I’m not much into the pro surfing scene, but I read with some passing interest the article in the new Surfer mag about the ASP’s new ownership, and their desire to package and sell surfing as a spectator sport. The parallel was made that pro football is a huge mainstream spectator sport, while the great majority of the audience have never actually played the game. So thats gonna be their role model. Not that it really matters to me one way or the other, but that sounds like a pretty tough sales pitch to me.
In my experience, non surfers get bored quickly, as they can not see the subtle differences we do, in waves and styles.
I’ve heard many claim by the ignorant that all waves look the same after 2 or 3 at the same spot.
We’ll see how this current Fiji contest does on NBC on July 7th. Should be even more interesting how it is portrayed on mainstream American TV on a Sunday afternoon.
The Spicoli image is not likely to leave the mind of the ignorant masses anytime soon.
the spicoli image?
wasn’t sure if there would be much interest in the subject here, but we’re connected, even if by 5 degrees of separation
I’m thinking they’ll have a huge educational agenda to fulfill before people can begin to understand the subtleties - they’re talking “pro announcers, not bro announcers”, so I’m guessing that’s part of their program
I surf, and even I lose interest pretty quickly as a spectator, which is one reason I don’t follow pro surfing except with mild or occasional interest
a few other observations, if I understood correctly: the ASP was teetering on the brink of going under, rising debts and no new big sponsors, apparently had been for years, and taking the venue to the outer reaches to follow the epic surf was expensive
they sold if for $0 - basically gave it away to get out from under
the new owners, one of which is Kelly’s manager, will put their own money into it, and the buy-in for sponsors will be less. Prize money will increase, and I’m sure I even saw the term “retirement package” in there
Nike, the biggest non-surf related sports sponsor on board, has bailed since the announcement
The story of Ian Cairns walking in with a check for $25K and taking the whole show out from under Fred Hemmings and Randy Rarick was news to me - I really knew nothing of the history of the ASP
The first obstacle is recognizing surfing as a 'sport' at all.
If you've managed to clear that first hurdle, there is a second obstacle to staging a surf/sport event that would even remotely appeal to the masses. That would be inconsistent WAVES. There have been any number of televised contests held in sub-marginal conditions. Once the organizers, sponsors, and the media get their crap set up on the beach, the show must go on regardless.
Trying to catch 'epic' conditions at the local beach can be frustrating even for the dedicated Surfline subscriber. For Average Joe (non-surfer) this means waiting for something on the tube. No biggie - he'd rather be watching football anyway.
There have been some absolutely PATHETIC examples of announcers on TV straining their nut sacks in an attempt to make shitty surfing in shitty conditions sound exciting.... ("OHHH! There he goes... THE HUNTINGTON HOP!!!!!! OHHH! The judges are going to love that!!!!" OHHH! A CUTBACK!!!! That'll be good for plenty more points!!!!") Most of us know that all of that 'announcing' takes place in the sound studio as they watch edited footage of the contest on a monitor. Aunt Bee in Mayberry can only take so much and turns the channel... fast. Even she can smell a con job.
Seriously? Most 'spectators' would be far better off renting a copy of "The Endless Summer" and leave it at that. Bruce Brown burned plenty of film and edited it all down to a watchable movie with a nice soundtrack.
are you guys so young you forgot about when ABC used to broadcast the Duke Invitational on TV back in the day?
I think Gidget and all the Ride the Wild Surf movies did more to bring it into mainstream than TV. Growing up watching Annette and the boys made you want to put on your jams not watching the Duke.
I think if MTV pushed out more reality shows like Northshore House kind of how the house flipper shows started a trend or the duck caller show started a trend. You’d get more bite from the cable channels mass producing reality shows than anything else.
Kelly Slater should market his own reality TV show or maybe John John Florence, his mom and brothers. That would make for some interesting TV about surfers and the life they live versus watching competitions.
I watch surfing competitions all the time now on Oceanic Cablevision in high def channel 1250 and don’t see how the general public would relate especially with the current announcers.People like drama and gossip not sports action only sports followers watch their favorite sports on TV. The general public is watching lifetime, “O”, the History Channel and all the rest.
we also have great local shows like Soul Surfers, Betty Depolito’s FliHi girls, and Billibong Surf TV on cable. Mike Latronic is the king of tv cable surf media here and I miss the days when he and Mark Foo had their own show H3O as well as the Hurricane Cazimero and Roy with their show Highwater.
