Big Wave News

Fuel TV probes APT founder and president Eric Akiskalian

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 27 August, 2008 : - - Not just any surfer has what it takes to be a competitive big wave towsurfer. Seriously huge huevos aside, a lot of training and understanding of ocean safety are required to tow into a 30’ barrel at Teahupo’o or a 60’ bomb at Mavericks. APT Founder/President Eric Akiskalian checks in with FUEL.TV to discuss the particulars of being a competitive big wave surfer...

In order to compete on the APT World Tour Tow-In Surfing Circuit, surfers must have a lot of big wave paddle experience. If you can’t paddle into 20-foot waves, you have no business towing into a wave of the same height. By doing a lot of big wave paddle surfing, you’ll learn to take the beatings as they come and respect all aspects of the ocean.

And if you are going to seriously think about training, there are a few personal watercraft (PWC) courses you can take to learn how to operate a PWC.

In Hawaii, there’s a mandatory course you have to take if you are going to operate a PWC. For the APT event we held on Oahu last year, all the competitors had to have their Hawaii State Tow License Certificate. It was a mandatory requirement. Shawn Alladio and K38 Water Safety also offer training courses for open water, surf, swift water, flood and flat water conditions, but these courses are not an official APT requirement.

When the APT first started, the criteria for selecting teams to compete was pretty basic. We knew who was traveling the globe, chasing the biggest and best waves and those were the guys we brought on board to compete.

Certainly people were left out, but we had to start somewhere and develop a formula for the tour. As it currently stands, the APT has eight top rated teams, followed by another eights teams ranked below them, in addition to eight wild card slots. Depending on the location, we also have wild card slots for locals and sponsors.

Some competitors are sponsored and their trips to the event locations are covered in full. Other surfers split the costs of travel 50/50 with their sponsor and some have no sponsors at all and pay the entire cost of competing on the tour out of pocket. Our goal is to create a situation where the APT pays for each team’s show up fees and other travel expenses.

Eventually we’d like to have a purse so big ($200,000 per event) the APT could legally bind each team to compete exclusively on the APT circuit because so much money and media exposure is at stake. But as I mentioned before, it will take some time before we reach that level.

For more information on the APT and to check out daily event forecasts and swell updates tune into Protowsurfers.org.

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Source: Fuel TV

Industry - Surfersvillage