Pipe wildcard prize money explained

• Recommend0
• Tweet0
• Comments0
• Email
• Print

JoliEvan Valiere charged the biggest swell in years for the Billabong Pipe Masters but only collected a fraction of the prize money he expected.

There's always hushed talk in some circles about Hawaiian leverage -- a mix of bravado, intimidation, and pure talent that can lean on the surfing world to give Hawaiians certain percieved advantages. For instance, while the standard number of surfers in an ASP World Tour event is 36 (the Top 32, plus four wildcards) the Billabong Pipeline Masters (the only World Tour event held in Hawaii) features 48 surfers, including numerous Hawaiian wildcards.

But if there was one thing that was very clear at the Billabong Pipe Masters last week, it was just how much Hawaiians dominate when Pipe is really doing it's thing. There have been a few good days of Pipe Masters in the last few years, but it's been some time since we've seen it really open up and say "Ahhhh."

Guys like Marcus Hickman, Ian Walsh, Aamion Goodwin, Jamie O'Brien, Mason Ho, and Shane Dorian were going mental in pretty grave conditions. There's could be no doubt that these surfers were very worthy wildcard recipients.

Hawaiian Evan Valiere surfed nothing short of brilliant. He navigated death barrels, knocked Fred Patacchia off tour, destroyed Miguel Pupo, beat Owen Wright in one of the best heats of the contest, and smacked down Taj Burrow before finally losing on the last day.

But when he and the boys went to collect, their paychecks were a little light.

"To be honest, I knew they were going to take something out, but I didn't think they take that much," said Valiere, from Oahu, yesterday.

Valiere, 28, is from Kauai. He only did five ASP events this year, while running a surf camp on Kauai. He could have used the money.

It has long been standard practice for the Hawaiian wildcards to not get equal payment. The entire purse of the Pipe Masters is $425,000. This gets broken down among the 32 surfers on tour. The rule goes back to the 2004 (then Rip Curl) Pipe Masters, when it was decided that the field at Pipe would be expanded to accommodate a certain number of Pipe specialists, but they were not eligible for the first $7,000 in prize money.

"I was looking at the heat draw before the event and it didn't make any mention of the wildcards not getting paid equally. I was caught off guard. They might need to put a disclaimer on that," opined Valiere.

Essentially, if a wildcard makes enough rounds to earn the equivalent of $10,000, he gets to keep $3,000.

"The Tour surfers voted to open up the field to local specialists, but not to forgo prize money," explains Marty Thomas. Thomas, a top 10 ASP surfer in the 1980s has been Managing Director of the Vans Triple Crown since 2009.

The sponsor can't afford to up the purse for this event and the Tour surfers aren't going take less home.

"It would take another $78,000 to give all the locals equal pay," added Thomas.

JoliThe sponsors' houses (Billabong far left) at Backdoor and Off-the-Wall.

Thomas noted that seven of the 10 specialists won their first round heats, beating World Tour surfers. The wildcards also don't get points toward the ASP One World ranking system either, but they can essentially knock off established surfers.

When the Hawaiians weren't paid, internet surf fans, who had been titillated by circulating rumors of a fight that stemmed from an incident at Pipeline between two surfers who didn't even compete and the Billabong house at Off-the-Wall, created conclusions. Conspiracy theories poured out of keyboards that this was retribution.

There was in fact a brawl and there was some tension involving Hawaiians and the Billabong camp, but this obviously had no bearing on paychecks.

"It had nothing to do with the fight. This is the way it's been and the local surfers agreed to it long beforehand," added Thomas.

Valiere wants to be certain his concerns don't come off as ungrateful.

"Overall, I'm still very thankful that they let so many Hawaiian wildcards in. It's a great opportunity. But maybe this sparks a new conversation, or at least puts in on the table. They came up with this decision seven years ago. It might be outdated," said Valiere, "Pipeline is the most renowned wave in the world. Every surfer out there is putting his life on the line."

When asked if he would have still surfed Pipe knowing he was going to get $7,000 less than a World Tour surfer with the same results, he replied: "Oh yeah, I would have absolutely surfed Pipe. Anyone would die for that opportunity."

Valiere and most of the Hawaiian contingent will take another shot at the famed reef at the 4-star Volcom Pipeline Pro, January 24-Feb 3.

• Recommend0
• Tweet0
• Comments0
• Email
• Print