ASP Plans to Hold Surf Contest in New York

For those who don't know, the ASP stands for The Association of Surfing Professionals and "is he foremost governing body of professional surfing." This is the organization that runs the World Tour of surfing that stops at some of the worlds best locations and will now include Long Island, New York from September 3- September 12, 2011. Throughout its long history the ASP contest formats and locations have had to be revised due to what I believe to be decisions based more on monetary incentives rather than the best possible surf conditions. If you were to look at Surfer Magazine, you would be able to see good conditions.



(Long Island, New York)







But lets be real. The conditions there are dependent on hurricanes and are hardly reliant or consistently existent to warrant this location as a tour location. But I will admit, this is just from what I have read and that I have never surfed there. At least when they held the contest at Mundaka in Spain, which in the past couple years as been very inconsistent, there was at least a chance that there would be perfect conditions and an endless left. When I was there I caught one of the best lefts of my life.
(Mundaka, Spain)

In order to increase support and attendance the ASP as offered a 1 million dollar purse, the largest ever. In the same Surfer Magazine article, Surfline forecaster, Sean Collins, appears at most hopeful that there will be good surf. This seems to large of a gamble for the ASP, especially with a 1 million dollar prize purse that could be used better elsewhere. I believe that this event is meant to attract the large population of New York City dwellers that will suddenly feel the urge to buy a new surfboard that they probably will never use. Why not hold the event in Central America which would definitely benefit the local community. I realize that the Rip Curl Search contest usually holds its event down there but whats the harm in holding a second one with great conditions?