The Outsider: Know Your Product
Said advertising, you're lying Never gunna get me what I want. I said smooth talking, brain washing Ain't never gonna get me what I need.
The Saints. Know your Product.
Following my reportage from Bells there was heat over my sycophantic coverage of Parko's win and grief from the ASP over the tone of my coverage, particularly as it related to the direction of the Dream Tour. Perhaps they were concerned about a negative impression being created amongst the pros over the new direction the sport is heading in. Which is to say, unless you've been hiding under a rock, the return to the city beachbreak. We'll deal with both these issues in the name of transparency and 'knowing your product'. Both my own and that of the ASP.
Let's begin with Joel. In another lifetime I worked for a small Queensland surf rag. Myself and an associate wrote the first story on a 15-year old Joel Parkinson (and Dean Morrison). It was a stupid story, dressing Joel and Dean up as inner city cops, and running a Dirty Harry theme through it. Joel was an innocent kid, living at home with his Dad, Brian, in a small brick house nestled in the back streets of the 'Gatta. On that first trip I saw Joel take an old single fin from behind my mates house and put on a seamless display of fluid surfing straight from the seventies textbook. "This kid is an artist" became my immediate and sustained thought, which I hold to this very day.
Later, back at Brian's house, Brian pulled me aside. "Whaddya reckon? Has he got what it takes? I don't want him to end up laying bricks for a living like me".
I shrugged my shoulders at this man who carried an air of sadness and unimpeachable dignity in his watery eyes. Coolangatta had seen a rich seam of surfing talent turn into train wrecks...how the hell would I know if the kid would live out a different destiny and do justice to his talent.
I had no contact with Joel for many years after that. Years in which he became part of the Cooly 3 and a bona fide surf star who would never have to worry about waking in the dark with a crook back to go lug bricks for his daily bread.
Now, more than 15 years later, when I see Joel surf I still see that 15-year old kid surfing with rare artistry and his old man with the watery eyes and the strange yearning sadness. We're all emotional beings, and this produces a kind of bittersweet joy/sadness in me that only a world title would assuage. I wonder what came to him in the dead of night after the world title choke and the savage injury? What kind of secret reservoirs of shame and pride overflow and spill their psychic contents into the deepest marrow of his soul when he is alone with himself?
Bottom line: If Joel does win a World Title I'll be bawling like a nana at the Royal Wedding.
Every journo has a kind of history, why should it be hidden in the background? Objectivity and impartiality are a myth. I've got history with Davo too. But that is a tale for another time. Probably when either or both of us are pushing up daisies.
Now, the ASP. I'm pretty sure I know the source of the heat and if I had to guess I'd say he has more World Titles to his name then anyone. To get a clearer idea of the direction the ASP is heading I lined up an interview with head honcho Brodie Carr. Brodie's a hard man to put under the blow torch. He's friendly, charming, funny and with silky smooth people skills. This is is the hardest I could go sports fans:
Brodie Carr: I got a little bit of time here so let's smash this shall we?
The Outsider: OK, can we do this?
BC: Yep, lets do it.
TO: The big question on everyone's lips is what happened to the Dream Tour? We lost Cloudbreak and Mundaka and gained Rio, NYC and San Francisco.
BC: Well, Cloudbreak was lost a long time ago and Rio is another Brazilian event. It's a transfer of one to the other. And Mundaka was replaced by Peniche, which is pretty good. So my take on all that is that we've added New York, which, from a media perspective, is huge. It's gunna be massive. Is it the end of the Dream Tour? (pauses)...It's finding that balance between world class quality wave events and having massive media exposure. If we don't reach the mass market then we'll be stuck with the core industry and the core followers, so we need to try and expand and reach the mass market.
TO: So, is this an admission that the previous direction of the ASP in heading to exotic locales has been reversed to gain mass market acceptance?
BC: No. It's just finding that balance between exotic locales and incredible waves and some mainstream ones as well. And it's taking into consideration where sponsors want to put their money. I can't find a sponsor for Fiji. It's a great location. Slater wants to go back there. I want to go back there. It's a question of finding a sponsor that wants to invest in Fiji and feels comfortable with the media exposure that comes from there. It costs a lot to put on an event. Around three million bucks. So sponsors want to make sure they're getting a return on that investment.
