Margaret River Pro to stay on Championship Tour
The WSL and Surfing Western Australia have just confirmed that the Margaret River Pro will return as a WCT event for at least two more years.
During the Aussie leg of this year's Championship Tour, speculation was rife that one of the three Australian events would be dropped. The WSL rules state that each continent should only have two CT contests, yet for the last three years Australia has hosted three events. It was assumed that Margaret River would get the chop.
"It's no secret that there has been uncertainty surrounding this event and while significant changes within key stakeholders slowed the process slightly, we are ecstatic about the final result," said Surfing WA CEO Mark Lane following the announcement.
This year's Margs Pro was held at three different locations: North Point, Mainbreak, and the Box. Mainbreak is often criticised as not being worthy of the CT, yet this year John John took a full blooded rail approach redefining how the wave could be surfed and revitalising it as a contest wave.
The dates for next year's Margaret River Pro will be released when the WSL calendar is released later this year.
Comments
Not held at the box this year, although I wish it was
It'll be a cold day in hell before the WSL turns it's back on a taxpayer subsidised CT event.
I often bag the Margs event but i when it happens i actually enjoy it more than many other events.
Bells well it bores the crap out of me if it wasn't for the history and nostalgia it would have been gone long ago.
I think it speaks volumes of the fickleness of the WSL viewer that the two most watched events (from most of the comments on here) are JBay and Margs as they are on in the arvo and the most convenient.
It's an interesting point that can't really be worked around (from a international business point of view).
From my end (as a viewer in AEST), J-Bay has always been the best event to sit down and watch on the big screen - it's at night and I'm home from work.
Any events in our time zone (Hawaii through Aust/Japan and Indo) is done during work hours - i.e. watched on a second screen - which is a different format. It's easy for me as I run my own business and can justify watching the comps, but other surfers would either be sneaking a peek in between spreadsheets (when the boss ain't looking etc), or catching highlights on mobile whilst on the work site.
The EU leg is sometimes too hard for me (starts a little late to commit to hours of viewing) and I almost never watch Brazil and mainland USA events as they occur overnight.
Not much they can do about it either...taking it all around the world means random time zones for every event...random viewing suitability for everyone.
At least with sports such as F1 and MotoGP the time zone is virtually constant ie. Late nights here with viewing by enthusiasts only but huge in Europe as its on Sunday afternoon prime time.
Ideally I'd like to watch Chopes, Fiji, Pipe and JBay but only really watch JBay for the perfect time slot. Heat replays for the rest usually.
Interesting to see 2 years given to MR , when the WSL /Dirk has not committed to 2 years?
2018 Margs comp - retirement time - Bede Durbos last.
Udo your a weird cat
New Idea or Womans Day would love a newshound like you. Always regurgitating secondhand news and we all know how much of a lurking creep you are on Instagram
Udo' s in my top ten commenters on Swellnet.
Top Five.
This made the front page of the local rag yesty. They said they had to compete against Snapper and Bells to get it again. Does anyone know if one of the other two venues were dropped or are they keeping all three Aussie legs ?
There's been a tweak of the WSL rules regarding scheduling, where once it was limited to two contests per country, the rule now says:
"Article 3: Scheduling 3.01 CT Events are limited to 13 per year with a limited number of Events in any one country as decided by the WSL Commissioner’s Office."
Meaning there's no longer any issue with running three contests in Australia.
ha........thats hilarious.
Faced with the choice of turning their back on a taxpayer funded CT comp or continuing to violate their own rule book.......they changed the rules.
Least they changed it this time. In 2011 they ran Trestles, Rip Curl Search San Fran, and the Quik Pro Noo York in the one year and simply ignored their own rule.
The justification was that RC had a 'floating' license but that didn't stack up against the wording in their own rule book.
Further to Stu's point, the Quik/Roxy Pro license is until 2018 (i.e. one more year to go).
http://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/sport/surf-sports/quiksilver-and-rox...
But as of right now, the Rip Curl Pro has only received government funding up until 2017 (not sure if it has been renewed for next year or not).
http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/worlds-longest-running-surf-event-stays-at...
Thanks guys