The Association of Surfing Professionals is the leading organisation for professional surfers worldwide. It is divided into both the ASP World Tour for men and the ASP Women’s World Tour.
In 2014 it is beginning on the Gold Coast, home to a myriad of previous and current world champions. The tour travels throughout Australia, over to Rio De Janeiro, throughout French Polynesia, North America, Europe and ends on a high note on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii.
It is the Olympics of surfing, catwalk of barreling, an environmentalist’s oasis. However, the talk of the town among all stakeholders is the ‘new’ ASP tour. The tour now runs under new private owners and media holders, whereas last year the surfers and individual brands co-owned the sport together.
Riding the new wave
Think of McDonalds’ ‘Big M’ invading your small coastal hometown. This is how many of the competitors and passionate followers of the ASP tour feel with the multinational, billion-dollar companies controlling a fair amount of the tour.
The tour used to hold its own with the surfers working as brands themselves, and surfwear brands such as Billabong forking out huge expenses to hold and advertise events. Everyone knows that Billabong has struggled over the past few years, and these expenses just add another stressor.
Samsung was announced as holding title sponsorship of the tour in February 2014, after a slightly tumultuous transitional year in 2013 as the ASP gathered its departments and programs.
However, the athletes are not entirely concerned, as competitors such as five-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore states, “…The new ASP, they really want to look after us”.
Here are some of the surfers to watch ahead of the event.
Gabriel Medina
A Gold Coast victory in early March may very well be a prelude to a series of success for Brazilian heartthrob Gabe Medina. The twenty-year-old revelled in hype that he produced after grabbing our attention by winning two events in his first year on the tour in 2011.
We must wait to see his results from Bells and Margarets as a prelude to the rest of his performances. This will lead to form in the Pacific, an ability to execute perfection in home waters in Rio, and previous possession of the back half of the tour is a huge benefit.
Brazilian cheer filled with Portugese passion will be heard from halfway across the globe if Gabe is to live up to millions of expectations this coming tour.
John John Florence
Hawaiian born and bred John John Florence – ‘JJ’ – possesses an almost otherworldly understanding of the waves of the North Shore of Oahu. The 21-year-old infiltrated our minds in early 2006, as he became the youngest surfer to compete in the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing.
In the years following, he has competed consistently and won the Vans World Cup of Surfing in December 2011, and in doing so was the youngest ever to claim this title. Even more recently, in December 2013 John John made surfing history after what was called ‘surfing’s best trick of all time’.
The “Alley Oop’ was completed without flaw as John John used the powerful waves in Keramas to force his board eight feet into the air, spinning 360 degrees and landing with the grace of a prima ballerina.
His fist pump straight after conveyed his knowing that he had just gone down in surfing history. In this same competition he was runner up to Kelly Slater, a feat in itself.
Kelly Slater
Kelly Slater is like red wine – he gets better with age. ‘The King of Pipe’ will not be departing from competitive surfing after winning the 2013 Billabong Pipe Masters, the 56th elite tour triumph of his almost everlasting career.
Rather, what Slater has in store for the ASP this year is unprecedented. His physical abilities are unquestionable even at the ripe old age of 42, but the end of the 2013 tour set his heart of fire and his mind boiling over.
Interviews shown after a loss to Mick Fanning from Australia showed a complacent and humble Slater. However only a fool would not have been able to see the King already plotting his 2014 comeback, stating “I don’t know what happens for me in 2014 but I think that has pissed me off just enough to come back.”
Mick Fanning
Australia went crazy for our Fanning AKA ‘White Lightning’ when he struck gold, winning the 2013 ASP World Tour. Fanning came out on top after beating Kelly Slater by a mere margin of a single heat.
Fanning now joins an exclusive group of talented human beings who are three-time world champions; Mark Richards, Tom Curren and Andy Irons.
Controversially, Fanning’s dominance at the end of 2013 was ridiculed to an extent, as some reasoned that Kelly possessed the higher wave average throughout the tour.
Many believe that this a strong foundation for the title of ASP World Tour champion and that Mick was unworthy. However this is and never has been the criterion for the winner of the World Title.
The win was fair, yet this title is not giving him the praise that Slater will always have. To put it one way, Mick Fanning won his third world title, and Slater did not win his twelfth.
Joel Parkinson
More often than not he stands inches below the winner, on the runners-up section of the podium. Joel Parkinson possesses one World Title that he gained via consistency throughout the year, yet without any single event win of 2012.
2013 was promising for ‘Parko’ after he won the Oakley Pro Bali in June, however his performance slightly diminished over the coming vital months of competition, leaving the quest for his second World Title less promising.
The 31-year-old is considered the ‘King of Style’, consistently performing and changing with the evolution of the aerial play. After losing to Gabe Medina on home ground on the Gold Coast earlier this year, there is no doubt that he can park a few more near-perfect aerials to hike his way up the ladder during the year.
To make the ‘Tour’ is a coveted feat that little grommets across the globe aspire to. Its prestige is noted in its multi-billion dollar sponsors, the household names of the competitors and the most decent prize money that is vied for at the end.
As the surfing industry grows exponentially, it is practical that the sponsors and support does too. The surfers of our generation are going to be remembered for decades to come.
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