mustkillmulloway wrote:did the hawaiians not recieve there prize money
and why
I can help with this: I was being a journalist at the time the ground-rules were laid.
It's not quite as Fred describes in his article.
A few years ago, the Hawaiian competitive surfing community, led by Liam McNamara, finally got the shits with just being allowed one wildcard to Pipe. They felt that since the Pipeline Posse crew had the world's most famous wave dialled better than half the top 44 (at the time it was 44), they should get a better crack at their home break.
After a lot of pretty much completely above-board pressure was applied, the tour pros, along with the then event sponsors Rip Curl and Randy et al, agreed to permit a 64-man main event system at Pipe and Pipe only. This would allow 16 local wildcards to enter the first round.
I say they agreed, but there was considerable tension within the agreement. The tour pros did NOT like this arrangement. For one thing, it introduced a serious luck factor into the last event of the year, their last shot at qualifying for the next year's tour. Job insecurity anyone? For another, it threatened to dilute the prizemoney (Rip Curl were not inclined to add $60,000 or so to the bottom line just so an extra 16 guys got 33rd place money). The pros seriously discussed boycotting the event altogether and some of 'em think they still should.
So the Posse for their part agreed to forgo whatever prizemoney they might earn until it'd covered the prizemoney of whomever of the top seeds they happened to defeat. (If a lot of the Posse made the quarters or whatever, their prizemoney would be more than adequate and they'd still get some; if the Posse bombed out, they'd get nothing; it adds up differently every time.)
This system has been in place since 2003 and I suspect the tensions are starting to fray, I don't think for instance that Evan V was involved in that original discussion so he probably doesn't feel as bound by it as some of the other local crew.
FWIW while I sympathise to some extent with the tour pros -- how would any of like that kind of job insecurity? -- I think the Pipeline is a special case, it really is in a league of its own both as a surf spot and a competition, and rather than let this tension fray out and make a mess of it, perhaps the ASP should encourage Billabong to kick the prizemoney up and cover the whole group of competitors. You can't say they don't earn it; this morning the Triple Crown was PR-ing their record-beating online streams, claiming 10-something million viewers. I know it's another $100,000 or so, but if the event is that kick-arse, maybe it's worth it...if for nothing else, just for the aloha, perhaps.
