» What is the ASP?
The ASP is the Association of Surfing Professionals. It is the foremost governing body in professional surfing. It boasts the sanctioning of six professional surfing circuits including: the ASP World Tour, the ASP World Qualifying Series (WQS), the ASP World Longboard Tour (WLT), the ASP Pro Junior Series, the World Masters Championship, and Specialty Events. The organization is divided into seven different regions: Africa, Japan, Australasia, Europe, Hawaii, North America, and South America. The ASP has been dedicated to showcasing the world's best surfing talent in a variety of progressive formats and challenging locations since 1983, taking over for the International Professional Surfers (IPS) organization which ran things from 1976 to 1982.
World Tour » What is the ASP World Tour?
The ASP World Tour is the embodiment of the top tier of the ASP's two-tier system. The World has both Men's and Women's Divisions. The Men's Division is comprised of the top 45 competitive surfers in the world, and the women's division is made up of the top 17. Surfers qualify for both the Men's and Women's ASP World Tours via the ASP World Qualifying Series (WQS). Every season, World Tour surfers compete with one another for prize money and the highly coveted ASP World Title. ASP World Tour events are held in exotic locations around the world with the support of the event licensees. Enjoying ten events per season for the men and seven for the women, prime locales and attractive prize purses, the ASP World Tour is the most sought after professional circuit in competitive surfing.
» What's in a name? What happened to the WCT?
As of 2007, the ASP's top-tier tour will no longer be called the WCT. The current contracted names of these tours will be ASP World Tour for the men and ASP Women's World Tour for the women. These names will appear in all ASP news, and are the correct titles for both tours.
» How do you qualify for the ASP World Tour?
The only way to qualify for the ASP World Tour is through the ASP World Qualifying Series (WQS). By accumulating point totals throughout the season, ASP WQS surfers are then rated giving them a chance at qualifying for the ASP World Tour. The point total is garnered from a competitor's best 7 results. The top 15 surfers from the men's ASP WQS are awarded seeds onto the Men's ASP World Tour*. The top 6 surfers from the women's ASP WQS are awarded seeds onto the Women's ASP World Tour.
*At least the top 15 male ASP WQS surfers are awarded ASP World Tour seeds. In situations of retirement of ASP World Tour surfers who have requalified through the ASP World Tour, the next highest rated World Tour surfers will take their places. If the retiring surfer has qualified via the ASP WQS, then the next highest rated ASP WQS surfer will take his qualifying spot on the ASP World Tour.
» How many people are on the ASP World Tour?
The ASP World Tour consists of the top 45 men and 17 women competitive surfers in the world. Each season's Men's ASP World Tour seed list is made up of the top 27 rated World Tour surfers from the previous year, the top 15 rated ASP World Qualifying Series (WQS) surfers from the previous year, and potentially three ASP World Tour surfers who were awarded the ASP Wildcard by the World Professional Surfers (WPS) the previous year. Each season's Women's ASP World Tour seed list is made up of 17 surfers (the top 10 rated ASP World Tour surfers, the top 6 rated WQS surfers, and 1 ASP Wildcard).
» Who qualifies for the ASP World Tour from the World Qualifying Series (WQS)??
The top 15 rated Men's surfers and top 6 rated Women's surfers on the ASP World Qualifying Series are awarded seeds into the following year's ASP World Tour.
» How are the ASP World Tour Wildcards awarded?
The ASP World Tour Wildcards are awarded to ASP World Tour surfers who could not acquire enough points to requalify through competition during the season. A maximum of three wildcards can be awarded to ASP World Tour surfers by the World Professional Surfers (WPS) at the end of the season. If more than three appeals for the Wildcards are proposed, the WPS votes on the three most deserving cases. Often, injuries play a major role in the decision of wildcard awardings.
» What is the WPS?
The WPS is the World Professional Surfers. The organization provides a forum for professional surfers to air their comments and concerns in regards to professional surfing. In addition to being the voice of professional surfers, it also has the ability to award the three ASP World Tour Injury Wildcards per season.
» What are the ASP World Tour Event Trials?
The ASP World Tour Event Trials are pre-event contests where a small selection of invitees battles it out for seeds in the respective ASP World Tour event. The Trials typically occur one day before, or on the morning of, the ASP World Tour event. The general format of the Trials is three heats consisting of four surfers each, with the winner of each heat awarded entry to the respective ASP World Tour event.
