bob McKnight is bitching about the ASP, of which his company sits on the Board of Directors. Frankly, I find his hypocrisy disgusting and the fact that his company is failing and backing an angry ranting former champ is pathetic.
August 11th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Good article Josh, but you failed analyze the background of the promoter claiming to have the money here, Matthew Tinley. In 2004, Tinley was successfully sued by Bernard Hopkins for over 1.5 million dollars. At present, there is outstanding suits against him for extortion, theft, defamation, etc., etc. from his failed career as a boxing promoter. As of yet, no one has seen the money backing this pathetic concept, and frankly, the fact that Quiksilver/Slater/Hardy would choose to back such a person of negligible background is symptomatic of their respective failing states as companies and/or human beings. If this falls apart (as it appears to be), I hope the surfing world doesn't let Quiksilver off the fucking hook. Fuck those bitches for trying to cash in when they're down and out at the expense of the sport.
August 11th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
At the end of the day, surfers are looking over the fence at the money that snowboarders and skaters are making and saying, "my life sucks."
What they're not aware of is that at the same time, snowboarders and skaters are looking over the fence at surfing and saying, "my sport sucks."
When it comes to extreme (XXXXXXtreme!!!!) sports, if you want money, prepare to sell out and become a circus sideshow. If you want an actual sport, you need to tow the line and an accept that there is sacrifice for indignity.
At the end of the day, the ASP has provided Kelly with unprecedented fame, huge sums of endorsement dollars and the ability to spend his last 20 years in exotic locales and tropical paradises. If someone with all that finds a reason to complain, he should be drug out in the street and shot.
August 11th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
If espn has control It'll end up like winter Xgames where people will phone up and vote for the "best rider" which of course will be a yank who did a cuty on a shit 1 foot wave!.
who give's a crap about all the big sponsor money?!.. only espn im sure!
did all the pro's think when they were a grom.. "hmm.. if i start surfing now maybe in 15years i'll be on the espn tour one day and win that $2,000,000 check".
dont think so!.. surfers surf cause they like it! if they can make a little money while doing it even better.
but if there was no money to be made would they still surf??
Of course!.
and for all board sport brands..
there are only so many surfer's, skater's snowboarders in the world so there IS a limit to how much you can sell before you go shity shops like target, kmart ect. to get your numbers.
and then i'm sure you'll lose alot of the "core" byer's which really suport you guys.
so really, why is bigger better?? I hope where not all American! are we?
August 14th, 2009 at 8:02 am
Heavy… Is this true?
November 18th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Just heard this tour is not dead, Volcom and Nike will be big players.