The ‘Real Deal’ About ‘Kelly Slater’s New Tour’
Ryan Brower
- August 04 2009
- 3,657 views
- 31 comments
“Gossip is just news running ahead of itself in a red satin dress.” -Liz Smith
Rumors. That’s what’s been started by every surf penman’s web coverage of what’s being called ‘Kelly Slater’s new tour’ or ‘The Champions Tour’ or my favorite, ‘the rebel tour.’ With more questions being raised than answered to date, we’re left wondering what the f-k is going on with this thing?
Since no one is dispersing concrete details of the dreamy dream tour yet, here’s the crux of what’s been ‘discovered’ to date on computer machines via surf media outlets across the globe. -Ryan Brower
*Editor’s addendum: Upon arriving in the office the morning after posting this puppy, STAB released an exclusive interview with the ‘rebel tour boss.’ New standards for investigative journalism have been set. See their post below for the latest update.
Noosa Journal
Slater For World Tour
noosa-journal.whereilive.com.au/sport/story/slater-for-world-tour/
Phil Jarrett started this whole ugly mess a few weeks ago as the surfing world was focused solely on Joel Parkinson’s victorious J-Bay campaign. Jarrett brought up the ideas that a serial last place finisher would get $320,000 prize money for the year, Kelly’s manager Terry Hardy being the mastermind behind it all, and of course, ESPN offering the television coverage. He dropped these bombs and the shit spread quicker than those nude pictures of Rihanna. You saw those, didn’t you?
The Australian
Slater Leads Rebel Surf Tour
theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25858526-5013449,00.html
Rebel Surf Tour Leader ‘Very Confident’
theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25877791-5013406,00.html
Fred Pawle over at The Australian has done a good portion of the legwork in keeping this rumor mill up and running. In his first article, Slater Leads Rebel Surf Tour, Pawle somehow got his hands on an e-mail Kelly sent out to fellow competitors and gave us further ‘evidence’ that ESPN might be involved. Quoted from the article as Slater’s e-mail saying: “ESPN has signed on to support and fully back a tour to potentially start next year. This would include a ‘new’ tour based on what the surfers want to have in terms of judging, locations, formats, etc …” But has ESPN come out and confirmed this? No.
And on further note, Pawle’s second article quotes Mick Fanning as saying, “There have been claims of companies outside the surf industry supporting the tour but I wasn’t shown anything in writing.”
STAB
Revolution Is In The Air
stabmag.com/jed/espn-renegade-tour/
Rebels Behind Closed Doors
stabmag.com/jed/Rebel-Tour-Money-Investors-ESPN-Update/
Rebel Tour Boss Talks To STAB
stabmag.com/jed/tinley-rebel-tour-slater-espn
Fred Pawle once again appears as the voice of another ‘rebel tour’ gossip session. Man, the Aussies really love that word rebel don’t they? These guys laying the foundation for this fantasy tour sure are rebels, alright. Rebels surely seek mainstream media exposure, sponsorship from non-industry corporations, and give powder puff answers to the media – ultimately revealing nothing. Fred’s also the one who let us know about the imaginary eight events, sixteen surfers, and $1.5 million in prize money for each event.
*Editor’s addendum: That bloke Fred Pawle has out done himself. Seems that someone left a comment in his Rebels Behind Closed Doors piece consisting of the entire interview with an anonymous insider of this deal, which somehow turns out to be Matt Tinley (the former boxing promoter who is apparently the boss here). Being the resourceful journalist he is, Fred decided this comment was worthy for an entire feature on STAB’s site. And it just so happens that it matches GrindTV’s ‘insider interview,’ word-for-word. Journalists the world over now have new resources for their own articles and interviews. At least he didn’t confuse us and kept to the official tour title, ‘rebel tour.’
Australian Surfing Life
A Dreamier Tour?
surfinglife.com.au/news/asl-news/1004-a-dreamier-dream-tour
Smoke And Mirrors
surfinglife.com.au/news/asl-news/1197-smoke-and-mirrors
Kelly Slater Speaks About New Tour
surfinglife.com.au/news/asl-news/1278-kelly-slater-speaks-about-new-tour
Respected Australian surf journalists Tim Baker and Nick Carroll have been the most spot-on throughout this entire debacle. In Nick’s piece, Smoke And Mirrors, he reveals exactly what is known about this whole thing: that there is no validity to any of it at the current time.
