Hawai'i surfers attracted to smaller, richer pro tour

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

Think Endless Summer — you know, the movie that featured surfers traveling around the world in search of the perfect wave — but with a big payoff at every stop.

That's kind of what the 2001 Association of Surfing Professionals World Championship Tour will resemble.

Exotic destinations, great waves and good money. Ah, the life of a professional surfer.

"It's about time we started making some money," said Wai'anae's Sunny Garcia, the defending world champion.

Indeed, surfing will be rich in more than just history this year.

The 2001 World Championship Tour will feature a record-low eight events, but a record-high $2.05 million prize purse. With only 44 surfers on tour, several will probably make more than $100,000, a figure that has been achieved in one season by only five surfers, including Garcia last year.

Such numbers are a result of new guidelines installed by the ASP at the end of last season.

Starting this year, contests had to offer a minimum prize purse of $250,000 to earn a place on the elite Championship Tour. Also, each contest sponsor had to sign a three-year contract with the ASP, in effect assuring that at least $750,000 would be paid to the surfers over the next three years of that contest.

Any sponsor unable or unwilling to meet those standards would be dropped to the World Qualifying Series, which is considered the "feeder" system for the Championship Tour.

"That figure wasn't just plucked out of the sky," ASP executive director Wayne "Rabbit" Barth-olomew said. "If the prize money had gone up incrementally every year like in most other sports, ($250,000) is about where we're supposed to be."

Instead, the prize purses actually diminished in recent years. In 1997, the total prize money offered for 12 contests was $1.7 million, with five of those contests offering a $175,000 purse. Last year, the total prize money for 13 contests was $1.6 million, with only one of those contests paying as much as $168,000.

What's more, the tour has been traveling to more exotic — and thus more costly — destinations in search of better waves in recent years. Last year, for example, the tour included stops at Tahiti, Fiji, South Africa, France and Japan, as well as Hawai'i.

"It actually got to the point where you had to make at least the quarterfinals (of a contest) just to cover your costs for that trip," said Bartholomew, a former world champion. "When you have 44 surfers on tour, and 40 of them are losing money by being on the tour, it doesn't make sense."

Five surfers from Hawai'i will compete on this year's tour: Garcia, Shane Dorian of Kailua-Kona, Andy Irons of Kaua'i, Kalani Robb of O'ahu's North Shore and Shawn Sutton of 'Ewa Beach. As a contingent (Hawai'i is recognized as its own nation by the ASP), they are the smallest on tour. They could also be considered the most talented.

Last year, four of the Hawai'i surfers were ranked in the top 16 on the Championship Tour, and Garcia was No. 1 from start to finish.

"There's a lot of deep talent coming from Hawai'i," said Irons, who was ranked No. 16. "And I think it helps that a lot of the contests are held in pretty good waves now."

Of the eight stops on this year's tour, five are considered "prime" locations for waves: Bell's Beach, Australia; Teahupoo, Tahiti; Jeffrey's Bay, South Africa; Mundaka, Spain; and Sunset Beach, O'ahu.

But as Irons observed: "There's a lot more money, but with less contests, there's really no room for mistakes. You have to really concentrate on doing well in every contest."

WOMEN

Much like the men, the women's World Championship Tour will feature an increase in prize money, but a reduction in contests.

This year's women's tour will have just five events, with each offering a $60,000 prize purse. Last year, not one of the nine contests on the women's tour offered more than $32,500.

"We'll have only five contests, but it'll all be in good waves, and we'll be getting paid more," said Waialua's Megan Abubo. "That's not a bad compromise."

Abubo, who finished No. 2 on the women's tour last year to Australian Layne Beachley, is one of three surfers from Hawai'i on this year's women's tour. Rochelle Ballard and Keala Kennelly, both from Kaua'i, are the others.

"We all know what we have to do," Abubo said. "For me, being 22 and ranked No. 2 last year gave me a lot of confidence. Just to be in the running for a world title showed that I was close to attaining my goals."