TO: OK, let's dig a little deeper. What are the impediments to holding an event at exotic locales like Indonesia?
BC. Sponsor. That's it.
TO: So it just comes down to bucks?
BC: There's no other restrictions except for having someone put three million dollars on the table.
TO: OK.
BC: We might be back there soon. I'm working on a couple of deals. It's a constant search to find the perfect balance. Our goal is to have six Primes and six WT events in the first half of the year and six of each in the second half of the year..
TO. OK, let's change tack. What would you say to the average surf fan who thinks having the surf companies/event sponsors on the board as part of the management structure is a conflict of interest and is holding back the sport?
BC: That's a big comment.
TO: It's been a recurring criticism.
BC: Is it holding it back?
TO: Well a lot of people say for the sport to progress it needs to move outside the traditional event sponsors.
BC: OK, well, what we need to remember is the surf brands have supported the ASP since the beginning and without them we wouldn't have an ASP. It's black and white. If you look at the structure of the ASP board we moved to a more independent model, so that's a positive move with more independence so the balance of power is not held by any one stakeholder. We have athlete representation on the board and I think that's healthy because we have to build a tour that the athletes wanna go to.
TO: The webcast is obviously vital in making the tour accessible to fans. There's been improvement but there's still legitimate complaint that they cut to ads when there's live action etc etc. What is the ASP doing to make sure there's a consistent high quality webcast for each event?
BC: We have a number of measures in place. The ideal situation would be to have an ESPN style webcast where there is consistent commentators and a more consistent production. We're moving slowly towards that. It's not something that can change overnight because webcasting is expensive. The other thing we have in place is guidelines on number of ads that are meant to be run and the length of time they're meant to be run. They're not meant to be run when waves are being ridden so the production guys need to be on their game, so there are guidelines and standards.
TO: Is there a post mortem after the event? Because quite obviously at Bells there were a lot of waves missed while ads were being run. Mick's best wave was missed with no replay. Lost.
BC: Yes, we've been discussing ads being run while waves were being ridden at Bells.
TO: Okay, cool.
OS: When you first came into the job as CEO you stared down the prospect of a Rebel Tour, could you give us an insight as to how that played out?
BC: Yeah, it was just a conspiracy theory Kelly and I dreamt up to get more money for the surfers, there was no Rebel Tour.
TO: Yeah, okay...
BC: I'm only joking. (laughs)
TO: Yeah, I figured that.
BC: In the end we sat down with the surfers and said 'what do you want, what's important?' They said, 'what's important is an undisputed world champion', and they wanted to see some changes made on the independence of the board and some more money in their pocket. So we showed them that. If you have two tours then you're going to have something like boxing. Fundamentally, an undisputed world champ was the most important thing for them. The Rebel Tour was great for the ASP, it made us take a step back, have a look at ourselves and make some changes.
TO: OK, we've pretty much covered it. If Rabbits legacy as CEO was being the architect of the Dream Tour what would you like Brodie Carr's legacy to be?
BC: I've got great visions on where I'd like to see the media go and how professionally the sport is run. To be judged against Rabbit is tough, he's a hero of mine, he's a hero of many of us and the Dream Tour is a great concept. Time will tell. Hopefully the sport will be in better shape when I leave than when I got here.
TO: OK. Thanks for your time Brodie.
BC: OK cool, thanks for covering the World Tour.
There ya go sports fans. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Comments
If we don't reach the mass market then we'll be stuck with the core industry and the core followers, so we need to try and expand and reach the mass market....
Go fuck yourself.
Personally I reckon good on Brodie Carr. Beyond anything else I'd like to see the ASP have a bit of transparency. You know, just be upfront with their intentions, and that's exactly what Brodie Carr has done here. Just told us how it is and I reckon you've gotta give him credit for that.
I'd compare this more to Tracy Grimshaw than Jack Kerouac.
I wonder if she catches the bus...
Word ballbag......capitalist rationalism always convinces me as well.
