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Former OC Register surf writer and current The Faster Times surf columnist Shawn Price goes over all the Slater Tour/ASP Tour upgrades detritus one more time in his column: Dodging A Pro Surfing Civil War, Part Two.

The Assn. of Surfing Professionals, having voted in sweeping changes last week that effectively killed the so-called Champions Surf Tour, gets back to regular business and wraps up the European leg of the World Tour this week with the Rip Curl Pro Search in Portugal.

Click the link for the entire blow-by-blow recap of the last year in pro surfing politics.

[Link: The Faster Times]

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ESPN/Action’s West Coast Editor Micah Abrams has jumped in on the unexploded “Slater Tour” grenade with more thoughts on a story that keeps getting written regardless of the complete dearth of facts, quotes, or any new angles whatsoever.

How nice must it be for Terry Hardy, the main instigator of the hypothetical tour, to get so much media play for not saying anything to anyone. At this rate his “Champions Tour” could surpass the world cup in hype without anyone having to release one bit of concrete information.

Abrams, however, has thought deeply about the new tour and what it could mean and lays it down much more concisely than most, even though his employer (Disney/ESPN) has potentially more to gain from a new surf tour than anyone.

Someday this will all sort out, and we can look back and laugh. . . hopefully.

[Link: ESPN/Action]

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The New York Times action scribe Matt Higgins has dropped in on the “Slater tour” story with a round up of whatever everyone else is saying (and we’ve all heard) spiced up with some quotes from ESPN’s Chris Stiepock and Vans’ Doug Palidini.

“There’s little doubt in most surfers’ minds that Kelly Slater is the best surfer who’s ever lived,” said Doug Palladini, vice president of marketing for Vans and president of the Surf Industry Manufacturers Association, an industry trade group. “So there’s no doubt he brings massive credibility to anything he wants to be a part of. The fact that he’s allowed his name and his agent to be associated with this has for sure made people sit up and listen more.”

For his part Champions Surf Tour’s Terry Hardy is keeping his lips zipped. In other words, no news here.

[Link: The New York Times via Shop-eat-surf]

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The Australian’s writier Fred Pawle just won’t let go of this “rebel slater tour” story. Today’s big story is that the main player won’t return his email.

Pawle says boxing promoter Mat Tinley won’t return answers to emailed questions, Kelly Slater didn’t reply to emailed questions, and Slater manager Terry Hardy “declined to be interviewed over the phone.”

Vans Marketing VP and SIMA President Doug Palladini, on the other hand, had no problem discussing the situation.

He said the rebel threat had helped the stakeholders of the existing tour, administered by the Association of Surfing Professionals, to work together. . . “Using the new competition to make the ASP tour stronger is the best possible outcome of the current challenge,” he said. “The brands that represent the tour are meeting now to discuss a priority of must-haves for 2010. I am not at liberty to discuss specifics at this time but fans can rest assured that the 2010 tour will see strong improvements.”

Some of those improvement include fewer surfers on the tour, according to ASP CEO Brodie Carr. But not until 2011. The person who put the entire Slater tour concept into the best persepctive was Hawai’ian Triple Crown’s Randy Rarick .

“I started adding up the numbers and thought, it doesn’t work,” he said. “I don’t see someone can sell enough advertising to merit this kind of outlay. Conceptually it sounds good but when you put it on paper the costs are astronomical. These guys are talking major, major bucks. I don’t care if they’re talking to Nike or whoever, they’re not going to put that kind of money up because they are not going to see a return on their investment. . . “I think the reality of financing this thing is just not coming together as they had hoped. I don’t think the money is there.”

And if anyone would know about surf event sponsors’ ROI, it would be Mr. Rarick.

[Link: The Australian]

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After reportedly being falsely linked to Terry Hardy and Matt Tinley rebel Slater Tour, ASP tour veterans Taj Burrow and Andy Irons may sue, according to a story in the Daily Telegraph.

ASP men’s world tour manager Renato Hickel yesterday dismissed rumours linking the world’s best surfers to the rebel tour. . . . Hickel told The Daily Telegraph Burrow, Irons, Smith and Reynolds were angry at being linked to the tour, which is being organised by Slater’s manager Terry Hardy and former US boxing promoter Matt Tinley. “A few of the managers are threatening legal action if it doesn’t stop,” Hickel said. “They are utilising their names without authorisation to promote a tour with no communication whatsoever. I know for a fact Taj was really upset because he was never contacted at all.”

And we thought this story would go away with 2009. . .

[Link: Daily Telegraph]

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After a reportedly top-secret meeting on Sunday (September 13, 2009) in which at least 20 surfers discussed the “Slater Tour” with potential organizers, ESPN/Action’s Micah Abrams caught up with Bede Durbidge and got his thoughts on the proposed “champions tour.” Durbidge seemed optimistic:

. . . maybe no one will even decide to follow this new proposed tour, but it’s still making everyone think. We can make the sport better. The ASP wants to make the sport better, so maybe they can take the ideas off these other guys and use them. So I think whatever happens, it will be good. It’s going to be interesting.

Follow the link for the entire interview.

[Link: ESPN/Action]

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While watching today’s heats in the 2009 Hurley Pro we got a better understanding of where some of the “Slater Tour” proponents are coming from. While deep down we’re supporters of the ASP and hate the way action sports seem to continually attempt re-inventing their wheels, we have to agree that there are too many heats in ASP WCT events.

Out of the 20 heats run today in moderate, yet somewhat inconsistent surf we cared about five, maybe six. We were stoked C.J Hobgood beat Marlon Lipke, bummed that Bobby Martinez lost to Luke Stedman, proud of Taylor Knox, surprised when Josh Kerr knocked out Ace Buchan, happy when Kai Otton defeated Jay Thompson, and thought Freddy P may have been underscored, but since it was against Roy Powers we were okay with it. When Roy said he was glad to be on the winning side of a close heat after being on the losing end so many times, he was gracious. And that was cool.

The heat that the ASP press release writer was most excited about, however, was when Josh Kerr scored a 17.5 against Dayyan Neve. To us, watching a guy in 25th place on the ASP rankings get all over the number 30 guy just doesn’t seem all that compelling.

Josh Kerr (AUS), 25, current ASP World No. 25, stunned spectators today with his diverse repertoire of progressive surfing, blending rotation aerials with power hacks to net the highest heat total of the day, a 17.17 out of a possible 20, to defeat an in-form Dayyan Neve (AUS), 31, in Round 2 of competition. . . . “I’d been here the last couple of hours and in the heat before I saw that there were a few nice rights shaping up,” Kerr said. “There seemed to be a few in our heat. Dayyan (Neve) got a couple as well. That one wave wasn’t the biggest wave, but it looked like it was going to connect down the line and that’s exactly what it did. I raced down the line and popped a little air, came around, up and down, and it stayed wally for me and I gave it a little bang off of the end.”

While no tour is going to make 100 percent the fans happy all the time, fewer throw away heats might not be that bad an idea.

Follow the jump for the official ASP press release, all the heat results, and the line up for tomorrow which includes banging heats from the get go starting with Dane Reynolds vs. Ben Dunn, Joel Parkinson vs. Rob Machado, and Kelly Slater vs. Brett Simpson.

[Link: 2009 Hurley Pro]
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