Following this piece was Tim Baker’s long-awaited e-mail from Kelly Slater himself. It’s the most Kelly has talked about this whole predicament since the media fire began. But ultimately, it still reveals nothing more than Slater’s feelings on the shortcomings of the ASP.
Surfer Magazine
Kelly Slater Speaks
surfermag.com/features/onlineexclusives/kelly-slater-breakaway-tour-trouble-asp/
Seems that Surfer’s Brendan Thomas also liked the phrase ‘rebel tour’ to kick off his exclusive interview with Kelly – maybe that’s what this seceding tour should officially be called. The dialogue did reveal a longtime issue with the ASP – that they don’t own all their own media rights. That’s been common knowledge for a long time, and part of the reason the big brands are so reluctant to change anything - they’ve got a sweetheart deal under the current system because they own the media and web broadcast rights themselves. The ambiguous interview fittingly ended with a strong foreshadow from Slater though: “It will be a long process.”
Surfing Magazine
Dream Team
surfingmagazine.com/thisisareallylongurlsoicutitdown
The Plot Thickens
blogs.surfingmagazine.com/news/the-plot-thickens/
My New Jersey brethren over at ING, Andrew Lewis, got in the mix when he named the sixteen surfers he wants to see on this “tour that should/could be.” Wily of him to create this imagination land and not stick to the fluffy bread-and-butter pieces that the ‘new tour’ has warranted. And earlier this week he posted an update, well he blogged about it actually. So that goes to show you how much validity he’s put in what’s been ‘revealed’ so far.
Surfline.com
The New Deal?
surfline.com/surf-news/a-new-deal-possible-alternative-tour-in-2010_28546/
Surfline summed up what they learned by using the following quote from Matthew Tinley (former boxing promoter who’s been rumored to be one of the ‘key players’ for his knowledge of television broadcasting) as their illustrative pull-quote for Marcus Sanders’s piece: “It’s best if we have a view of the whole system rather than piece bits of it out — it’s best to lay it out to everyone in detail all at once.”
GrindTV
Inside Sources Separate New Dream Tour Fact from Fiction
grindtv.com/surf/blog/7226/inside+sources+separate+new+dream+tour+fact+from+fiction/
This GrindTV article takes the Pulitzer Prize of this whole group - and all of action sports in fact. They say they’ve separated fact from fiction for us, and the article actually does provide a bit of depth. But when the sources for their answered questions are listed as the following we see why surf journalism gets mocked: “To separate myth from reality we managed to locate some of the key players involved at the highest levels of this project in their secret underground bunker… and got a couple to speak on condition of anonymity.”
They (no writer attached their name. Damn. Who gets the Pulitzer then?) would’ve been better off if they had just made the answers up… wait, maybe they did.
TransWorld SURF
Kelly Slater Developing New Tour?
surf.transworld.net/2009/07/13/kelly-slater-developing-new-world-tour/
Of course I couldn’t exclude ourselves from the surf media water wheel that’s fueling this rumor mill. When we originally published this piece it looked like the groundwork was set and it was only a matter of a few more signatures here and there. As we’ve all found out, this is not the case.
What have we learned about this hypothetical digression from the ASP’s Dream Tour? Is this the death of the ASP? Will Marlon Lipke and Phil MacDonald (both tied for last on Tour if you discount the injured Luke Stedman and Gabe Kling) be sitting atop the ASP next year while the upper half of the Tour runs over to ESPN’s supposed ‘Champions Surf Tour’? How much money are the top surfers really worth? What will happen to the Brazil contest? Will we have two World Champs or will the ‘rebel tour’ and the Dream Tour merge into one super mega tour to take over the world?
As you can see, more questions have been raised than answered. Anonymous sources and hearsay have been the powdery additive that keeps this snowball rolling down the hill. There’s no denying that something is in the works - if not, Kelly Slater wouldn’t be agreeing to ‘talk’ about it. And it’s no coincidence that the most recognizable surfer in the world is getting pinned as the face of this whole scheme. We’re hitting the trail hard on getting the solid answers, and when we do you’ll be hearing it first on transworldsurf.com.
