hiya wa howa aswat

A group of notable bodyboarders have interviewed Mike Stewart. The IBA World Tour issue was in the center of the conversation held at BBRmag.com.

The business model defined by the International Bodyboarding Association (IBA) Pty is not sustainable, and there have been communication problems between the steering committee and administrators.
Mike Stewart says that "the idea was to build up the events to the point that they would attract major corporate sponsorship and then the investors would reap rewards of that sponsorship". Unfortunately, it didn't work out.

And yes, there will be a world bodyboarding tour in 2014. "There are many events already in place and ready to go", underlines Stewart.

These are the main conclusions taken from the question raised by Terry McKenna, Manny Vargas, Mark McDaniel, and members of the Port Macquarie Bodyboarding Association.

The nine-time world bodyboarding champion believes that "the sponsorship that came was either mismanaged or not adequate to make the business model work".

"While the steering committee [athletes, managers and promoters] was still in place the real decisions were made by the IBA Pty and its administrators".

The bodyboard legend agrees that the "pay-per-view model is one of the leading ideas". Mike Stewart underlines that, in the last 15 years, "surf companies have not expressed any interest to be associated in any way with bodyboarding".

"I would agree that if we had a better track record of activating large events at the level large corporate sponsors expect we would have a better chance of getting those sponsors".

Lawyers will decide if the non-profit IBA will take the rights off IBA Pty, after the disastrous 2013 World Tour.