Semi Pro Shakedown: Treat 'em mean...
Beauty I've always missed, with these eyes before.
Just what the truth is, I can't say anymore.
- Moody Blues, Nights in White Satin
I’m not gonna lie here people. I value your readership too much to dick you all around with rambling sentences pretending to know what’s happening. Like many pro surfing tragics out there, I’m still processing everything about the ‘new’ tour myself.
The ASP or ZoSea, well…whoever they are, they’ve never lied to us either. To lie you have to first say something. As you may have guessed I'm gonna talk about behind the scenes action. I'll get to the surfing, I promise, but first I gotta get something off my heaving chest...
Back in October of 2012 (yes, 2012!) Tim Baker wrote:
“My advice to the ASP’s new owners would be to start some plain-talking dialogue with the surfing media and public to let them in on precisely what their “vision” is. There is already a significant cynicism and jadedness towards the pro tour out there in the surfing community and secret backroom machinations left unexplained will only increase this.”
Fast-forward to March 2014 and ZoSea have done a pretty shit job at communicating their intentions to us. Had they forewarned us about advertising, copyright ownership and the protection of their intellectual property – ie: the surfers, their surfing, and the slice of ocean real estate they’re doing it in – we might have had a year or so to wrap our heads around the new version of pro surfing.
Instead it's the feeling of not being worthy enough to talk straight with us that has many punters offside with the whole 2014 Samsung Galaxy ASP World Championship Tour. People feel slighted.
And, perhaps, so they should.
This is all a short-term side effect though, we will all adjust to the new format. Once the surfing becomes our focus we’ll soon forget about the white noise surrounding the tour and how they present it.
This afternoon my email and Facebook inbox was filled with people unhappy with the webcast. From excessive advertising force-fed into our discerning orifices, to the ‘Americanisation’ of the webcast from incensed Aussies with little tolerance for the Californian drawl.
A big adjustment from last year is the access of surfers. I remember talking to Kelly in Fiji, and he told me a big improvement to the ZoSea era of the ASP would be to make the surfers more accessible.
I think he might have been taking the piss.
To talk to a surfer now, any surfer at all, the process is, well...it's a process. Gone are the post-heat winner interviews and in its place is this:
... if you want to talk to an athlete, you have to fill out a form, state your purpose for wanting to talk to them, give them your mobile phone number. Annnnnnnnnd then wait to see if your phone rings.
Then the form reads:
"And a member of our team will be in contact with you, if we can accommodate your request."
The media is kept well away from the surfers now.
I put in a request to speak to Joel, I’ll keep you updated to its progress. It surely can’t escape the suits that the new ASP need the media, more than the media needs the new ASP?
Hark! I hear you...enough with the politics, lets talk about the action, and there was a bucketful of it.
Let's start with Dane. Yes Dane, in a coloured singlet, at Snapper. The wave was his microphone and he sung it like Sinatra. He was this, that, and everything else. I’d have lodged a media request to speak to him as well, but my pen ran out of ink, then a dog ate my request form.
After his heat Dane said he feels like his confidence has returned. I’m a hack when it comes to surfing, and I know how much confidence works with wave riding. From hitting the lip to the lines you draw, it all feeds off confidence. If Dane has truly found his confidence, he will make noise. Dane is entering a number of 6-Stars this year (already put the entry forms in!) and the 'QS is now best five results, not best eight. This means less work on the 'QS slog to get a leg up to the 'CT. Less work - Dane - 'CT. That story is writing itself.
Did you know only one goofy has ever won at Snapper? Yep, in 2004 Mick Lowe porkbarrelled himself across the bank and past AI to win. Will another goofy ever win here? Will another goofy ever win the world title?
I spoke with dear old Occy at Bells Beach last year and asked him who the best goofy on tour was. He deliberated for about six-minutes. Seriously. We stood in the Bells car park with our hands in our pockets looking at out feet for six minutes. I’m not kidding, six-freaking-minutes we stared at our feet!
Then he offered me, “Gabby. Definitely Gabby.”
Medina’s body of work is far from complete, but after today the Occ wasn’t just staring at his feet and counting his laces. He’s onto something. Gabby is a whole other surfer to Mick Lowe but he's got the fast twitch reflexes to hit a lip quick and the contortion skills to work in and around the barrel without losing speed. He needed that that skill set today in the zippering 3-footers.
