THE BIG WAVE WORLD TOUR MERGES WITH THE ASSOCIATION OF SURFING PROFESSIONALS (ASP)

El fundador y director de la gira mundial de ola gigante Gary Linden dio a conocer este hecho  de manera personal tanto a competidores del tour como a los medios de comunicación el pasado martes por la noche.

Translation: Heido Sundstrom

Gary Linden, the director and founder of the Big Wave World Tour, made the announcement last Tuesday night to both competitors as well as the media about the two organizations collaborating together for the Big Wave World Tour.

The organizers of the Big Wave World Tour (BWWT) and the Association of Surfing Professionals will officially start working together next season to further legitimize the most extreme event in surfing.
(In order to begin a World Tour stop, the wave must be a minimum of 25 feet.)

“The aim of the BWWT was always to expand the culture of big wave surfing—creating a sport and taking it to the highest level possible,” Gary Linden said. “This fusion is the culmination of my life’s work and I couldn’t be happier with the results. The probability that the next generation of big wave surfers will have the desire to choose this as a career will allow the performance level to skyrocket, obtaining what may seem unattainable now.”

This fusion was something that was bound to happen sooner or later, as a variety of participating surfers of the Big Wave World Tour compete in the ASP World Tour. In that sense, the ASP has had some misgivings about their participants. Plus, the constant financial problems of sustaining the tour makes the organization of it more difficult; with this merger, there is a much greater chance of gaining important sponsors.

“As in the ASP World Championship Tour, our focus is to advance the Big Wave World Tour to celebrate the sport, the athletes, the waves and the action,” David Prodan, VP of Communications for the ASP said. “We’re going to be producing and performing countless emissions, webcasts for all the events, consistent feedback and viewing portals. Fans will be our primary focus, so we need to achieve the best possible content. While this is still a year or so away from being launched, in the five main events of this season, we’ll see a prize purse worth $50,000 USD; it's a big step forward.”