Rip Curl Pro 2011 The Outsider: Know Your Product

In: Rip Curl Pro 2011 by Steve Shearer 59 Comments Thu 28th Apr '11

Tags: brodie carr , joel parkinson , The Outsider

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.