You know you’re on the Gold Coast when the guy in front of you in the café line, has YOLO tattooed to his calf muscle in comical cursive writing. If that’s not an indictment of someone literally losing the capacity to give a shit, I don’t know what is.
If I were anywhere else in the world, this guy’s calf muscle decorations would really be fucking with my head. But on the Gold Coast? It would be fucking with my head if I didn’t see things like this. But I digress...
Just after midday the tide started bottoming out and the entertainment heats hit the water. Top seeds versus low seeds. But of course the 'low seeds' are wildcards - in this case Dane - or Trials winner - Read: Matt Banting.
Banting is on a tear. Young guy won Surfest, then the Quik Trials and today he really took it up to Kelly, even led for a good portion of the heat. He's got all the moves but lacks something. 20 kgs maybe? He looks spindly and those transitions between moves just look ungainly. At present he's a great case of substance over style, yet it's style - those unspoken moments leading into and out of manouvres - that woo the judges. One thing though, the young guy has confidence. Banting and Dane for 2015 'CT qualification?
It's hard to comment on the surfing without pointing out a glaring change. We surfed 12 heats today, at least six of them in 3-4 foot low tide Snapper with speed sections, ramps, and barrels. The surfers were twitching like greyhounds before a dishlicker derby, and yet only one wave scored over 9 points! Hard to believe unless you, like me, think that something has changed with the judges scale. I tried to find out but it appears the Head Judge is as hard to reach as the surfers. When or if my form comes back I'll let you readers know what's happening.
From my perspective a raised scoring ceiling is great; give the surfers more latitude to go for broke, reward them when they do.
Slater, Joel, Mick, Dane, and hell, even Bede Durbidge put together waves of such power and complexity that they'd have been automatic 9's on last year's scale. Today it was high 7s and 8s. Treat 'em mean, keep 'em keen. That's a creed I can get on board with, and come to think of it isn't it the same creed the new ASP has adopted? No cut lunch, no interviews, no smiles, but I'll be back there tomorrow, dear readers, and you'll be watching the webcast too I bet. //CRAIG BRAITHWAITE.
Comments
Thanks Craig good wrap, I will be watching but not listening. Geez that seppo drawl in an Aussie contest grates on me and that silly desk thing what is going on there have these guys got any creative clue? Why do they have to slavishly follow other sports rather than thinking a bit more laterally? Are the Yanks that ignorant that they can't handle another accent when the contest is in another country? I want to hear the Seth Africans when it is there, and the French accent when it is there. Spice of life. That ASP logo looks like something out of the late 80's and the advertisement is like a blunt axe, makes Rupert looks sophisticated. It is is surfing after all. The surfing was incredibly though. Re' access to the surfers it seems it is going the same way as footy and cricket which is a shame.
Yeah I agree, mate.
Surfing is such a unique pursuit, we could be blazing our own path and doing it our own way. Instead we are following an already worn professional sports path (American sporting leagues).
The whole direction we're now taking seems counter-intuitive to me.
Spot on
B I N G O
@braithy you reckon rabbit would comment to you on the ASP ?
after hours of course.
Funny you mention him Udo!
I crossed paths with Bugs, he nodded his head, I said hi. I slowed dow to talk. He sped up and went up some stairs to where I couldn't go. ha!
same ol Bugs....I think the commentary has been lame,and the advertising also looks pretty jaded.....what we really need is some surf.....
whats the swellnet prediction for the ret of the waiting period??
The last forecast notes I prepared was on Friday - I'll have a new one up shortly and will link to it then. But in short: plenty of similar trade swell for the next few days.. nothing significant otherwise. So Kirra isn't gonna happen.
Yeah MC, Bugs is a classic. If you get him on a good day, he'll talk about the most insightful things you've ever heard.
I hope you're doing well. I follow your instagram account and love all the big boards and travels you've been getting up to.
If I'm down at bells, I'll put in an order for a board!
Braithy, you mite even have to fill out one of those forms in order to talk to him.
Geez,not sure I lay that low.....???
The amount of negative feedback all over the asp's website and social media channels regarding the broadcast is unprecedented, and goes way beyond the regular, expected whingers. It will be interesting to see if there's any kind of response or change...
