Stuart Nettle January 5th, 2010 The snowball keeps rolling... The biggest story of last year - aside from Mick getting over the top of Parko for the crown that is - was the threat of the Rebel Tour (or Champions Tour, or Kelly's Tour, the actual name is a bigger mystery than who'll be competing on it). Once the story broke, speculation about the new tour caused a flood of rumours in the surfing world. This was despite the Rebel Tour organisers effectively stonewalling the media. Whether the stonewalling was a deliberate ploy to withhold information, or the organisers simply didn't have any information to withhold is another whole chapter that can be speculated on. Whatever the reason, I've never seen a story travel so far on so little. It got more mileage than a Prius running downhill. Back in October, the ASP responded to the Rebel Tour threat by proposing new changes to their World Tour. The changes included: a trimmed-down field; a unified ranking system; and bigger purses. When Brodie Carr and the boys fronted the media to announce the changes things were happening so quickly that they only had time to vaguely outline the shape but not define the specifics. That was to come at a later date. Last Tuesday the ASP released those changes. To read a press release plans that includes an explanation on how the 'One Ranking' system will work click here. I suggest you take your time reading it, there's a bit to digest. And if, when you come to the end, you don't fully understand how it's gonna work...well, take heart, 'cause I don't either. But then neither do the ASP, at least not fully, as evidenced by this passage: "2010 will be used to better analyse the results of the ASP One Ranking system before finalising." Now, I understand that the World Tour is a work in progress. It always has been. But 2010 looks like being a year of great uncertainty, both for the surfers and the spectators. I suspect that if the ASP is to avoid confusion and backlash they are going to have to do a far better job of explaining how this system is going to work. And if they don't manage to pull that off I fear that the 2010 world title will be spoken of in the same way as CJ Hobgood's 2001 title. You know, not quite valid. Let's hope that isn't the case. 2009 was, in my eyes, one of the better years of competition and it'd be great to back that up with an even better year. Yet unless the ASP can take control I have an uneasy feeling that, even if the Rebel Tour dies a quiet death, the destabilising effects of it are going to be felt well into 2010, and possibly well beyond.