Sal Masekela / Slater Interview

[cepriano]

I swear Slater is Poseidon because everything he says somehow works out in his way haha. And yea it is because that contest is probably the largest revenue generator for surfing in the US. whoever picks it up has big shoes to fill. honestly, based off the interview, it would be interesting if the ASP did. however, its in CA at one of the largest surf brand home bases so i think somebody will. I hope Volcom does. Everything that Volcom has been doing lately has been working really well

nobody will ever accomplish what slater did.11 world titles,bet this year is his 12th..hes a superfreak.it doesnt matter how good u surf,its all about the paddle battle.guys like dane reynolds,jj florence,jeremy flores,the surf great but suck in competitions.thats why i dont watch them no more.fuk comps..freesurfing is where its at!!dont get me wrong,if i could make a living doing what i love i would,and i think thats how most kids on here think..but in reality,theres thousands of great up and coming surfers and thats why u wont make it.unless u surf everyday,and im not talkin surfing ****ty jersey waves,or the few days it gets epic,if u surf indo one week,next week your in mexico chasing swells,week 3 your surfing 20ft chopes,then u stand a little chance.but surfing the east coast everyday wont get u anywhere.i surf for fun so i dont care..read kelly slaters book pipe dreams and u will understand why he is the messiah of surfing...................

[cepriano]

http://70.32.66.235/dbdown.php .....heats on demand in portugal.from rd 5 and up is epic

[cackedinri]

I use Watermen's.

I actually posted to see everyones thoughts on what jimmyslade had to say about the industry's involvement in creating professional surfing as we know it. There have been quite a few threads about X surf company, their influence on the culture, how they bring "kooks" to the sport in droves, etc. etc. It seemed to me that he was trying to say that it has actually held the sport back from developing on its own as most other professional sports have.
He also mentioned that there is no organization in pro surfing that is not based in the industry. I take exception to that because I thought that's what the ISA is all about.
Bottom line, I think he was alluding to the fact that things are not going so hot with the ASP behind closed doors, from the fans to the surfers and everyone in between. The writing may already be on the wall and the ASP's days of influence may, in fact, be numbered. I've heard rumors of a "rouge tour" for a couple years now. They are becoming louder.
So, what does everyone think in regard to the survivability of pro surfing if the current, industry-lead ASP organization ceased to exist?

zaGaffer: Heats on demand, my man. I don't usually watch more than an hour or so of any day of live competition, depending on the time zone of the comp, day of the week and my work load (which has been smothering me since I got back from PR--price you have to pay). For instance, the Quik Pro France is coming up in a week or so. You can go to the comp's site from last year and watch every single heat in it's entirety.

erock, Even if the ASP disappeared wouldn't there just be another organization with a different name that was still supported by the sponsors? Without sponsors nobody even knows who these guys are unless you've known them your whole life. Sponsors have to be involved with the amount of money at stake. Even big sports orgs. like the NFL/MLB are still not really that independent and run by sponsors, they just happen to be huge national TV stations who pay money to make more money. my question is, is it possible without sponsors?

[motivated2surf]

nobody will ever accomplish what slater did.11 world titles,bet this year is his 12th..hes a superfreak.it doesnt matter how good u surf,its all about the paddle battle.guys like dane reynolds,jj florence,jeremy flores,the surf great but suck in competitions.thats why i dont watch them no more.fuk comps..freesurfing is where its at!!dont get me wrong,if i could make a living doing what i love i would,and i think thats how most kids on here think..but in reality,theres thousands of great up and coming surfers and thats why u wont make it.unless u surf everyday,and im not talkin surfing ****ty jersey waves,or the few days it gets epic,if u surf indo one week,next week your in mexico chasing swells,week 3 your surfing 20ft chopes,then u stand a little chance.but surfing the east coast everyday wont get u anywhere.i surf for fun so i dont care..read kelly slaters book pipe dreams and u will understand why he is the messiah of surfing...................

Surfing all over the world helps but didn't this Slater person you're talking about surf ****ty Florida waves.

[757surfer]

nobody will ever accomplish what slater did.11 world titles,bet this year is his 12th..hes a superfreak.it doesnt matter how good u surf,its all about the paddle battle.guys like dane reynolds,jj florence,jeremy flores,the surf great but suck in competitions.thats why i dont watch them no more.fuk comps..freesurfing is where its at!!dont get me wrong,if i could make a living doing what i love i would,and i think thats how most kids on here think..but in reality,theres thousands of great up and coming surfers and thats why u wont make it.unless u surf everyday,and im not talkin surfing ****ty jersey waves,or the few days it gets epic,if u surf indo one week,next week your in mexico chasing swells,week 3 your surfing 20ft chopes,then u stand a little chance.but surfing the east coast everyday wont get u anywhere.i surf for fun so i dont care..read kelly slaters book pipe dreams and u will understand why he is the messiah of surfing...................