In the process of trying to secure a mainstream following the ASP is going to loose its core support. I'd rather watch Scardy surf Cloudbreak then Slater on a Rio/NY beachie anyday! Can't say I'll be tuning in for that one....
maybe the ASP needs to judge the webcast like the heats. If an ad drops in on live action there is an interference penalty. Live action always has priority
I think Brodie Carr nailed it in the interview. It's not everyones cup of tea, but at least he was forthright and honest.
As much as I'd like to see the top guys go to town at Cloudbreak, I've always, sadly, enjoyed watching good surfers surf crap. That's what makes them good surfers.
I'm torn though, I want to see pro's painting a huge blank canvas, not doodling on a post-it.
What??? Core Followers? Does he really believe other sports have people who don't like watching them actually tuning in?
And in terms of coverage in the mass media, what gets a start on the 6pm news, amazing waves like Tahiti or sloppy onshore mush aerials?
So what is the mission statement of the ASP? Is it to sell more t-shirts or promote and encourage the "core" activity which is surfing? Do we need constant expansion or can we create a more involved and supportive community? Are the most important shareholders the ones who are directly linked (impacted) by a corporations activities or are they the ones for which the profit margin dictates the definition of success?
Sounds like soft rationalism...where's the creativity...the box which contains the thinking...we should break it
I'm glad Brodie was honest through the interview. Credit given. But what sort of a statement is "the dream tour is a great CONCEPT"? It was a reality for fuck sake.
What is your average joe, that knows nothing about surfing, going to prefer to watch. 2' wind blown slop or reeling cloudbreak, chopes,mundaka(if its breaking) indo etc?
I know which legs of the tour I'll be sitting infront of the computer for.
You don't see brazil highlights on the 6.30 mainstream news, but you can garauntee that perfect fiji, chopes etc will get airplay.
Fitzroy, I don't think it's the twenty second slots during the mainstream sports news that the sponsors are attracted to - it's taking over an entire city (or seemingly a country, as per Portugal) for the duration of the event. The large majority of all Victorians probably know when the Rip Curl Pro is in town, and such awareness permeates through the national media, irrespective of the surf.
Events at such locations also allows a wide range of non-competition-orientated stories to fill the media gaps between swells, giving them almost a month of start-to-finish branding.
In contrast, a perfect swell in Fiji will rack up perhaps a couple of twenty second slots in the Australian nightly TV sports reports - if the waves are good - and that's about it for generic coverage (print media will barely give any column space to non-Australian events, and usually only if it's an Australian surfer getting through).
Some of the events try to counteract the small Australian coverage of non-Australian events by flying in sports news teams from one or more networks - but it doesn't guarantee much additional coverage either, unless the waves are perfect.
Good call fitz!
I get to watch people tear up shitty beachies everyday, not blow minds in sick waves.....
Quikky Pro G-Land (98 I think) was the best event ever.....
sales today at the expense of tomorrow, did anyone really expect anything different from a gig run by the big co.'s? evil money grubbers the lot of em.
I understand and agree with you Ben, unless an aussie wins OS you see little on TV and even less in print. But if it's those perfect waves, the mainsteam give a glimpse.
But to attract the general populace, you need to be attractive (re; fiji, tahiti etc) and that sort of 10sec apperance on mainstream news could possibly tease their interest enough to investigate further or want to see more.
Yeah, ok , it might not get them to travel to those places to watch it, but not all your core audience do either. (although many times I have wanted to sit in the channel at fiji or/and tahiti). It just seems that they are going back to the days of "surfabout" etc and that didn't appeal to surfers or spectators, only the event organisers because of "bums on seats"
I know that I only started taking a keen interest in "pro" surfing again when they started the dream tour setup.
Actually fitzroy-21, I reckon the problem is that mainstream TV networks (for example) have a limited amount of airtime for peripherals, which surfing is usually lobbed into. Any small airtime slots for surfing are now frequently being taken up by big wave/death slab footage, which looks equally, if not more impressive on the big screen.
Red Bull have owned this part of the media for the last five or so years. There's barely a death-defying stunt shown on TV that wasn't in some way associated with RB - hats off to them for doing so too.