I really would like to stress, I think the ASP will take criticism on board, and they will be prepared to adapt and change to suit their core fan base.
You might wonder how I could say that.
But what I see: They (The ASP) want to be better at all the things they do, and they do work ridiculously, bloody hard. You marry those two attributes, and there is hope.
It will come down to ZoSea and Speaker and how 'surfing' he wants the business to be.
According to a previous article here on Swellnet, isn't the interesting to note that ASP mgmt's stated their reasoning for NOT hiring commentators was because of their accent, as bigoted as one can get?
No Jake Patterson or Dooma,.... ASP, FU on that decision.
What gets me is the fact the Americans think they own the sport. Even if you count the Hawaiian crew as yanks, the aussies nearly outweigh them 2-1 in representation.
I get the fact the big business backing is probably needed to make the tour possible the way it is, but why aren't we putting pressure on the ASP to think outside the box.
why not BHP as the major sponsor? Does the ASP really think the US is their only market here?
anyway, 15 minutes until i stop pretending to work and start watching the broadcast
No mention of Josh Kerr lighting it up? He looked on fire to me and also full of the much mentioned confidence...
One thing that shits me is the on air graphics - this isn't Sunday Night NFL people! The whole 3D rendered spinning ASP globe and the backdrops for high scores etc seem so out of touch and a complete disconnect from the new hipster look and feel of the ASP. It's almost as though the graphics team were given an entirely different brief or none at all and ran with what they know - e.g a cliched US tv sports style
Yeah, Josh was ripping and I'm really into his boards too. Love his complete repertoire too. Josh seems to surf the 3-man heats with a gay abandon, but can kinda tighten up when it's 2-man eliminations.
If he goes through to the quarters in his next heat, that's around the time he'll start to tighten. If history is a guide. Who knows he could have a break through event.
"You know you’re on the Gold Coast when the guy in front of you in the café line, has YOLO tattooed to his calf muscle in comical cursive writing. If that’s not an indictment of someone literally losing the capacity to give a shit, I don’t know what is."
Almost spat my mouthful of steaming hot water all over the screen!!! Thanks for the great write up and the laughs Braithy.
Great real write up, love ya style CB
I might be absolutely missing something here, another 4 letter acronym, what does YOLO stand for....?
Does it come with a post code as well.
Hang on Welly, this needs caps lock brother.
YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE
Is this a Snapper (GC) thing or something.....?
Anyways how are they to know that, I'm pretty sure I've meet a few people who have been dogs in their past life time and it wasn't living on 'Pluto'
Cheers for the heads up CB
Rough day Wellz?
It's a gen Y thing, I think.
When you can't be arsed writing a proper article or comment you deliver shit in point form. Here's mine:
Adriano was on point in Manly, destroying Julian Wilson in the final. There's no doubt about Adriano's passion, but he's been taken down too easily in left hand barrels. This has to be a technique thing... I remember Brutus saying Adriano surfed the most at Bells out of any of the pros, to learn the wave and he also stayed in Hawaii (his cryptonite) and got to the final volcom pro 2014. So he is trying to improve.
I've been away surfing but I just can't get into this years tour at all, but if Gaby gets rid of the family I reckon he's the one.
I ve gotta say the surfing so far has been sick and the three man priority seems to work really well. Three surfers equals more waves ridden. One of the biggest faults with modern pro surfing is the amount of dead time while someone with priority waits for a bomb and the other bloke waits for his turn. I know man on man changed pro surfing for the better, but maybe it has outgrown man o man.
Also, Kerr's wave was shit hot.
I haven't watched a lot of it but I have to say, naming no names, there was some particularly ugly surfing on Sunday. There should be a points deduction for bouncing and further deductions for performing pointless mini turns in dribbly end sections. More realistically I think there is a case for an aesthetic component to the score. It wouldn't need to be anything extreme, say 0.5pt that was awarded more or less automatically unless there were clear aesthetic problems.
bring back jake patto on the commentary to replace some of "the most boring commentators on the planet"(surely punters will know who i mean).surfing has always thrived on its characters and the commentary is no different.i reckon surfing can surpass other mainstream sports with a more light hearted and humourous approach to the webcast while still giving a professional analysis of the contest.as braithy said 'surfing is such a unique pursuit ' it needs to be portrayed that way
Kerry O Keefe's not doing the cricket anymore...
