Stuart Nettle September 22, 2009

I've always been great at identifying things that are gonna go wrong in an operation. It's an innate ability I have, and it's both a gift and a scourge. Though my girlfriend would say it's just a scourge: “Don't point out faults unless you know how to fix them” is her common retort. So I've learnt to bite my tongue and sit in silence. But not now! Not that I have any solutions to offer mind you. Just that it's my column and I can say what I want. So here goes... Progressive surfing and competition will never work well together. Of course I write this with thoughts of the proposed Rebel Tour in mind. What I mean by this is that if 'progressive surfing' is the criteria that professional surfing hinges itself on then it can look forward to constant upheavals, such as the one it's going through now (and has gone through in the past). Competition surfing is simply trying to throw the net of objectivity – point scores, ratings etc – over a sport that we all know is inherently subjective. We know it's subective, there's no way to shake that, so competition is always gonna be a 'best fit' scenario. The limits get set, the benchmarks defined, and then in a few years time, as surfing progresses, the kids will begin performing out on the fringes of the criteria. Thus will begin the next revolt. Let's drop into hypothetical mode for a moment. Let's pretend the ASP adopts a new criteria, one that is more inclined toward progressive surfing. I ask: have you ever seen how many times a freesurfer will try a kerrupt flip when he's shooting for a clip? The success rate ain't high and you would never expect spectators to watch nine failed attempts to maybe see one. Same goes for any high risk move. Back to the real world... Of course progressive surfing doesn't have to be all about manouvres, the barriers can also be pushed in big surf. Well the ASP brought Chopes onto the Dream Tour with that purpose in mind, yet just how many times has it broken properly for the competition? Not once in the last five years. How can a rebel tour fix that? Even longer waiting periods?? I hate comparing surfing to other sports (at least when other other people do it) but I can see surfing's current crisis as akin to what happened in motorcross. For many years motorcross was an end to end race. Of course there was still room for pushing the boundaries, setting records and creating heroes. But in the last ten years freestyle motorcross came along and hugely increased the popularity of the sport. This despite there being no competition in freestyle moto and no world champion. It doesn't seem to bother the followers. Nor has it harmed the bank balance of fellas like Robbie Maddison or the Crusty Demons. We might have to accept that the subjective traits of progressive surfing will never match the objective  restraints of competition surfing. That the two don't match. And that progressive surfing may have to be packaged in one way and competition another. Of course the issue of progressive surfing going unrewarded was only one of the gripes from Kelly and his cohorts. From all the media spinning around now it seems the main issue is money – the pros don't get paid enough. I also know what's wrong with that complaint but the pros won't like to hear it one bit.