ASP World Tour Manager and multi-decade veteran of the the ASP Renato Hickel has offered the the first three portions of his insights into the radical transitions that the sport has undergone in the past 24 months, and now we’re prepared for the fourth and final. Spawned in the ASP Board Meetings of October 2009, these transitions dealt specifically with the system for determining the world’s best surfers who would ultimately decide the undisputed ASP World Champion. In August of 2010, we reduced the number of elite-level surfers from 45 down to 34 and introduced the current 36-man event format. In December of 2010, we used a bridge qualifying criteria which took a select number of surfers directly off the ASP World Title rankings and another select number of surfers directly off the ASP World Rankings.
Commencing in 2011, this transition took full flight with  … More