Such a continual supply of this kind of content makes it even harder for surfing to get any airtime - given a choice between bone-crunching 20ft Shipsterns and perfect 6ft Cloudbreak for the ASP World Tour, and I reckon Shippies would get the nod nine times out of ten. Let alone some clown jumping out of a helium balloon at a hundred thousand feet to fly over the English Channel.
No arguements there.
Although the helium balloon comment gave me a laugh !!
Ben (and Brodie) is spot on. It's all about branding. The sponsors want repeat hits to eyeballs in a captive target market - you just don't get that return if the event is in a remote location and makes a 20sec slot (maybe once or twice - with no branding association) compared with in a city location where people in the target market can attend and be bombarded with experiential branding.
The key concept here is target market and the type of branding exposure. The sponsors aren't targeting core surfers. WHich is why Brody says if the ASP doesn't expand they'll just be left with the core surf market. This isn't the ASP's concern - it's the sponsor's concern. How many core surfers really go into surf shops and buy those crap tshirts/hats etc etc. It's the people attracted to the lifestyle image of the surf market which has been the foundation of the surf companies expansion to global mega companies. Billabong have just announced a joint venture with Universal music.....it's not about surfing and hasn't been for a long time. When these people attend surf comps, most of them wouldn't even really know the details about how the scoring works or why a wave was a 9 instead of a 7. It's about the experience for them - they love being part of the scene even for a short period of time and when this joy is associated with brand hits then that's sponsor gold.
The US open is the ultimate example of all this - the cross promotional exposure for those brands is insane in the middle of the biggest broad cross over market. It's probably one of the biggest comps on the tour and it's not event a WT event.
Which exposes the ultimate irony - if they move too far away from the decent surf then they WILL lose the core surf market - including the surfers (as per 80's junkfests). Once they lose the interest of the surfers and the cool people, why on earth would the followers want to be around?
This is where the balance comes in - if they limit the number of comps (and there are still some comps in great waves), with enough time for the pros to do their free surf stuff in between - then they will probably happily put up with going to NY or SF for a good time.
Whilst the cost of putting on the events is so high - there is no way that model is going to change
Pensky, you have hit the nail on the head.
Reality bites ladies.
The fact is: Billabong made their real money in backpacks, not boardies. Quiksilver may attribute their early core success on brilliantly designed functional boardies, but their real money was made leveraging this core surfer appeal into a mass market leviathan.
And without Rip Curl taking over the event in 1973, the Bells Beach Easter Contest would not be anything like what it is today, if it existed at all.
The big brands have supported and moulded competitive surfing into what it is today as, essentially, a marketing exercise. Professional competitive surfing now has to maintain enough independence to appear legitimate, but the reality is the WCT surfers are sponsored by the top brands who sponsor the contests, and they are the spokespeople and models for those brands, and without those brands they would not be making the kind of money or have the kind of dream surfing destinations available to them that they have.
For the big surf companies it is all about maintaining loyalty from the core surfer by providing them with authentic quality surf products; wetsuits, surfboards, boardies, etc... but then leveraging this loyalty capital into mass market appeal, and selling 20 times or more the revenue of core surf products in apparel, accessories and general crap. Sometimes the two overlap such as the trucker cap phenomenon. Jeez, I hate those flat peak hats. They look soooo bad. But I digress....
Essentially, they are trading in coolness. It's a fashion industry. And so as Brodie has pointed out, quite transparently by the way, which I respect, is that it all revolves around money, and that city surf contests is going to provide them with massive media exposure in the form of a massive media event. And personally I think going to SF, which has to be one of the coolest (and most expensive) cities in the world at the moment, is a very smart marketing move.
The surf companies have to be like political parties - they don't want to alienate their base (core surfers), because that's the energy they use to underpin their 'cool capital', but they need to reach out and expose their brand to the mass market, trading off their stable of dream surfers and lifestyle promotion.
Let's face it. Surfing is a pretty amazing thing, so naturally it's going to get leveraged for every possible penny by people who have an innate sense of business, marketing, and making bucks. That's the surf industry.
