Those of you paying attention to the ASP Press Releases of late will have noticed a change in format, with the introduction of the ‘Heat of Death’ in the first round. I’m not sure the organisers named it the ‘Heat of Death’, but it’s clearly what they were thinking. So, the top boys put their feet up, enjoy the sites (and from what we’ve heard, there are some very nice sites at Bells), while the rest battle it out in a first round knock-out stage.

Apparently, this has been done to make the whole thing more appealing to spectators. I don’t know about you lot, but the idea of removing the world’s very best surfers from the first round does not entirely tickle my fancy, as a spectator.

Editor Evans has a different take on the matter, in fact he feels very strongly about this topic saying, “It’s much better having sudden death. The only thing is, they should actually execute the guy who loses, publicly, like in Gladiator.”

Phil Macdonald doesn’t like it and put his argument forward after the first round by giving the finger to those in the commentary tower and suggesting they “fuck off”. He went on to say “I don’t like it because I got knocked out”, which is understandable.

Roy Powers, who also went out in the first heat, said simply, “My only complaint is, why did they have it in this shit? If [the format] is going to be like [sudden death], they should have had it in better waves.”

Some like it, some don’t, I guess it’s a bit like Marmite really, or Vegemite as those crazy Aussies call it.