As is always the case on transworldsurf.com, sound off in the comments below. Have you heard any new rumors? Please join in on keeping this ’story’ breathing. The floor is your’s…
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August 5th, 2009 at 12:37 am
I’m pretty sure the guys at mesurf.com.au were the first to throw some info out on this rumour. They had some insight info from an email sent through the ASP crew. They had it posted before JBay had even hit the finals.
August 5th, 2009 at 6:55 am
how amazing is that unicorn graphic!
August 5th, 2009 at 8:28 am
Soooo many conflicting reports… what’s so hard about waiting for an official announcement?
August 5th, 2009 at 9:00 am
tours shmours mmmmmmmmm s’mores……..
August 5th, 2009 at 9:01 am
That picture looks like someone caught him with his “pee pee” hangin out.
August 5th, 2009 at 9:46 am
Jerz! You forgot to mention us too.!
Surfspots-GPS.com
The Big Crab
Coral Reef Drive
Down Deep, USA
August 5th, 2009 at 9:50 am
Postsurf.com had an article up about this shit a long time ago as well.
August 5th, 2009 at 9:51 am
Where is Stu!!!!! He knows all talk to us god of the blog>>>>>>>>
August 5th, 2009 at 10:01 am
Stu’s probably cleaning up the jizz he did in his pants when he read this. I’m sure once he gets all cleaned up he’ll be all up in this message board. Unless of course he is playing hard to get, which would be weird.
August 5th, 2009 at 10:51 am
I also like the unicorn graphic. Nice work. As for the tour, who gives a sh*t? It won’t be fair until Losness and Ricky Whitlock are making Slater coin. I do find it fun to watch a bunch of uneducated surfers try to plot their own course, however. As for Slater, I just want him to make enough to cover the much-needed acne-pox removal surgery.
August 5th, 2009 at 11:06 am
ok perez hilton “STU” just stick with your gay colums and stay the f*#K out of what you don’t know about except for maybe feltching the jizz out of some moke’s akole
August 5th, 2009 at 11:25 am
so you basically just poached every other rumor article that has ever been posted online and put them in one place for our confusion???
glad you cleared all of this up for us transworld, nice reporting.
August 5th, 2009 at 11:38 am
Holy shit, was that a complement?
August 5th, 2009 at 11:59 am
It’s called aggregation, and your welcome.
August 5th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
actually burnt, poached is what fred pawle of stab did with his latest ‘rebel tour boss talks to stab’ uselessness. i accredited people for their work, i didn’t try passing it off as my own. if you actually read any of this instead of ADD-scanning it you’d understand that
August 5th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
your welcome what?
August 5th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
and people think I only have negative things to say. the unicorn took me back to a time when disco ruled the airwaves, Farrah was on every 2nd grader’s t-shirt and Shaun, Bugs et al. were bustin’ down the door.
August 5th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
pretty surf it was insurfnews.com
August 6th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Thought I’d post another article. Everyone seems to be doing these days.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/25852.html
Also, thanks for the UFC ads that border the webpage. I am so glad ad agencies think this is the wave of the future….
August 6th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
cote i never actually thanked you for anything…but you’re also welcome.
can someone just email me when we’re all done kicking the ASP’s rotting corpse and the “rebel tour” is putting on surf contests?
August 6th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Yeah - WTF is the deal with the UFC ads?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!!?!
August 7th, 2009 at 9:16 am
i just like the picture…should be put onto a van ASAP
August 7th, 2009 at 11:45 am
it’s definitely one of my favorite marquees we’ve ever had on transworldsurf.com
August 7th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
hahaha cheee heee
August 7th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
lol @ aggregation… ridiculous!
August 7th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
most definitely braddah… fkn way better than “swell from hell”
‘nother bong rip of jack frost… ahhhhh
August 9th, 2009 at 1:35 am
Thought your readers might be interested in the “real deal” on how this story evolved. It’s no biggy, but for the sake of accuracy, kelly’s email was leaked to me and I wrote a piece about it for the ASL site, before this Pawle hyena started lifting quotes from my story. This is a man who’s powers of observation are so sharp he once spent an entire weekend at Matt Hoy’s house to write a profile and subsequently referred to his wife as his sister! Genius. “Why did he think we were sleeping in the same room?” Matt’s horrified missus quite reasonably asked me later. If you’d like the truth of the whole silly media circus, you can go here: http://www.bytimbaker.com/news/105/79/THE-TRUTH-ABOUT-THE-NEW-TOUR-STORY/
I’m with Nick, I reckon this is all largely smoke and mirros but time will tell. It seems to have escaped everyone’s notice that many ASP event lisencees have signed up to the WCT for the next nine years with legally binding contracts.
