Surfers Calling Shots; Can They Avoid a Wipeout?

It is the most recognizable surf spot on the globe because of the wave--that crystal blue wall of water spilling over itself into a perfect tube--and the name:

Banzai Pipeline.

And it’s the birthplace of extreme sports.

Ever since Californian Phil Edwards paddled out and awed his peers, who had watched the wave for years and deemed it impossible to ride, and Hawaiian Butch Van Artsdalen proved man and surfboard could disappear into the “green room”--that hollow between wave and cascading crest--and exit alive, Pipeline has been the ultimate test for the world’s best surfers.

For the better part of 30 years, it has been the final stop on the Assn. of Surfing Professionals World Championship Tour, the place where world title hopes have soared and often been squashed into the coral reef that lurks a few feet below the surface.

It’s the place where Gerry Lopez became a living legend as he stood in two-story-sized tubes with the casual ease of man waiting for a bus while everyone else flailed about, looking as if they were about to ride a bathtub over Niagara Falls.

It’s the place where a flamboyant Kelly Slater, seemingly hopelessly behind in the rankings with no chance to take over the No. 1 spot, faced the biggest and best Pipeline had to offer, toying with its towering barrels to win the event and capture two of his record-setting six world championships in 1995 and ’96.

Still, it probably shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that the ASP--which just can’t understand why the mainstream media refuses to embrace professional surfing--has blundered upon yet another marketing nightmare: The executive board voted this week to change the 2001 schedule so the tour will begin at Pipeline in February and end in September at Trestles.

Let’s see . . . tradition, history, excitement, drama, one of the world’s best venues, what’s that got to do with selling your sport? The move is akin to having spring training at Dodger Stadium and the World Series at a sandlot in Westminster.

But these are surfers, after all, and this is not an industry known for its business acumen.

In recent years, the ASP has managed to foul up sponsorship deals with Coke and G-Shock and a major television package with British media giant CSI, to name just a few faux pas on a list longer than a longboard.

When hiring a new president/CEO recently, they turned down the former head of a major broadcasting company in favor of former world champion Wayne “Rabbit” Bartholomew, who reportedly scribbled his resume on a cocktail napkin, copied it and faxed it in at the last minute when surfers on the board begged him to apply.

“Twice before [in 1983 and ‘87] the final event was moved from the North Shore [to Australia],” said Randy Rarick, director of the Pipeline Masters and a long-time member of the ASP board. “Both times it was an ill-fated decision and everyone realized it.

“But this is a new generation of surfers and they think they have the answers. I voted against it and told them to mark my words.”

The changes in the schedule are intended to improve the chances of the waves being good--the bottom line in any devoted surfer’s existence--by putting the events in the time slots most conducive to that end.

But in the end, there’s a good chance it will backfire.

Lower Trestles, a point break just south of San Clemente that can produce one of the Southland’s best waves, could be great in September with a nice south swell, but it could also look almost like Huntington Beach did early Wednesday: small, blown-out mush.

At Pipeline and most other WCT events, there is almost a two-week window for surfing, allowing promoters to wait for good waves. Because of state restrictions, the Trestles contest is limited to five consecutive days and can include only one weekend day.

So it’s entirely possible next year’s world championship will be decided in slow, crumbly little wind chop.

Slater retired just in time.

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

Professional surfers own 50% of the WCT and they recently formed a management group called the World Professional Surfers in an effort to get better venues and improve prize money. The group’s behind-the-scenes driving force is retired British businessman Greville Mitchell, who came to love the sport and met the athletes while vacationing in Lacanau, France, during a WCT stop years ago.

With Mitchell’s advice and the help of Bartholomew, who voted with the pro surfers to provide a six-vote majority on the 11-member executive board, they rewrote the schedule and just about doubled their prize money for next year’s tour.

Purses were raised from $135,000 per event for the men to $250,000 and from $30,000 to $60,000 for the women. The Huntington Beach event--because it has “standard” rather than premier waves, according to the WPS--will have to come up with $350,000 in prize money and move to September if it wants to keep its WCT status.

The ASP sanctioning fee also was raised from $25,000 per event to $50,000.

For example, Billabong, an Australian-based apparel firm with a large North American operation headquartered in Irvine, sponsors four WCT events, including the one at Trestles. They face about $1 million in increased fees next year.

Event sponsors have until Sept. 17 to consider the increases and make final decisions, so the schedule is still up in the air.

The ASP has not significantly boosted purses in the past decade, so the surfers are certainly entitled to a raise, but a jump of nearly 100% in one year may be too much for some sponsors to swallow.

“I’m sure we’ll probably lose some events,” said San Clemente’s Shea Lopez, ranked No. 17 in the world, “but something had to be done. It’s gotten to the point that if you have to travel [to an event] and you don’t finish third or better, you lose money.”

And what happens if the sponsors join forces--as the surfers have--and just say no?

“We’re prepared to take a year off if we have to,” Lopez said. “We can’t keep going at this rate.”

The surfers have taken a big gamble, taking off on a financial aerial if you will.

We’ll see if they can land it.