HUNTINGTON BEACH, California/USA (Tuesday, December 28, 2010) - On the heels of the 2010 ASP World Tour culmination, the ASP Technical Committee have reassessed and re-evaluated the structure of the newly-instated ASP World Rankings system, slightly altering the points allocation for 2011.

"We have always maintained that 2010 was a bridge season and our target was to re-evaluate at year's end and discuss appropriate alterations moving forward," Brodie Carr, ASP International CEO, said. "The ASP Tech Comm has met and discussed the points' structure at length, taking into account the performance of our athletes this season. With some minor tweaking, we have creating a more dynamic and rewarding structure for surfers starting next season." Moving into this season's final ASP Technical Committee meeting, the surfers, events and ASP administrators recognized three key, underlying philosophies in re-evaluating the points' structure:

- Maintaining and enhancing the race for the undisputed ASP World Champion. - Rewarding winning, and recognizing where/when performance gaps may take place. - Creating enough opportunities for ASP PRIME surfers to qualify for the ASP World Tour, and for ASP Star surfers to get into ASP PRIME events. A necessity to increase the points for ASP PRIME and ASP Star events. "Performance gaps have been identified as the threshold just below a "keeper" result, and areas where surfers are performing at the highest level in terms of format and difficulty," Renato Hickel, ASP World Tour Manager, said. "A specific breakdown on the levels are as follows." Performance gaps were noted in the following areas: - On the ASP World Tour level, after Equal 13th place - At the ASP PRIME level, after Equal 13th place - At the ASP 6-Star level, after Equal 9th place ASP World Tour-specific Notes: - World Tour 13th place kept at previous years 17th place - 9th place points have increased by 250 - 5th place points have decreased by 50 ASP PRIME-specific Notes: - ASP International has added five PRIME events to the schedule in 2011, and $1.1 Million in Prize Money - Increase in overall point pool by 70% in opportunity - Points have increased for key performance positions in PRIMES (refer to table) - Change of the format to mirror the ASP World Tour format from the Round of 24 onward - As such, we have identified a performance gap above 13th place - A PRIME win equals an ASP World Tour 3rd place ASP 6-Star-specific Notes: - Rewarding individuals who make the Quarterfinals onward - Rewarding the winners of the 6-Stars A full ASP World Rankings table is available at http://www.aspworldtour.com/pdf/2011PointsStructure.pdf The Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast will open up the 2011 ASP World Tour season utilizing the world-renowned breaks of Australia's Gold Coast from February 26 to March 9, 2011.