Article
World Tour Loses J-Bay Event
Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay Downgrades from ASP World Championship Tour to ASP 6-Star for 2012.
The famed righthanders of Jeffreys Bay will play host to an ASP 6-Star event in 2012. Credit: © ASP / SCHOLTZ
COOLANGATTA, Queensland/AUS (Friday, February 24, 2012) – The Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay, Event No. 5 of 11 on the 2012 ASP World Championship Tour, has been officially downgraded to an ASP 6-Star event for 2012.
In an official statement today, Billabong said: “The change in event status follows a broader review in which we are seeking to identify cost savings throughout the business. By retaining an event at Jeffreys Bay, it now provides two qualifying events back to back in the South African region. The move to an ASP 6-Star also opens the event up to South Africa’s aspiring pro surfers for the first time in 20 years and ensures continuity of the event for the local businesses in Jeffreys Bay.”
The downgrade drops the 2012 ASP World Championship Tour calendar from 11 events to 10, with surfers now counting their best 8 out of 10 results towards their ASP World Title ranking.
“We agreed as a Board that whilst very regrettable, the commercial realities are such that a pragmatic approach by ASP at this time seemed sensible,” Richard Grellman, ASP Executive Chairman, said. “Billabong have been long-time supporters of professional surfing and still sponsor three of the ten World Championship Tour events and we look forward to our deep relationship with them continuing.”
The 2012 ASP World Championship Tour will commence this Saturday, February 25, 2012, with the Quiksilver and Roxy Pro presented by Land Rover.
The event will be webcast LIVE on http://www.quiksilverlive.com/
For more information, log onto www.aspworldtour.com
By submitting a comment you grant SURFER Magazine a perpetual license to reproduce your
words, name and web site in attribution.
Comments may be removed at an administrators discretion. Your email is used for verification
purposes only and will never be shared.
Comments
March 22, 2012 7:31 am
Absolute shocker! Would anyone out there prefer to see the Rio event or another event in California (Santa Cruz?) I don’t know who’s steering the ASP ship but with decisions like this, regardless of any excuses they offer, the ship is headed for a iceberg….or maybe it will run aground on a sloppy beachbreak like Rio. Boycott the the BILLABONG Rio event, tour surfers, please.
February 25, 2012 4:15 pm
Thanks dudes now I will enter the six star and surf the ASP world tour after…
February 25, 2012 2:24 pm
Once again the Tour is dictated by population/commercial opportunity in the surrounding the geographical location each event and not the quality of waves and the type of contest the location can produce! What a shame. Is it world recession to blame or a recession of the soul which used to exist with in the sport…
February 25, 2012 5:58 am
What’s the ASP going to do when the surf wear companies fold? Or get taken over and striped or just run by people who know that they don’t need to sponser pro contests to sell clothes… Pro surfing could very easily find itself the Dodo bird of pro sports.
February 24, 2012 10:34 am
The ASP tour is far too reliant on a small group of sponsors; all surfwear companies. If the surf gear industry experiences an economic hiccup, ASP events get dropped. Time to expand the roster of sponsors to companies with more marketing dollars to spend; think telcom, automotive, beverages, etc.
We need Jeffrey’s Bay back on the WCT calendar! It takes money to pull it off.
February 24, 2012 10:01 am
Nah, just drop Brazil. Lamest event ever!
February 24, 2012 9:44 am
If you’re Billabong how can you keep Brazil and not J-Bay? It’s the best point break in the world!
February 24, 2012 4:09 am
asp lame again, why keep that terrible rio event when there is fernando de noronha, which is pretty gnarly barrel wave????
February 24, 2012 1:33 am
yeah, what the &%^&^&%&
come on ASP, I’m trying to love you after all these years… but your making it SO HARD for me .ASP is going down the toilet, sorry mops, its a reality!!!!
February 24, 2012 12:20 am
super disapointed with the dropping of jbay off the tour not only is it the best right but probably the best wave on tour for barrels and carves combined…not to mention the time zone is perfect for aussies to watch at night at prime time with a couple of cold ones….sometimes i wonder who these monkeys are making the decisions.is it the asp or the labels(billabong) who rule the world!!!
February 23, 2012 11:25 pm
The move makes no sense! The African continent should be represented and the surfers and the South African public should get the chance to see the best in the world in action. Not the wannabe best in the worlds.
February 23, 2012 10:54 pm
drop santa cruz, brasil and keep j-bay