Its about product placement not direct sales that the surf marketeers have to understand.
A TV version of “Walking on Water” will do well in white rural america.
A special about Obama going on a body surfing, boogie boarding surf trip with his family and Mark Cunningham, Titus Kinimaka , Laird Hamilton. Mike Stewart, and Robbie Naish as escorts aboard a Quicksilver boat or maybe the canoe Hokulea as it makes its global voyage at some exotic surf destination would catch the inner city. Can you imagine the impact to the inner city of the images of a black president shown actually enjoying surfing, swimming and feeling at home in the ocean? It’d be the like Tiger Woods to golf and the Williams sisters and Arthur Nash to tennis.
I was fortunate enough to have plenty time in the ocean and really believe the landlocked mainlanders need a good dose. Like water in the desert. It’d be good for bodies, minds and souls. Even if it gets full blown spectator status like the NFL or MLB NBA etc there will still be keikis playing for fun.
Maybe it’s just me, but I’d be much happier if the general public just forgot about surfing altogether. I already see surfing being pimped out to sell tampons, life insurance, prescription medications (especially for depression and acid reflux), investment management, vodka, cars and a dozen other types of consumer goods. Not to mention the “surf industry” itself that consists of horrifically overpriced clothing, hats, sunglasses and sandals, all of which is primarily made in sweatshops on the other side of the world.
Let the couch potatoes all watch professional golf. That’s what it’s there for.
I remember when ABC aired many surf contests in the 60s. The opening sequence for Wide World of Sports used to include a clip of someone riding Sunset, as I recall.
I lost interest in pro surfing some time in the early 80s. At this point I think it’s been a detriment for the average surfer. Big corporations pimping out the “lifestyle” (gag) to inlanders in order to keep the shareholders happy. Looks like that isn’t working out as planned, and I relish the thought of all of them going belly up.
I cannot understand anyone over the age of 30 having more than a passing interest in the dog and pony show known as pro surfing. But, I also have no interest in any pro sports of any kind. I am befuddled by the the way grown men obsess over “games”. Juvenile hero worship.
What pro surfing needs is a good steroid scandal. Suspend half of the top 25 for juicing and you’ll capture the attention of the general public.
Maybe a team-oriented, roller derby-like contest structure with multiple blockers and jammers on each wave would help. That would certainly make competitive events more closely resemble what free surfing has become at many urban beaches.
As you may have guessed, commercialized surfing is the atithesis of everything I’ve ever found interesting or attrative about the sport. Counting how many times in a row some kid can smack the lip with his hyper-light potato chip is kind of a yawn, in my book. But if somebody else wants to spend their time that way, that’s OK too.
Meanwhile, I’ll be doing something else. Just about anything else…
…I agree !..(lol)
It was a wipeout. Pearling on a late takeoff, at Waimea. It was my good friend, Mike McDonough, who used to sand for Brewer’s Surfboards Hawaii, circa 1963/64.
Im in the gdaddy camp , the only surfing spectaters that count are your buddys in the lineup cheering you on as you make the drop or giving you shit when you wipeout . ,
Boo who(?),
Hoo is Tim Harvey?
last rounds of fiji are on right now actually
I would rather mow the lawn than watch sport on tv.
I very much agree with the sentiment that surfing doesn’t need over-marketed-mass-produced crap from the third world sold as “lifestyle” product… that stuff exists to create profit margin for companies that couldn’t even make real surf stuff to save their life…
surfers don’t really even like or wear shoes alot of the time…
to quote Duane Peters about skateboarding (circa '80, when companies were trying to push “contests”):
** “They’re [corporations/magazines] trying to make it like football, and it’s NOT.”**
btw - I love mowing the lawn - I put on my headphones, listen to some tunes, and imagine that I’m surfing…
At my age, the only surf “competition” I care about is the one I’m having with my slowly detriorating body and mind. I intend to keep playing hard, though the eventual outcome is as predictable as it is inevitable.
Go team! Rah! Rah!
Same here, and I don’t even have a lawn. I live in the woods. Lots of trees and vines and weeds. No grass.
Yes!!
“The agony of defeat”
Hahaha, funny reactions, so true, I cringe at all the “surfing image” advertising, so obviously put on by people with no clue. But then, pretty much everything, IMO, is over-commercialized. Nevertheless, we live in the same world, sometimes the same waves, as the ASP gang. What they do, in one way or another, affects us. And they are trying harder than ever to make it like football. Like most here, I just don’t see it.