It went quik - now it is gone

Well the much anticipated trip to the Quikie Pro went off pretty much like the sound of a pin drop in a room full of cackling hens.

As with most things in life, timing is everything and we missed any action on Saturday due to a lay day, and an unimpressive day on Sunday where they sent the women out. Filming = zero, photos = some.

To be honest, I don't think I care anymore..........the surroundings of this event were nothing short of mind blowingly over the top. Schnapper Rocks was like Sydney City on the beach with rather impressive "blow up multi story buildings" holding the crew, judges, surfers and copious amounts of media and merchandising. Welcome to the consumer world.

That's the way it is, accept it or not:

(Photo: 6Ps "Proportion of importance is demonstrated in this photo")

Here is a small selection of photos taken over the weekend, none of which included the "show"

(all photos 6pS)

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

As is always our mantra "it is easy to criticise, but if you do, also have a solution". Sometimes things become despairing and almost out of reach, but never give up.

So............without criticising Quiksilver and all the other sponsors of these events, there must be a perspective, something that places us where we are. So where are we as a surfing community and members of a consumer world?
Surfers were considered useless and dole bludgers - Thanks to Rabbit Barholomew it was dragged out of those depths and into credibility through the growth of brands such as Billabong and Quiksiver. Utilising these brands the competition and structure were established to throw surfers into mainstream respectability. The WQS and WTC were established and grew in respectability as did the surf brands. A win -win situation............

Fast forward through many a recession and global financial crisis, we are now where we are.

Surfers enjoy a good salary and are considered elite athletes, the brands are considered as established with the usual board room fights that erupt when profits are not made for the shareholders. Seems rather strange really.....Boardrooms - surfers........but therein lay the conundrum.

Is surfing a sport/pursuit/lifestyle best suited to these huge corporate organisations that truly show their strength when they arrive in town and set up the 'circus'? Fair is fair, they do provide employment for local communities when they hit town. Councils rub their hands for the extra parking fines and licences issued, so once again everyone is a winner. But is this right for surfing OR the community in general? (its not right when you receive a parking fine thats for sure....ha ha)

We can not validate this however, the economic leaders state that the small businesses are the ones that employ the most people and that this money is more evenly spread across a community. Small business...those little enterprises, that say, make their own brand of boardshorts. Sound familiar? Those little businesses that make cool hats. Those businesses that make surfboards in a backyard, hand crafted.
The little list goes on and on.

I guess it has gone beyond all that small business stage. Remember Billabong buying up every conceivable thing that related to surfing? They hit the USA and bought up brands left right and centre, centralised them, branded them and grew their revenue by millions. They also had smart people in the back office converting the sales in US$ to A$ almost doubling the value of very sale they made in America..........then, the US$ hit shit and the value of the A$ was on equal ground..........goodbye, goodnight, all over.

So.....small business may have a resurgence, and if it does, it needs to retain a memory with a plan. First of all it needs to be consistent and not greedy, with a reward for risk value and understanding. Secondly, and this affects us all, how can we keep surfing professional and of a high standard if we were to lose the likes of quiksilver?

Do we actually worry so much about a world title and reign it in a bit? Make it more local with a once a year world surfing contest? Scale it down to a size that can be managed, without the overheads?

We sure as hell don't have the answer, but we sure as hell have criticised and offered a solution, but the more we re read this the more we realise that perhaps, just perhaps, this whole economic solution applies to the world. Community, not global.

 I am off to ponder 

Aloha