J-Bay, from a fan's perspective. Photo: ASP/Kirstin
There has been a lot of negativity surrounding the resent changes to ASP Men’s World Championship Tour (WCT), but truth be told, I am still a major fan. That’s right, I said it: I look forward to, and thoroughly enjoy, each and every event over the webcast. From this fan’s perspective, here’s what’s right:
The ASP Men’s World Tour has a much younger feel to it this year. Progressive surfing has always been, and will always be, the product of a young, energized, and passionate approach to wave riding. Every generation stamps their own fresh and exciting group dynamic to the surfing culture. The current younger generation of surfers on the ASP Men’s WCT is no exception to this, and many of these surfers have already proved themselves at the ultimate proving grounds (the North Shore of Oahu). This is something that in generations passed has been a maturing process that often time took until aged into their early to mid twenties. Now we are witnessing teenagers not only charging in free surf sessions, but also winning events at the Seven Mile Miracle.
The event webcasts are getting better and better not only from year to year, but also from event to event. The recently added Heat Analyzer option, as an example, gives the viewer many viewing options of the event content. The event commentary has also improved by leaps and bounds. Most commentators have taken off the gloves, and are calling the heat action from their own individual and unique perspective with little or no apparent sponsored bias (this was a big problem in the past). Overall the event webcast presentation has gotten better each year. It used to be that the event was only worthy of viewing if the waves were pumping. Now you feel drawn in by the story lines that are shared through commentary, video, and shared history of the events.
The rivalries are at the strongest point in recent memory on tour, and since no form of competition can achieve the desired fan base without rivalries. This is a fantastic selling point for the continued growth of the ASP and our sport. No doubt the 2012 ASP Men’s WCT will see young against old, young against young, Country against Country, an 11x World Champ against a whole new crop of challengers, and hopefully some surprises not yet anticipated. I mean, reflect on how much growth the ASP and our sport experienced during the Andy vs. Kelly heydays.
Here’s what needs to improve:
Controversial judging and therefore undeserved heat wins are a big problem for the ASP, and the ASP needs to address this issue quickly and confidently. Several times each event I walk away from a webcast feeling pro surfing resembles professional wrestling more than anything else, because an apparent case of pushing a surfer through a heat had taken place. An added injury to these errors is that on at least four occasions that come to mind in the past two years, these surfers went on to win the event. Mistakes will be made, but they seem to happen too frequently and they always seem to happen in favor of a hometown guy. The ASP will continue to lose credibility if these types of occurrences continue to take place.
Event wildcards are another area where the ASP just does not seem to have it right. The Top 34, or whatever number the ASP decides to place on tour, should be competing against each other, and not against wildcards. These wildcards, in many cases, are specialist at the competition event site. Additionally, they have not earned the spot to compete on an ASP World Tour event, and thus should not compete in an event or heat that could possibly have World Title implications. The events lose a lot of excitement if a top seeded surfer, who has earned that top seed, loses to a Wildcard in Round 1, 2, or even 3.
Lastly, the ASP website should reflect the progression and growth that are happening in surfing today. For example, more stats should be available on the ASP website to help fans interpret surfing as a sport. Surf competitions, like other sporting events, have many stats that can be tracked and published. For instance, in baseball how do you know someone is a good hitter? Well, if the batter has a lifetime average of .300 or higher then you immediately know that they are a good hitter. Also, how does this hitter fare facing left handed and right handed pitching? More detailed stats let you know how that hitter has fared in the past against the pitcher that he is currently facing. It is possible to track and publish several stats in Professional Surfing. For example, what is a given surfers average heat score? Average front side wave score? Average back side wave score? Average Point Break wave score? Average beach break score? Etc. The possibilities for tracking stats in surfing are endless. Many stats seem to be tracked; they just do not seem to be readily available to the average surf fan.
It would also be nice to see Heat Analyzer archives for heats of significance on the ASP website. Some of these heats will have historical significance in our sport, and should be made readily available for ASP fans to view.
Additionally, it would also be great to see more sponsor videos on the ASP website. It seems that much better videos can be found on other websites, in comparison to the ASP website’s video selection.
Another tour, event, sponsor, and venue community promotion opportunity that I’m sure ASP fans would enjoy viewing, in the days leading up to the event, would be posts of story line videos relating to the upcoming competition. Having content posted on the competition website promoting the tour, event, sponsors, and venue community will create added excitement and anticipation for the upcoming event. It will also inform viewers on the events surfers as well as the competition’s history and even the venue and adjacent community.
It’s easy to focus on the faults of the tour, but above all, I still think that the ASP World Tour is providing all of us that love competitive surfing with a great resource and I’m looking forward to another season of enjoyment.