Yea i understand that. those guys actually kicks ass in comps (well maybe not dane because he doesn't really care if he wins or loses but that's a different story) i will never be as good as anyone of those guys because i surf in VB, i am going to college, and barely travel because i don't want my beater car to breakdown haha. but you know what, i bet i love surfing just as much they do and get just as stoked as those guys. I hope i can make it to indo or mexico just once in my life. It doesn't hurt to dream my man. no matter what you say, those guys must have the most incredible lives ever.

[Swellinfo]

Other sports generate money for events through ticket sales and tv coverage (which are supported through sponsors). Ticket sales doesn't seem like a possibility, but TV coverage is already gaining some ground and
will probably be more and more likely as time goes on.

But, as I mentioned previously, in these other main stream sports still have big headlining sponsors, and its becoming more or more present. The NBA is in talks about having sponsored Jersey's in the near future.

What is the downside of having lead sponsors of the events as long as there is a non partisan ASP clearly defines structure and rules?

[cresto4]

It doesn't hurt to dream my man. no matter what you say, those guys must have the most incredible lives ever.

dream on dude, you've got the right attitude. humility will get you far. and you're right - they don't have a monopoly on stoke. but i also think your life (well, actually my life) is the most incredible life ever because it's YOURS (mine) to make of it what you will. try not to romanticize their lives too much -- everyone's got problems (look what happened to AI). just figure out what matters to you and where you want to be and make it happen. it might not happen overnight, but life is short and we're all gonna be dead in the blink of an eye so why not spend your time doing what you love with the people you love in a beautiful place?

[Erock]

cackedinri & Micah, you both bring up really interesting points I want to add to... but it's going to have to wait until tomorrow. I just stopped working to eat quickly, then it's back to dealing with crazy Californian workaholics (no offense zaGaffer) who can never seem to remember it's 3 hours later here for me.....

[757surfer]

dream on dude, you've got the right attitude. humility will get you far. and you're right - they don't have a monopoly on stoke. but i also think your life (well, actually my life) is the most incredible life ever because it's YOURS (mine) to make of it what you will. try not to romanticize their lives too much -- everyone's got problems (look what happened to AI). just figure out what matters to you and where you want to be and make it happen. it might not happen overnight, but life is short and we're all gonna be dead in the blink of an eye so why not spend your time doing what you love with the people you love in a beautiful place?

Amen man. that's all that matters in the end. couldn't have put it better. hopefully we get some swell soon. i wanna ride something over 2ft again haha

[Erock]

QUOTE=cackedinri;140867]erock, Even if the ASP disappeared wouldn't there just be another organization with a different name that was still supported by the sponsors? Without sponsors nobody even knows who these guys are unless you've known them your whole life. Sponsors have to be involved with the amount of money at stake. Even big sports orgs. like the NFL/MLB are still not really that independent and run by sponsors, they just happen to be huge national TV stations who pay money to make more money. my question is, is it possible without sponsors?[/QUOTE]

I think the underlying difference is that the ASP was essentially a product of the sponsors as a marketing vehicle that brings the surfers under it's umbrella as a commodity. In other words, it was not started as a grass-roots surfer-based organization, it was started for the sponsors--quite the opposite of NBA, NHL, NFL and MLB. Yes, all the other pro spots leagues have had incredible amounts of help from sponsors, but they have pretty much been in the back seat as far as writing the rules for the sport. This has created room for questions as to who is actually running the show, where their allegiances lie and to what degree the athletes even have any influence in the organization.

Enter the ISA, which was set up completely differently and modeled more around team-based competition in an attempt to make the outcomes a mix of objective and subjective criteria--the ASP and most other competition systems are based solely on subjective criteria. Also, ISA surfers surf for a team. Sure, sponsors are still involved in every aspect from sponsoring the ISA itself, sponsoring the events and the surfers' individual sponsorships--BUT their overall influence pretty much ends there because the ISA was set up to be based for surfers and by surfers.

So, I don't think pro surfing would survive if you took sponsors completely out of the picture but I do think it would (evidenced by ISA) if they had to take a different position than they currently have.

Micah brings up a good point in this same line of thought--charging for tickets will probably always be out of the question, but pro surfing is making a lot of progress in developing an international TV following and it will probably continue to grow. This will probably bring in an entirely different group of sponsors in addition to the current handful of "core" companies, which I think is a really good thing as far as pro surfing goes (bringing more masses of weekend warriors and summer pros to your lineup is a completely different argument). The more diversity in sponsorship you can get in pro surfing, the better chance it has to thrive and survive.

I also think the current "members-only" club has caused a lot of the problems in the ASP that have gotten it to the state it's in now. Look what happens when just two companies hit financially hard times--J-Bay get's downgraded to a 6-star (WTF), no Search contest, Cold Water Classic up to WCT status (WTF), Lady's Tour completely gutted, not even any freaking Hawaii events, so much for another NYC contest, on and on. You will get more and better events if you can spread the risk of sponsorship out a little more--especially in light of how much it costs to put on a good webcast.

I think it's going to get pretty interesting over the next couple years, especially since Australia's economy is currently tanking.

Disclaimer: I am speaking in terms of PRO surfing, not surfing in general. I surf because I love it, not because a pro tour exists.