And let's face it. Anyone following the Outsider's coverage and writing comments on this post is going to be watching that event anyway. Furthermore, the mass market couldn't give a shit about the webcast. That's to keep the core surfers happy. It's one big dance.
Entertainment.
Allow me the following sweeping generalizations:
There are some who abhor the idea of a “professional surfer.†They consider surfing entertainment to be mainly their own personal experiences, and perhaps watching their friends and other locals ride to the best of their Läird-given abilities. Good for them.
At the same time, there are those willing to buy videos or scour YouTube and Vimeo to watch their favorite surfers get spit out of 87 perfect barrels in a row and pull off insane aerial maneuvers while editors stand knee-deep in the cutting room floor detritus. At best, the clips come out days... but mostly weeks or months after the footage is shot in some exotic locale... and still months later before the polished product reaches the surf shop in a glossy DVD package. Good for them.
Others are willing to pull up a webcast for free on the internet and watch some of the most talented surfers in the world (not including Gabe Kling) surf in real time, in real waves, that real Mo' Nature is lobbing their direction at that very moment. Sometimes the waves are sick. And sometimes the waves are sick. IfyaknowwhatImean. The locations are determined by dollars and donuts. Good for me (though I have spent countless words detailing how this package could be delivered in a more efficient and entertaining manner).
From the ancient gladiators in the pits of the Coliseum and archaic basketball games played by the Mayans at Chichén Itzá to modern day Fútbol and Quidditch, humans have always gravitated towards live sport as the most popular form of entertainment. Even though we know the waves are shitty, and the judges tend to juice a Parko over an Aranburu – we know there is a CHANCE… however minute, that something crazy will happen. Hell, we may even see Bells Beach look like a fun!
The World Tour is surfing entertainment that appeals to that widest common denominator - as Brody "The Great Satan" Carr so eloquently put it. It is not any more core than watching The Patriots play the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl. It is a business enterprise. You can patronize or you can sit and watch packaged video clips or your local hero make himself dizzy on an alaia.
Or you could just go surfing yourself.
But where’s the fun in that?
where's the fun in that post rottmouth ?hardly a swear word or even a scathing summation anywhere....(ok one ,gabe kling ) not going all soft and metrosexual on us are you ....tell me your not on the next dave rastovich odyssey saving the planet with a tube of high class moisturizer! eh gad man !i thought you were harder than chinese algebra and now you're coming out with .......serious comment!!
Substitute the word "balance" with dilute and we get a closer approximation to where the so called Dream Tour is headed.
I was hoping Shearer would have asked him to provide a copy of his birth certificate.
@prawnhead,
Would it help if I told you I typed that whole comment whilst fingering the butthole of Steve Nug's cat?
'Cuz that just happened...
Second tier hijack option , fringe brand (who can't afford one of these comps plus the marketing budget to make it worthwhile) puts up 1 million euros to the highest rated surfer counting only the results from NON beachbreak comps (could include ratings for QS's in real waves also) and call them the Surfers World Champ (or a way better name ). The brand gets plenty of coverage and is talked about all year, whenever the tour or rattings are mentioned . All marketing no effort and while not sustainable (could only see this lasting a couple of years ) would throw the cat amongst the pigeons the same way that rabbits super challenge comps created/influenced the dream tour in the first place
At last the word from the ASP about whats happening. Thankyou Brodie for sheading some light on the subject. It's opened a big can of worms judging by the comments.
My point of view on this has always been selfish. I want to see the best surfers in the world competing in good waves all over the world and coming up with a deserved world champion. I'm not interested in who surfs slop good and I don't want to watch it.
I get the whole bit on the sponsers getting value for their money.
Bums on seats and mainstream media coverage.
Snapper is obviously the God send for this plus pick the right time of year and you have a great chance that the waves will happen as well.
It would seem that Bells would be the same if you had more flexibility with the dates and could use Winkipop.
There must be plenty of locations world wide that fit with this senario.
I might be wrong but wouldn't Malibu or Rincon fit this mould in the States.
Come on ASP, I think you can still satisfy the sponsers needs and have good waves.
