The Association of Surfing Professionals has just issued a press release reporting that their CEO Brodie Carr has resigned. Im going to go ahead and assume that your attention span won’t allow you to actually read it, but if you wanna prove me wrong, knock yourself out right here.

In Brodie’s words:

“It is my duty to accept responsibility for the recent calculation error that resulted in the premature crowning of Kelly Slater’s 11th ASP World Title. The determination of the ASP World Title is the most important moment in professional surfing. Ultimately, the responsibility for every activity with ASP lies with me. Therefore, I have elected to resign my postition as CEO.”

The ASP, and Brodie, have received a lot of criticism over the last 12 months. From Bobby Martinez, mostly. While Bobby was the only one who posted video rants about his ASP-hatred, he is not the only one with gripes about the system and how it has handled it’s own navigation. Twitter has become littered with anti-ASP twats (sp?) by many loud voices within the surfing community, like Jamie O’brien and Sunny Garcia, even Kelly himself shares his mind on the subject from time to time.

The biggest thorn in their side has been the implementation of their One World Ranking System, which has combined the WCT and WQS tours into one unit. And with this change also meaning 32 elite touring pros, not 44, causing the unexpected shortening of a couple careers has ruffled a few feathers.

The other topic of outrage of late has been the new judging criteria, which is aimed at rewarding difficulty, and more specifically, aerials. While this is a step in the right direction for the progression of surfing and from a fan’s standpoint, it has led to some wacky scoring moments, and lots of controversy. Perhaps you recall ‘Floater-gate‘ after the Rio comp, where Adriano de Souza took out Owen Wright with a backside floater after Owen got underscored on a series of fin-wafts and an air. The backlash was so great that it prompted the ASP to release an official explanation for the scenario, which did little to quiet the outcry.

And now the ke11y blunder. One of those moments in surfing history that I think we can all agree to never speak of again. It was embarrassing on so many levels. For Kelly, for Quiksilver ( who immediately launched Ke11y ads worldwide), for the ASP (obviously), and for surfers everywhere. It made us all look pretty dumb.

Whether or not Brodie is taking the fall for his comrades, or was forced out via mutiny is unclear. Who knows, maybe he really did just feel bad about the mistake and he thinks this would be the best solution. Obviously there is a lot more to this story that we will likely never hear.

The big question now is who will take the wheel?

I heard about this 40 year old bald guy that should be retiring from competition soon, and he knows a bit about surfing? Whats his name again? Kelly? Slater? He might be up to it.