Events Fact or fiction?

In: Events by philgallagher 3 Comments Tue 26th Oct '10

Tags: IBA , Super Tour , Ryan Hardy , Tahiti , The BOX , Canary Islands , el Fronton

With the news floating around about a new tour and new exciting locations like Tahiti, Fronton and possibly WA's Box it might seem that you maybe stepped back in time. Some will remember others will ask questions but the truth is the notion of a World Tour has taken many shapes over the last 15 years. We are looking at this story as a quest for the facts about the tour and the new BIG changes we are hearing a lot and at the same time nothing about.

From humble one event beginnings where Hawaii's Pipeline was the venue and if you took this single event out you would be crowned the World Champion. The local Hawaiian's dominated these early years with Mike Stewart, Ben Severson and Daniel Kaimi all winning titles in the first 10 years.

Just like the now huge global business that is the ASP(Association of Surfing Professionals), the bodyboarding World Tour is having a shake up. The ASP was formed after Pete Townend named himself the World Champion in 1976 after travelling the globe surfing in many events and calling a press release at the Out Rigger Cafe in Hawaii and told the world he was the new World Champion due to the points he had accrued throughout the year whilst competing. That next year the ISP was formed and run for 4 years then was renamed the ASP.

It takes radical moves like this to send a message sometimes and after many years of competing in waves which even at their best showed bodyboarding in a dim light, the calls for a new tour have been heard. This change of notion first showed in the mid 90's with the G.O.B Tour and an actual world circuit which competitors travelled around to all corners to compete and become the World Champion.

Then in early 2000 after the growing success of the Shark Island Challenge the Super Tour was spawned. This tour consisted of locations like Tahiti, Shark Island, The Box, Hawaii and Europe. The general feeling was that these locations gave the competitive riders a chance to showcase their talents and the sport in a truthful and exciting manner. On a side note there was events held in the Philippines and Indonesia with great success and before we knew it locations started up in South America ( Chile, Peru and Brazil) and Europe ( Canary Islands and Portugal).

2011 will see the next change and hopefully a stable and developing platform for the competitors to feel happy and confident in for the coming years. We talked to Ryan Hardy who sits on the riders board and has been involved in the major calls or this new formatted tour.

Number one thing on everyones lips is location. Ryan told us " We are trying to have ten locations, out of that I would say eight would end up happening at a minimum. The locations will be, Pipeline, The Box, East Coast Australia ( Shark Island or South Coast NSW), Chile, Mexico, Tahiti, Portugal and the Canary Islands". The field will be made up of the top 24 at the end of competition after this years Canary Island's event. Each event next year will have a 32 man draw consisting of the top 24, 4 Trials competitors and 4 sponsors or local wildcards. The events which do not make the Grand Slam Tour will be now treated as a qualifying tour giving new riders a portal to make their way into the Grand Slam Tour.

Ryan told us that "The new format will see the judging evolve with these new locations and hopefully see riders pushing it in bigger and heavier waves during their heats. In the past if you went big and did not make it you weren't really rewarded but we all decided that if you hit a big heavy section and get blasted trying to make it you should be rewarded with bigger scores than just playing it safe".

The board of riders who represent the riders at the moment consists of competitors from all over the globe. The current members are Ben Player, Mike Stewart, Jeff Hubbard, Tamega, Magno Oliveria, Amaury Leverhne, Hugo Pinheiro, Mark McCarthy, Manuel Centeno and Yeray Martinez. This group has been meeting 3 times a year whilst on tour to hear and sort out the issues of their fellow riders and now with the new tour it seems there might be a shift to a more select number of possibly 4 out of the dozen or so to represent the riders.

When we asked Ryan what he thought about the next 12 months and whether it was hard for him to battle through the current tour structure ten years on from his Tahiti win in the Super Tour days? " It's always hard to stay motivated and handle grovelling in the small crap conditions and when you loose it's really hard to take. For me I know I have so much more to offer than the type of waves on offer a lot of the time just don't allow it. For me I know what it is like to win events like Pipe, Tahiti and Shark Island and those moments will stay with me for life. The feeling of winning events in epic waves when the field of competitors is world class and you know everyone is trying their hardest to be the winner, those events represent competitive bodyboarding to me", Says Ryan.

"I want to win at home at The Box and maybe do well in big Mexico, those two events are very exciting to me." Ryan says laughing like he is already planning his heat tactics. "I am just also pretty stoked I am still in the sport and able to compete at a high level. To be involved at the start of the Super Tour and now to be sitting in a good position and qualified and ready to take on the new tour is great. Competing keeps me stoked and if I can nail some good results I will keep pulling the rash vest on".

So buckle in and keep an eye on the World Tour as the winds of change blow across the Canary Island this December. The first trial event will be held at el Fronton and feature 16 of the worlds best, hand picked from different regions around the globe and also feature 4 local wild cards for a one day event and a sort of test run for things to come. The event will be held one day form the 12th - 22nd of December 2010.

Here are some great links to other exciting competitions from the last ten years also, click on the links below for a flash back to the G.O.B, Super Tour and Human Challenge Series.

- The BOX
- Cloud 9
- Tahiti Skins 2000
- Tahiti 2003
- Human Mentawaii Challenge