Firstly id like to say im overwhelmed by the quality and depth of the replies to my post. I have opened a few threads about this problem in the past (and i have read and responded to a few that rastafarider has created), and there has never been so much support from the NS community. These things have to start somewhere.
Heres my views on a few of the responses:
To those who think it will give unknowns a lesser chance - entirely not so. The ASP has, in my opinion, the perfect structure. Each year, the top 15 skiiers from the WQS (the secondary tour) advance to the WCT, where the last 15 surfers lose their spot on the tour (with a few exemptions for injuries included). In addition to this, guys on the CT are NOT excluded from surfing on the QS, meaning a lot of the guys on the verge of losing their CT card surf on the QS...so you can see, the BEST guys stay on tour- if theyre good enough to still be on the CT, they will qualify via the QS.
The other thing is, all the guys on the WCT are BIG names, and so are most of the 200 or so guys competing on the QS. You see, what happened, is that after the creation of the WCT, the companies grew so fast, and so big. Billabong, for exmaple, is now a publicly listed company, and one of Standard and Poors top 200 companies on the Australian Stock Exchange. So as the companies got bigger, they were able to put substantial amounts of money into research and devlopment, and also into the next big names of the sport. It is now a cut-throat competition for surf companies to get the signing of the young guns (i can go down the beach today and be guranteed to see a 10 year old kid with some form of sponsorship from quiksilver - they want him to be the next big thing, and they are willing to put money and time into his development so the sport can get better - and of course, so they can make more $).
So you can see how its a cycle - companies want more money, they want to sport to grow, so they are happy to put money back into the sport, whether it be via the next 'young gun' kid down your local beach, or through the guy showing promise on WQS.
This leads me to my second point: with a world and secondary tour, comes the amazing medium for companies to promote their products....and this is where the cycle continues, and where the growth is driven from. Again, companies grow, more money goes into R&D, and the sport gets better.
Thirdly, some of the highest paid people in the surf industry are those who are 'freesurfers'...they BY NO MEANS go unrecognised. Now that these companies are so viable, they have thrown money behind all the guys out there like Dave Rastavich, Rob Machado, Shane Dorian, Ry Craike and countless big wave chargers like Brad Gerlach and Snip Parsons. This could happen to skiing as well. There wouldnt be this situation whereby the only way on the sport growing would be through going in comps, and the comp scene.
Another interesting point is that some people say, 'well, with all the comp skiing, how will they find time to shoot dvds'....there is a huge window for filming in surfing, and one of the great things about this is that it has seen the surf media grow immensely. Companies now have enough money to not only bring out one surf movie a year, but there is now a dvd with nearly every monthly edition of your favourite mag (oh yes, and the mags have flourished as well). All of this has come from the growth companies have derived from the creation of a healthy medium for their sport and their products to be portrayed.
And now my biggest point: The BEST surfers are recognised, and get the dues they deserve. Everyone knows who the best guys are, and you dont have the situation of some struggling scandi, american or japanese ripper going by unoticed. WE WANT TO SEE THE BEST GUYS ON DISPLAY EVERY MONTH, AND THIS IS WHAT A WORLD TOUR WOULD DO. And imagine how much better these guys would get, and how they could push the sport, when they are competing directly against each other maybe 10 or 15 times a year. And instead of everyone not really knowing where and when Jon is going to be competing, or when and where we will see Oscar Scherlin ski next, we would all know....we would all be sitting here saying....i cant wait for the next stop on the tour, The (your company name here) Open.
The main thing is that if a medium was there, one which the whole ski world would be focussing on week in week out, you wouldnt be begging for sponsorship, companies would be begging organisers to get their brand on display.
And to one of the best points, which just so happened to be Jon's, you are spot on. One of the biggest issues would be course design and judging. But if all the athletes got together, and gave their opinions on where the sport should be heading, and what they want to be rewarded, then im sure an agreement could be reach.
Hopefully this post will get a few more great responses from you guys (and hopefully you didnt get too deterred by the length of it!)
