Kelly Slater, nine times world surfing champion, was poised to receive $US10 million ($10.7 million) from his sponsor Quiksilver if he claimed a tenth title this year but is out of the race after an indifferent season. Instead, the Association of Surfing Professionals Tour world title is a battle of the other two brands, involving two Australians.

The Blacktown boy Mick Fanning, world champion two years ago, will ride for Rip Curl, while the Gold Coast's Joel Parkinson is surfing for Billabong. The title will be decided at the Banzai Pipeline event in Hawaii next month.

Ditto the battle of the surf brands for the women's title … the former NSW surfer Stephanie Gilmore, now based on the Gold Coast, is contracted to Rip Curl, while Brazil's Silvana Lima is backed by Billabong.

All four surfers are on incentive contracts for winning the title and finishing in the top three.

However, the difference in incentive payments between the men and women is - in wave size - a ''screamer'', or ''slammer'' compared to a ''tiddler'', or ''ankle snapper.''

Fanning and Parkinson can expect to collect a bonus of $500,000, while Gilmore and Lima are likely to receive $100,000.

The ASP World Tour began in 1982 but the income to its athletes is minimal compared to other professional sports, such as tennis and golf, despite the industry being worth $19 billion world wide.

The flow down to surfers has been a slow and modest trickle.

The Big Three of surfing - Quiksilver, Billabong and Rip Curl - own eight of the 10 events on the world tour, together with about half the licences on the World Qualifying Series, the satellite feeder system to the stars.

Total prizemoney of about $US23 million is shared among the 48 male and 17 female top seeds on the WCT and 150-180 men and 110 women travelling surfers on the subsidiary tour.

The surfing industry, principally the top three brands, partially or fully sponsor all surfers. In essence, although the ASP is a joint venture between the surfers and the Big Three, the industry owns the sport.

Surfers' representatives sit at the board table opposite company executives. Last year, the Gold Coast-based Billabong made $152 million profit on sales of $1.7 billion, while Quiksilver, listed on Wall Street but operating from Torquay in Victoria, registered an EBITA of $US279 million on sales of $US2.265 billion.

Rip Curl, also located in Torquay, remains privately owned, after abandoning a stock exchange listing midway through last year.

In 1974, when the former Herald sport editor Graham Cassidy started the Coke Surfabout, the top five surfers earned $12,000 a year from prizemoney and sponsorships and 10 years ago, the elite made between $90,000 and $250,000.

Today the top 15 can earn up to $500,000 but this does not reflect the subsistence payments to the majority, particularly women.

Perhaps Slater's uncharacteristically ordinary year has been caused by the distraction of becoming involved with several rich Californian businessmen in seeking to establish a rival ''champions tour''.

They talked up events in exotic locations, backed by major corporations, with a minimum purse of $US1 million per event, compared to the ASP's $US350,000.

The cable TV network ESPN agreed to broadcast it but the surfers' union, recognising the bulk of the money would flow to the elite, blocked it.

They did win one concession from the Big Three, gaining three independent directors on the board.

Ironically, Slater was one of the big names used by the surf industry in 1996 when the international media rights consultant Ian Frykberg sought to launch a rival tour, bringing in Nike, Toyota and Philips as backers. The ASP agreed, but the surf industry, alarmed at the involvement of other big corporations, encouraged Slater and the top surfers to renege.

Equally ironically, Frykberg also worked for News Ltd when, in 1997, it gained half control of the NRL.

News Ltd also half owns Fox Sports which supplies half the $100 million a year broadcasting rights fees to the NRL, the sport's major source of revenue.

News Ltd, by keeping a lid on the TV dollars it pays the NRL, can screw down the salary cap of $4.2 million per club, which is only half what AFL clubs pay their players.

Yet News is seeking to exit rugby league and supports an independent commission to run the code, leaving surfing as the only industry-monopolised sport in the world.