I reckon O'Neill probably have the best competition model on tour, with their Cold Water Classic series. The Prime and Star events are much cheaper to run than a World Tour event (they're running four CWC events this year), and O'Neill treat it as their own series - crowning a CWC champion at the completion of the last event who wins an additional $50K. A great incentive for the competitors to prioritise each and every CWC event.
Tie this in with their marketing pitch (an iconic wetsuit company running a event series called the 'Cold Water Classic' in cold, remote locations around the world), and I reckon O'Neill have nailed the most cost effective way to both link in with the competition scene and maintain brand integrity amongst the core surfing community.
I don't want mainstream acceptance.
I know it is a scream in the dark but how do these self important gooses get to direct my/our activity with the only core value of commercialism. We live in a sick world.
Calling surfing 'your' activity sounds pretty self-important to me.
I don't own it. I just do it. Not self important at all. Pretty humble really.
It's funny that the most famous, successful events are the most core of all events, Pipeline and Bells both are the longest running too. I suppose only time will tell. Will NY have 50th year celebration? How about Rio? The one thing about being a fashion is they go out of fashion and then you just have to hope that your core has remained exactly that, CORE. Surfing has come along way on it's core. As i said only Time will tell. I suppose they didn't have to search to hard to find Ocean Beach
It's all about branding. The sponsors want repeat hits to eyeballs in a captive target market - branding association - target market - experiential branding.
The key concept - target market - branding exposure. It's about the experience for them - joy is associated with brand hits - sponsor gold.
The cross promotional exposure - brands - broad cross over market.
the core surf market - Mission statement - core values.
Honestly, if you find yourself ever saying these phrases with anything but the most toxic of sardonic, satiric, ironic intentions then you really have been sucked totally into the black hole of unconscious marketing/business BS that is currently being peddled through myriad university courses.
You have totally bought a perfect non-sequitur sold to you by academics struggling to justify their existence. And the fact is that you knew, in your deeper mind, that you were buying this BS as a means for you to get ahead, even if that same deeper mind also told you that it would cost you your soul.
You have now entered the world of pathetic vessels where a soul used to roam. You have lost something and you don't even have a clue as to what you have lost, or how or why.
And you repeat the BS mantras that cost you your soul, missions statements, core values, key concepts, target markets, not knowing that these are the empty sounds of a shell held to your ear.
But at least a shell provides the sounds of the sea. In your moments of sleeplessness at nights, you know that you are empty, and the silence is deafening.
You are the problem, not the solution.
Brand that, arseholes.
Nice one Olds.
As much as I hate to say it I agree with Mr Carr as far as projecting the image of the sport.
Sometimes you have to take a couple of steps back to move forward and for Mr Carr it’s all about finding that equilibrium between quality waves and media exposure-easy job I reckon.
Personally I’d prefer if our great sport remained a minor in the significants of international media focus.
lets keep it A low key lifestyle were purist don’t have co- habit with image seekers.
I can't find a sponsor for Fiji. It's a great location. Slater wants to go back there.
A moron who uses English as a second language says: "...i see guys who out surf top 44 each day....just they choose not work for the man"
I think you mean Top 32, mate. You must really follow the surfing, eh? I've got a feeling kooks like you are the type Brodie has in his sights. i.e a 'non-core' surfer.
If someone sponsors G-Land I'll buy their product, even if it's Homo Bob's Special Crotchless Undies, I'm getting a pair. Will sure be boycotting N.Y.'s sponsor though.
@Fong,
You must live on an awesome planet.
However, I'm not so sure all those blokes who outsurf the "Top 44" at your local break before going back to work for The Man at McDonald's are that much more of a noble savage than the men who work for the ASP.
Then again, I should prolly shake loose a few rocks in my head before I try to fully comprehend your logic.
mr rottmouth if i may? mr fong one thought that one had the monopoly on incoherance but you oldson have just muscled in on ones turf! the only thing that struck me was why no comp in sydney for a decade? one concurs, why? one even remembers going to see a night surfing comp at the wall at wanda beach early 80s one thinks, why can we not have these back?
Re: 'no comp in Sydney' - tomorrow sees the sixth annual Beachley Classic. The first few years were run at Manly, with all of the others held at Dee Why. For the last couple of years it's been the richest event on the Womens World Tour.