Commentary is killing me. They maybe trying to appeal to mainstream USA with Pat Parnell as anchor man. But his knowledge of the sport & competitors is shite! Didn't know how to pronounce Raoni's name little own who he was. He does get genuinely excited when Kelly's on screen tho....so many cuts & hits!!
Piss poor effort that
The solution to the commentary mess:
Ron Burgundy teamed with Roy & HG. Nelson. Only then could that f'ing horrible desk be bearable.
@braithy, Mark Warren .....where is he ? at the comp , no mention of him no interviews have you sighted him ?
He's not on the Goldy, udo.
So who was the rather insistent female stalker chasing Ol' Baldy in and out of the water on Sunday?
Didn't see if security did anything and I didn't hear if the commentators mentioned it as i had the sound turned down, for obvious reasons discussed above.
My vote for commentary is Roy and HG - can turn down the sound like we used to for the State of Origin.
Dane can be the Datsun 200B - too many options!
I see the Heat Analyser no longer exists. How the hell am I supposed to bypass all the commentary pap and just watch the surfing?
It certainly is there - at the far right hand of the submenu.
http://www.aspworldtour.com/events/mct/639/quiksilver-pro-gold-coast/hea...
So it is, cheers Ben.
Interesting that one must log in to watch it as opposed to watching a whole heat.
Hope its not an email address, then we are all getting Samsung, Go Pro emails, more spam, more shit more junk.
And Samsung is one of the biggest data miners out there,
Palmymick, the stalker translation was- why don't you pay your child support you prick !
Mark warren recently given the flick by Quicksilver ? ?
udo - given its at Cooly, a few pros could be asked that question!!
Why...!
hey welly surfed Lanikea a couple of weeks ago and ran into mark W out there....he was there for 3 weeks and just now doing surf trips..another who didn't survive the slaughter at quiky......
No worries Brutus,
I thought this disscussion had turned into Child support stuff.
Which I have witnessed from my wife and her ex.....?
Classic interpretation, sorry :) I was gonna get nasty. hahahha
When is the goldy going to live up to its hype and actually get some of the amazing waves it is renowned for for the competition? can't remember the last time it was day after day of crazy 4-5ft waves and it was who could get the sickest rides/barrels not who could find the 'growers'? they REALLY need a cyclone!!
I wish everyone would shut up and remember last year... I watched most events on the Portuguese stream with no sound bcs the english one would go down ever 2-3 minutes due to the lack of bandwidth... It may not be perfect yet but it's a hell of a lot better than before and it seems to be getting better daily, including the ads.
Just a thought, if they aren't using certain Aussie commentators because of of their accents then surely they need to start showing subtitles when interviewing Aussie surfers or have a Californian interpreter on hand.
Too patronising? Exactly ASP and ZoSea....
Got more chance of teaching all the Aussie participants to " Sign " ( for the deaf / Yank translation ) as well as speak native tongue ...that way ZoSea get to save $ on Interpreters ...
I wonder what the "sign " for Stoked is .... and then repeated/ emphasised ? .
Its pretty easy to work out the sign actions for " Commissioner Perrow " , maybe he could signal [ via giant spotlight of the ASP symbol into the sky .... ] that he's made a Decision and hence the commentators cross live to him . For the decision ?
The Women's event has turned into a bikinis vs booty shorts affair.
My money's on Bikinis.
as to the continuing of complaints...
Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.
-Salvador Dali
I don't think crew are after perfection...Zosea's division - a race to the lowest common demnominator is what things have come to which sours the whole deal.
'Salvador Dali'
That quote is right on the bikini ;)
Stick Picasso's "I am always doing things which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it" along side Dali's quote and it covers pretty much everything we do.
On the subject of the Heat Analyser, WTF, no HD viewing. Either I'm going blind as well as stupid or are we subversively being forced to watch entire heats?
All new to me TGF,
Tell you the truth can't be arsed watching it at the mo, pretty small, shame.
Typical goldie stuff. I could go down the road and watch it from the beach...Probably a good perv as well.
I'm scared that Stu (SN) will recocnise me as "Tow Man".....? That ugly head with green undies on it.
On the subject back to the Heat Analyser, WTF, no drone footage,,,,!
Thats where your skills come in :)