Wednesday, November 4, 1998
For surfers on 'the bubble,'
By Greg Ambrose
the prestigious Triple Crown is the
last chance to upgrade their
status for next season
Special to the Star-BulletinIF you notice surfers competing frantically in Triple Crown events instead of enjoying a well-earned reward in Hawaii's winter waves, it's because many of them are desperate. Their careers are at stake.
Only 28 of the 44 male surfers on the elite Association of Surfing Professionals World Championship Tour will qualify for the tour next season.
And only the best 16 on the less-prestigious World Qualifying Series will ascend to the WCT, professional surfing's version of heaven.
The Triple Crown of Surfing is their last chance to upgrade their status with two WQS events and the year's final WCT contest. The losers will have to scramble through the confusing maze of low-paying WQS events next season, or ponder whether they really have what it takes to surf for a living.The competition is just as fierce for the wahine professionals, who follow a similar two-tiered contest structure on the Kahlua Women's World Championship Tour.
Unlike the men, who likely will battle to the last wave for the world championship, the women's title was decided earlier this season.
"My hat is off to Layne Beachley for bringing home to Australia the world championship ahead of time," said Bernie Baker, contest director for the Triple Crown of Surfing."As for the men, this wave of competitors is less off balance. The quality and overall athletic ability is bunching up better, like parity in the NFL.
"There is nothing worse in sports than a runaway game. You want to see it coming down to the wire, and the world championship and Triple Crown title are up for grabs."
Kelly Slater was well on his way to a remarkable sixth world championship when unheralded Australian surfer Daniel Wills bumped him off the throne in May.
"Danny Wills is doing what everyone else is doing, but it looks fresh to the judges," Hawaiian surfing coach Ben Aipa said. "It's like when Tom Curren got off the tour, Martin Potter was accepted because he was different."
In mid-October, Wills was dethroned in Brazil by best friend and fellow Aussie Mick Campbell. Only a few hundred points separate Campbell, Wills and Slater, and all are aching to win the Pipe Masters and the world title in a double whammy."I'd give myself about a 30 percent chance of winning the title now," Slater said. "With the three of us so close and me coming from behind, I'm going to have to try and win the Pipe Masters to keep the title."
Slater is in a commanding position, having won four Pipe Masters titles.
Surfers out of contention for the world championship are focusing on the Triple Crown or requalifying for the WCT next season.
For the wahine, Beachley seems to have generated irresistible momentum.
She won last year's inaugural Triple Crown title for women and has seized the world championship from four-time winner Lisa Andersen.
Rochelle Ballard held the No. 2 position for most of the season, but was edged out by Australia's Serena Brooke at Brazil in October. Her goals are clear.
"I want to finish second in the world and I want to win the Triple Crown," she said. "I'm going to approach the Triple Crown by having fun. Each year I'm maturing in big-wave riding and barrel riding."
First Triple Crown sweep
By Greg Ambrose
would be worth $1 million
Special to the Star-BulletinApparently not satisfied with the drama of a world tour-ending series of contests on the planet's most impressive waves, Vans G-Shock Triple Crown of Surfing is chumming the waters with a $1 million reward.
To surfers who live like gypsies so they can chase waves from ocean to ocean, that is an unimaginable sum. To earn it, someone merely has to do what has never been done -- win all three men's Triple Crown events.
Skeptics consider the $1 million prize a safe bet by Vans, a manufacturer of action equipment and apparel. Cynics point out that surfers could conspire to anoint a victor and divvy up the loot. And optimists recall that individuals have won all three Triple Crown contests. Just not in the same season.
"It's a safe bet, a free promotion," said former Triple Crown champ Kaipo Jaquias of Kauai. "I don't care who you are, it's going to be a task-and-a-half. But it's a good boost to let the public look at the surfing industry."
"They're pretty smart to put that money up. It's a safe bet," said Michael Ho, winner of two Triple Crown championships.
Whatever the outcome, the $1 million inducement will make a frenzied contest even more frantic.
"Definitely people will be going way more crazy for that million dollars," Kauai's Andy Irons said. "I can't wait to see it."
"The competition will be even more fierce with that $1 million up for grabs," former world champion and four-time Triple Crown champion Derek Ho said. "I could really use that money right now."
"This will take the competition up another four levels," Triple Crown contest director Bernie Baker said.
"I would be ecstatic if someone won it," Triple Crown executive director Randy Rarick said. "Can you imagine what that would do for surfing if someone won $1 million? It would elevate the stature of the sport."
To many surfers, winning the Triple Crown of Surfing title is more prestigious than capturing the world title because it is so difficult to accomplish.
"You have to have endurance, good boards, and good luck," Irons said. "Lots of good luck."
"You would have to get in a real zone," said Rochelle Ballard, Hawaii's top-rated wahine pro surfer. "You can't try too hard and put too much pressure on yourself, but you also have to have desire and tenacity and focus."
Kelly Slater is focused on his sixth world championship. As a Triple Crown champion, he has as good a shot as anyone, even though victory has eluded him at Haleiwa and Sunset.
Others feel that Hawaii's next generation of surf stars is poised to prevail. Shane Dorian of the Big Island is the world tour's top rated male surfer from Hawaii and thrives on the North Shore's big waves. But he is channeling his energy toward finishing the year on top of the world tour.
"I'm not going to surf the other two contests. I've got too much to do at home, and this is the one time of year I have to have a good break. I'm going to train for the Pipe Masters because that is how I want to end it, doing well at Pipe."
"It's going to have to be one person from the start," Jaquias said. "Everyone will still want to get him after that. They don't want him to get the million dollars."
Net surfers:
http://www.vans.com
http://www.surfline.com
http://www.asplive.com
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Triple Effect