And next year will see a significant Mens comp at Manly - not ASP World Tour but Prime.
So, Sydney is well and truly on the pro-surfing agenda right now.
T- ben . I know Manly can get good but if you want the best chance of getting good surf there are better options or keep the contest mobile
Battfink said it best. Arguing for the purity of the Dream Tour to be preserved; for the balance to be tipped decisively in favour of great waves; for the most powerful surfer to emerge triumphant from the cauldron of hard competition is not an incorrect position to take; it just doesn't properly express the real point.
Surfing is first and last a journey into the soul. At its core, surfing isn't about external image; it's about internal joy.
Pro surfing is the centrepiece of big dollars' projection of its ideas about surfing. The corporates will always follow the dollars whence they go - the shareholders demand that. And if pro surfing fails to light the imagination of the great mass of those who have not yet or cannot ever experience the ineffable first hand, the dollars will drift away.
Branding?! Fuck off. Just remember the feeling from that first wave....
But, but, but, what if there is no soul and never was. What about us poor existentialists, whaaaat?
Ah, but as Kiekegaard would agree, even if there is no soul, surfing still gives this life meaning.
I can't find a sponsor for Fiji. It's a great location. Slater wants to go back there
didn't mean to be quite so cryptic, the first half and last sentence of the previous post got cut off? Something to do with quotation marks.
I can't find a sponsor for Fiji. It's a great location. Slater wants to go back there
That line says more about conflict of interest than any other conspiracy. In what other sport does a leading athlete get a say in the makeup of the competition? Imagine if Nadal was allowed to choose the playing surface?
Slater took his bonus in stock options that are valued based on sales of equipment and advertising for webcasts, and is shaping a line of boards that work best in everyday beachbreak surf. Coincidence?
T-Ben "Red Bull have owned this part of the media for the last five or so years. There's barely a death-defying stunt shown on TV that wasn't in some way associated with RB - hats off to them for doing so too."
Smart cookies these guys. Snapped up by mainstream media for 20-30sec piece and a good fit for cable etc in a longer format. Channel 10 will pump up a piece on a stunt etc even though it is only comparatively brief.
I like the Dream Tour, but.... I can see merit in holding events in more accesible areas for the spectator not just webcast & Fuel. Yeah, but not like the slopfests of old.
an ESPN style webcast where there is consistent commentators and a more consistent production
I believe 2 years ago at Vila beach there was a lack of commentators, so some guy was single handling the webcast, and it was OK, not bad at all. Then at some point he got a staff guy there to "help him out". This staff guy was at the booth for a heat or two, then he had to step off and go do what he was actually hired for. But anyways, this guy went there and shared his mind, his thoughts about the place, people, culture. It was just freaking cool. I felt like I was there! You know why I felt that? Because what that guy was sharing was true. And it was cool because it was layback, surf style. He was obviously a surfer and had no trouble talking about the few turns surfers were doing when waves showed. He was talking "from the same level" I belong, and I was listening.
Not some usopen 4king posh coverage I can't stand 2 minutes soo painful pies of shayt!
danb makes a good point -> What??? Core Followers? Does he really believe other sports have people who don't like watching them actually tuning in?
Watching a surf contest is boring as hell, we just all do it because we're crazy about surfing.
But I do believe other sports have an "easier" kinda of deal with audience. After all we all were a basket, football, rugby, etc player at some point in life.
and PLEASE forget about the ESPN coverage and give us a good layback surfer to surfer webcast
thermalben: Tie this in with their marketing pitch (an iconic wetsuit company running a event series called the 'Cold Water Classic' in cold, remote locations around the world), and I reckon O'Neill have nailed the most cost effective way to both link in with the competition scene and maintain brand integrity amongst the core surfing community.
Too bad O`neill already started with the same "balance" Brodie talks about. Trading good (in terms of surf/cold) locations such as Tazmania for good (to make money/cheaper to host/more media exposure) locations such as california and new zealand. Willian cardoso was surfing with boardshorts at new zealand!
