Pro surfing vs. Pro pool

Unlike pool, surfers dont think they know everything and want to learn, therefore they watch.

Plus there is an outside chance somebody will get eaten by a shark instead of beaten by a "shark" - much more exciting!
Jason

You're wasting your time even typing that out.

Surfers completely changed their entire sport and judging criteria for one. You can't even propose a small rule change in pool without people going absolutely bezerker, for whatever the hell reason I have no idea. Pool players are just totally irrational creatures of habit stuck in their ways.

Surfer have representatives (who surf) on all the decision making panels, so what the actual pro surfers think is a huge part of the decisions they end up making. Surfing went from absolute zero to hero by having contest windows, where before they would just hold the contests when the waves were horrible. The events they have each year stop at places that are likely to have very good conditions for that time of year. They have their shit together so well you just seriously can't even believe it. They move contest sites in the middle of events, just to make the fans and surfers happy! We're talking moving huge scaffoldings and major tv equipment. They don't care, they just do it. I'm sure it's not perfect, but it's a well oiled machine compared to pool. Seriously, you could not get ten pool players to come to a rational decision for anything. You can't even propose a rule change around some of the sport's most time honered representatives without being lambasted. It's honestly totally ridiculous and make no mistake, pool deserves to be where it is because of things like this.

If anyone wants my advice, the only way to change pool for the better would be to create some sort of decision making panel for pool, and quite frankly just rule out all the old people. People who play pool professionally and have a good head on their shoulders should make up a large portion of the panel (e.g. Guys like say Appleton, Bergman...). I'm telling you, don't let an old pool player anywhere near the panel. Give the panel control over events, the way they are run, the way prize money is to be raised etc. It's the only way.

There's just not much to say other than other sports get it, and the pool players that have been around for a while and sort of control everything... don't. That's it.

It's action man. Big wave is on X games level, hell it might be a part of x games. No one is jumping in a helicopter to film Dennis playing 1 pocket, on IMAX film. Now, if Dennis was packing heat, as well as his opponent, and there was a good chance someone was going to die, there would be millions at pools disposal.

Frankenstroke said:

Where does this money come from?

John John Florence $1,023,800.
Bede Durbridge $1,213,920.
Julian Wilson $1,260,400. ...
Gabriel Medina $1,326,550. ...
CJ Hobgood $1,420,620. ...
Adriano de Souza $1,538,600. ...
Joel Parkinson $1,992,600. ...
Taj Burrow $2,182,640.
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=professional+surfing+salaries

How many of you could name one pro surfer?
How many pro surfer events have you attended?
How much pro surfing have you watched on TV?


At the baseline, all the top 44 are guaranteed a minimum prize money of $3000 per WCT event. There'll be 12 of those events in 2002, so that's $36,000 in the bank. You can jack that amount up by good placings - it's $30,000 a win, so a couple wins and you're nearly pulling down $100g just off the prize purse.

Surfing is a $7 billion industry. $150 million surfboard market.
(Does anyone know the global market for pool cues?)
http://www.therichest.com/rich-list/nation/worlds-10-richest-surfers/

Sponsors such as Ford, Target, Red Bull.

Dane Reynolds made $3.5 million per year from Quicksilver. WTF!!
http://www.grindtv.com/surf/pro-sur...lar-contract-made-public/#cLqf9Zdxmd0f0lAw.97

According to the BCA, 36 million people participated in pool.

According to google, 1.7 million US people surfed once a year.
23 million people in the world surfed.

We have more pool players in the US than there are surfers in the world.

Clearly billiards is a much larger market with enormous potential. We need the
business world to recognize and tap that market. The top earners in surfing listed
above are making the bulk of their money from non-surfing sponsors like clothing,
sunglasses, automotive, shoes. The smallest endorsements come from surfboard
manufacturers.

Predator, Meucci, and McDermott, Brunswick and Simonis...This is small potatoes.
We need Ford, GM, Budweiser, Miller Brewing, Nike, Pepsi, Coca Cola.

We need big dogs, not Big Dawg Billiards, to put their money behind pool.

Click to expand...

I guess you live in a BUBBLE. Surfing is a HUGE international sport and has been for a very, very long time.....

Surfers on tour are professional athletes. Your comparison is Apples to Grapefruits.....

Sports that have nature and the beauty of life as part of their format, be it blue ocean or blue skies and green trees, will always be more interesting to watch for the non sports person, who has no clue as to what is really going on.

p.s. Surfing has also been accepted as an Olympic Sport for 2020 Skateboarding as well.

I know which sport id rather bet on myself at.

Black-Balled said:

I know which sport id rather bet on myself at.

Click to expand...

One of them has much hotter chicks and a lot more of them

Clearly billiards is a much larger market with enormous potential. We need the
business world to recognize and tap that market. The top earners in surfing listed
above are making the bulk of their money from non-surfing sponsors like clothing,
sunglasses, automotive, shoes. The smallest endorsements come from surfboard
manufacturers.

Click to expand...

That's because surfing is, you know, cool.

Well I play pool and surf!
Pool is bad a$$, I have found great cues, my Diamond table and a few friends surfing....the web is also a great place to do tire rewiews

trentfromtoledo said:

p.s. Surfing has also been accepted as an Olympic Sport for 2020 Skateboarding as well.

Click to expand...

I'm pushing to have gum-chewing accepted as a sport for the 2024 games. Gonna try and get Nick Varner in there for that competition.

Frankenstroke said:

"I guess you live in a BUBBLE. Surfing is a HUGE international sport and has been for a very, very long time....."

That's my point. Pool is a BIGGER international sport. And its been around for
HUNDREDS of years.

Click to expand...

