Hawaii in world tour?

[lachybalboa1]

Quick question:
I've always wondered, how come Hawaii (HAW) is credited as its own country in the ASP World Tour, rather than being USA? Like for guys like John John Florence. Is it because Hawaii produces so many great surfers its worthy of its own title?
That's all. Thanks guys!

[oldmansurfer]

It's because that way other surfers can get a chance to compete. Say that they just had a USA team which included Hawaii. Many good USA surfers won't get a chance to compete for the world title because Hawaii surfers would take the spaces. I guess Hawaii is a great place to surf so they feel USA surfers are at a disadvantage. Hawaii has warm weather and waves all year long. On any day a Hawaii surfer could surf a north or east or south or west swell or all of them without getting on a plane.

[pentagreen]

Hawaii has tradition of producing great surfers of all time like Gerry Lopez.
(spamming url removed KS)

[oldmansurfer]

It also benefits Hawaii surfers because more of them get to compete as well. There have been a slew of great Hawaiian surfers starting with Duke Kahanamoku. The list who won the world tour is much smaller but includes Andy Irons, Sunny Garcia and Derek Ho.

[oldmansurfer]

Of course I need to mention John John Florence when I talk about great surfers from Hawaii. He is just incredible and he may end up winning the world title one day (just needs to learn the ins and outs of competition in my opinion). There are lots of unknown guys who are great surfers here too who just aren't into contests. It's due to the favorable climate and surf conditions so if you want to you can surf every day without having to travel off island. Recently with all the hurricanes there were decent swells on all sides of the island.