I am currently writing the script for The Search: Ocean Beach
In the first scene, Bin Laden’s bloated corpse washes up on the shores of the San Francisco Bay just as the first heat of The Search event kicks off. He’ll shake himself off, expel several gallons of seawater and rise to his feet. The two gaping holes in his head will be partially filled with barnacles and seaweed as he slowly moves inland to feast on the delicate flesh of the transvestites and prostitutes on Castro Street.
I smell a blockbuster.
Who's in?!
His first victim will be Lewis Samuels who is caught raping a defenseless, knee-braced Dane Reynolds behind the FoodsCo Grocery store on Folsom Street.
i'll only be interested rottmouth if you display some more of your zoanthropic tendencies ,as will steve's cat!! (look it up or or should i say lick it up)
Over a beer at a skating thingy at Bondi a while back, a mate of mine Jigs summed up the attitude of most in the surfing populace thusly: 'The difference between skaters and surfers is surfers are selfish wankers who won't share it with anyone.'
I thought it harsh at the time, but.. 'core surfers, my/our activity, conflicts of interest/slater conspiracy theories, internal joy, branding, sell out...' blah, blah etc. etc. makes me think hes dead on.
having massive media exposure
having massive media exposure
Can't wait till my local looks like this-I'm off to buy a 7s superfish while stocks last.( hopefully they haven't run out of the free set of steak knives either)!
Bit of a storm in a tea cup if you ask me. Dream tour is amazing but can become a bit of a ten fest, some more action the core crew would relate to in terms of their everyday session wouldn't be too alarming. Just no one foot dribble!
Rottmouth I'm in if a washed up George W fuelled on crack, is posting OBL wanted signs in the carpark fading to a gorey noon shoot.
Dream tour, junkwave stadium tour............. try any mix of surfing tour you like, the issue is the ASP is trying sell a bad product. Watching surfing is boring. Half the coverage is watching two people bob around in the water. As a result of this, the ASP will never realistically compete with any mainstream sport for big sponsorship $. Doesn't matter what formula they try.
The part I dont understand is why the littlemen (many bloggers) are hell bent on supporting pushing shit uphill & trying so hard to get more exposure, acceptance, people, money into surfing. Why does that really matter. Do you only feel validated as a human being when you are engaging in an exercise that the whole planet understands and admires. Or does the desire for increased exposure come down to your own selfish $ desires if you are linked to the industry.
p.s. I actually enjoy watching the surfing coverage - (however, only as a background distraction on the laptop while i'm working).
Verbatim-I rest my case.
If someone sponsors G-Land I'll buy their product, even if it's Homo Bob's Special Crotchless Undies, I'm getting a pair. Will sure be boycotting N.Y.'s sponsor though - Well said Where's_MP.
But, but, but, what if there is no soul and never was. What about us poor existentialists, whaaaat?
Clif, you can just use your 'essence', or your 'essential being' you cheeky man. How's china me old ozzie
Just went logging this morning, b&f. Tiny runners but the water has warmed up.
As for dreams, when I was drawing those waves on my schoolbooks I wasn't drawing pro surfers on those waves, I was dreaming of empty waves for myself.
excellent post mr. verbatim, even a "highly strung" negative (some call it discerning) prick like myself cannot pick an ill placed sentence.
As to your comment regarding the "littlemen" I think sociologists call it 'cultural hegemony' basically it is the big men getting the plebs to do their dirty work, deceiving them into believing it will be better for all involved.
Come on industry folk answer his questions what is your motivations?
I thought this was the year things were really improve after the threat of the Slater rebel tour ??? I'll watch the best surfers surf any waves, anywhere to be honest. If it isnt thrilling me, I will turn it off and go surfing.....
Also, I'll be buying a pair of Homo Bob's Special Crotchless Undies before a pair of Rio's, Zing!
I hope that the people that have concerns on the commercialisation are not riding an expoxy board from Asia
A360
Quote Brodie, from early April: "I can't find a sponsor for Fiji. It's a great location. Slater wants to go back there. I want to go back there. It's a question of finding a sponsor that wants to invest in Fiji and feels comfortable with the media exposure that comes from there. It costs a lot to put on an event. Around three million bucks."
Not a bad turnaround for three and a half months.
So fuckin what