August 11th, 2009 at 11:05 am
Thank you Tim. Bout time someone who knows shit said something.
August 16th, 2009 at 7:03 am
The Soul Of Its Own World Tour
Coming To A Sphere Near You. 4 Seasons, 10 events, 8 Paddle in events, 2 per season plus 2 Special Death Defying Tow in events!
32 competitors, The Complete 16, capable of all & more, plus the top 12 qualifiers from the ASP tour & 4 invitees from God knows where, round out the 32 who will compete in the most challenging conditions our planet can provide. Athletes, not surviving to see who makes fire first or able to gather better than the rest on a Hollywood set. No, these are unlike others who challenge themselves & the elements, not on track or field, but against the Supreme Force, the Giver of Life, Our Mother Ocean. A plethora of potential sites will be at hand with permits in place. Modern tech. allows our athletes to be flown to their accommodations, whether on land or at sea, depending on location to meet the coming challenge. Contestants on call, ready & mobile at the moment. No waiting period, it’ll be pumping, and the world will be watching, as we search our planets’ surface for its strongest pulse, its unscripted pure energy, to be tapped like never before in a competitive format. Where will our athletes be swept off to next? What exotic isle, dangerous reef pass, or unknown slab will test the best? We’ll take you to places where dreams are made & broken. Wave riders from all points will froth at the arenas, pushing pearls shoreward. And of course Current Footage will be available on demand.
As the Endless Summer touched a spark, so will the Soul Of Its Own World Tour, creating an audience unsure what’s up, but unable to deny it. Surfing, the creator & father of action sports, and soon to be spokesman of a planet gone astray, will usher in a wave of consciousness that only a surfer understands.
The ASP will be what it always was, what it is, proving grounds for the best competitive surfing & will continue to spawn & develop future World Champions. So calm down boys, it’s all there, better than ever. The ASP will update & integrate the Q.S. 100 vying to become 1 of the 12 disciples on next years World Tour as only ESPN can bring you.
32 competitors. I’d like to see the bottom 16, including invitees, go 4-man, 4- 45min-1hour heats. The hassle is important, brings out character, creativity, the interference possibilities, the bump & grind, and when its pumping, the playing field expands, plenty for all. Remember these boys are professionals. The victors will pit themselves against #9 to 16, so impersonal. When its game on 4-man rules continue, its called Action Sports, with 4– 1hour heats. 8hrs. in, you are left with the cream for day 2. Might be boring live, if not a purist, but with slight delay we got chicken dinner. Live cast a must, in ESPN we trust that this will be more than another sporting event wedged into the grid, where’s Tesla, wave master. To be Hollygood takes a special sort. Do you see a problem here? Na, me neither. This is their last chance to paddle out, it’s hot & glassy, & there’s one coming their way. No scores called here, keep your own score & give it your best shot, watch your ass & keep your head up, quit thinking you need to know something, you got a watch, that’s all you need. It’s no longer what you need, you need only to tear it up! You’ll know who won soon enough. So cut the crap fools, school’s out, it’s your J.O.B. join our brotherhood, the Brotherhood Of Surfing. Well that might be to much, depends on the fence you sit on, I guess.
1st place Tour Champion receives 500k for his efforts
$250k You figure out the points.
2nd 100k =3rd 50k =5th 25k =9th 15k 10k for the rest
That’s a 100k all expense paid trip around the world for the rest, if you got the nuts to tow, with incentives, for showing up. Fuck you if you think you’re worth more than that, let’s see it!
OK, that’s 830k, plenty enough prizes for the 1st go round. That leaves 670k per event to do things right & look towards the future.
So what say you, fuck off, or is it our time?
Brought to you by
VPSports
September 27th, 2009 at 7:37 am
Dane's heat with Bede (Heat 1 of Round 4) at the Quiksilver Pro France is exactly why a new tour is needed. The judging criteria needs to be changed to reward more progressive surfing. Check out the commentary here … http://surfstop.blogspot.com/