A Profile On World Class Latino Surfer Bobby Martinez

The LA Weekly  wrote a very interesting piece about Latino surfer Bobby Martinez, his career, his rise through the ranks, as well as his ostensible fall from grace, after criticizing the Association of Surfing Professionals.  In a profanity-laced tirade, Martinez criticized the ASP, which sanctions the sports world tour, for changing the way it ranks surfers.

The article interweaves Martinez’s personal story, his professional success, his remarks, and ultimately the fact that the ASP changed its ranking system as per his criticism after he was banned from the tour. Here’s a snippet:

Since he turned 20, Martinez, now 29, has skirmished with surf industry powers in Orange County and Australia. With his stylish, effortless surfing, he nailed huge wins as a rookie, and was once seen as a possible successor to Florida’s Kelly Slater, winner of more World Tours than Lance Armstrong has Tour de France victories. But Martinez also defied sponsors, took his complaints with competitive surfing’s hierarchy public and called B.S. on competitors he didn’t respect because they wouldn’t speak up…

In late 2009, the ASP set in motion changes to fend off a competing tour and to make surfing more exciting. Instead of two separate tours, all surfers would fall under a One World Ranking, with the top 32, plus two wild cards, qualified for the contests that decide the champion. But now, anyone falling out of the top 34 would be cut midseason, not annually.

Martinez believed the changes, which were borrowed from professional tennis, were a terrible fit for surfing, a sport far different from tennis’ controlled environment. The location schedule for the tour favors certain styles of surfers during the first half of the year, others during the second.

The story is an excellent read, you can read it all here, or follow him on Facebook here.