I am very doubtful of that. Pool as a profession is VERY YOUNG... It is barely even recognized as a sport. Snooker on the other hand has been for quite a while and there is plenty of money behind it.

I love pool, but, as we all know its based around bars/ alcohol and illegal gambling. Add " $$$ backers" to the equation and you get what we have now. There are a handful of awesome Pro Pool players in the USA, nothing like Surfing or Skateboarding for that matter... We all have opinions, I play pool , skate snowboard and surf. I base my knowledge on those facts. Think what you want, but, China and Europe have much better cue sport business than we do...

trentfromtoledo said:

I am very doubtful of that. Pool as a profession is VERY YOUNG... It is barely even recognized as a sport. Snooker on the other hand has been for quite a while and there is plenty of money behind it.
I love pool, but, as we all know its based around bars/ alcohol and illegal gambling. Add " $$$ backers" to the equation and you get what we have now. There are a handful of awesome Pro Pool players in the USA, nothing like Surfing or Skateboarding for that matter... We all have opinions, I play pool , skate snowboard and surf. I base my knowledge on those facts. Think what you want, but, China and Europe have much better cue sport business than we do...

Click to expand...

You are 100% right.
If anyone wants to see why no corporate people in their right mind want anything to do with pool players in the USA, just read Grady Mathews' book "Bet High and Kiss Low".
Or an old one titled "The Bank Shot and other Great Robberies"....by the "most well known hero from the pool world".
Even though both are dead and long gone, the stigma remains.

Surfing is rarely done by 30 year old introverts with OCD and a little bit of a spare tire workin. Pool players are indoors and battling elements in their own heads. Ultimately pool matches are about the player that can master their own mental state and make the least amount of mistakes. It's a hard sell if those were the only things about pool that are hard to wrap an uninitiated head around. Then we get into the bare fact that non-players are at a really huge disadvantage since you really need to understand games like straight pool and one pocket to even begin to enjoy them... playing them for years makes you want to sweat all the matches you can lay your hands on.

So... a governing panel to set things a'right... yeah it's needed. I think that standardization should take place too.... agreed upon equipment mandates. 4" pockets on GC III's, and the only sanctioned game will be one pocket... Must have ass-weights, but bee keepers outfit is optional. All other games are merely practice to learn how to play one pocket, so they don't really count.

That is all,

Lesh

Great, another article comparing apples to newspapers.

Frankenstroke said:

Where does this money come from?

John John Florence $1,023,800.
Bede Durbridge $1,213,920.
Julian Wilson $1,260,400. ...
Gabriel Medina $1,326,550. ...
CJ Hobgood $1,420,620. ...
Adriano de Souza $1,538,600. ...
Joel Parkinson $1,992,600. ...
Taj Burrow $2,182,640.
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=professional+surfing+salaries

How many of you could name one pro surfer?
How many pro surfer events have you attended?
How much pro surfing have you watched on TV?


At the baseline, all the top 44 are guaranteed a minimum prize money of $3000 per WCT event. There'll be 12 of those events in 2002, so that's $36,000 in the bank. You can jack that amount up by good placings - it's $30,000 a win, so a couple wins and you're nearly pulling down $100g just off the prize purse.

Surfing is a $7 billion industry. $150 million surfboard market.
(Does anyone know the global market for pool cues?)
http://www.therichest.com/rich-list/nation/worlds-10-richest-surfers/

Sponsors such as Ford, Target, Red Bull.

Dane Reynolds made $3.5 million per year from Quicksilver. WTF!!
http://www.grindtv.com/surf/pro-sur...lar-contract-made-public/#cLqf9Zdxmd0f0lAw.97

According to the BCA, 36 million people participated in pool.

According to google, 1.7 million US people surfed once a year.
23 million people in the world surfed.

We have more pool players in the US than there are surfers in the world.

Clearly billiards is a much larger market with enormous potential. We need the
business world to recognize and tap that market. The top earners in surfing listed
above are making the bulk of their money from non-surfing sponsors like clothing,
sunglasses, automotive, shoes. The smallest endorsements come from surfboard
manufacturers.

Predator, Meucci, and McDermott, Brunswick and Simonis...This is small potatoes.
We need Ford, GM, Budweiser, Miller Brewing, Nike, Pepsi, Coca Cola.

We need big dogs, not Big Dawg Billiards, to put their money behind pool.

Click to expand...

I agree.

I believe there are many problems as to why Pool isnt bigger than it currently is in the USA. Throughout history pool halls and pool rooms have a bad reputation for being a rowdy smoke filled place where gambling, hustling, and fights break out. I do believe that image is still in the minds of majority generations. It would take a huge wave of cleanups to rebrand that image and it would certainly help if schools would pickup pool/billiards to be an activity of sort. The younger generation is where change can truly begin.

"Big Dogs" probably don't want to be involved with anything shady and thus avoid pool? Of course this is all just my thoughts. Chime in people !

yogapantsqt said:

I agree.

I believe there are many problems as to why Pool isnt bigger than it currently is in the USA. Throughout history pool halls and pool rooms have a bad reputation for being a rowdy smoke filled place where gambling, hustling, and fights break out. I do believe that image is still in the minds of majority generations. It would take a huge wave of cleanups to rebrand that image and it would certainly help if schools would pickup pool/billiards to be an activity of sort. The younger generation is where change can truly begin.

"Big Dogs" probably don't want to be involved with anything shady and thus avoid pool? Of course this is all just my thoughts. Chime in people !

Click to expand...

Why does poker pay better and attract more interest than bridge?

Doubling or tripling the number of pockets on a pool table might help.

Yahoo! Pool was wildly popular because it took the mechanics and most of the skill out of the game.

As for surfing, that money is peanuts compared to the sport's cultural impact.