2009 ASP World Tour Schedule Announced
November 13, 2008 – 11:51 pm PT by MeTags: ASP World Tour, Billabong, Kelly Slater, Kite Surfing, Quicksilver —
Everyone is pretty psyched for next year’s ASP World Tour. There’s a certain level of excitement in the air unlike any year prior. Is it because of the tour locations set of next year? Or perhaps it’s because surfing has taken a backseat to KITE SURFING and surfers are ready to take back their spot. Nope, it’s because the ASP’s new tournament format should lead to more suspense and excitement. And it’s for damn sure, well hopefully, dominant surfers like Kelly Slater would monopolize the competition, as he did this year.
Here’s a rundown of the major changes that are the framework for the new format:
- 48-man format consisting of two opening elimination man-on-man rounds. This gets rid of the free three-man round-one heats, which all surfers advanced out of.
- Round one will consist of 32 surfers, those rated 17 to 27 on the ASP World Tour, three tour/injury wildcards, the top 15-rated surfers on the ASP WQS, and three event wildcards.
- The top 16 on the ASP World Tour are seeded directly in round two where they’ll meet the sixteen victors from round one in the re-seeded draw.
- The top ten from the previous year’s Dream Tour will be guaranteed a round two seed all year long, while the next six seeds have to maintain their seeded position and can be replaced by better performing back 32 surfers after the third ASP World Tour event of the year.
These modifications all serve the purposes of maximizing swell windows for events, creating a one world ranking system, making it crucial for surfers to surf every event, and of course, increasing the excitement throughout the entirety of each contest.
Tentative ASP World Tour 2009 Schedule
Feb 28-Mar 11 Quiksilver Pro (Gold Coast, Qld-Australia)
Apr 7-19 Rip Curl Pro (Bells Beach, Victoria-Australia)
May 9-20 Billabong Pro Teahupoo (Teahupoo, Taiarapu-Tahiti)
Jun 27-Jly 5 Hang Loose Santa Catarina Pro (Santa Catarina-Brazil)
Jly 9-19 Billabong Pro (Jeffreys Bay-South Africa)
Sep 11-20 Boost Mobile Pro pres. by Hurley (Trestles, California-USA)
Sep 23-Oct 4 Quiksilver Pro France (South West Coast-France)
Oct 5-17 Billabong Pro (Mundaka, Euskadi-Spain)
Oct 19-28 Rip Curl Search (Somewhere…in Europe?)
Dec 8-20 Billabong Pipeline Masters (Banzai Pipeline, Oahu-Hawaii)
