Jeremy Flores Suspended, Cops A Hefty Fine

The ASP Disciplinary Committee have handed down their punishment to Jeremy Flores after the incident at the J-Bay Open following his round two loss to Sebastian Zietz.

Jeremy will not be able to compete in the US Open later this month or the Billabong Pro Tahiti in August. He has also been ordered to pay a $6k fine.

The incident was investigated by the ASP’s head office in Santa Monica and they release their ruling in a statement to the surfing press.

We’ve never seen a reaction like this from the ASP and considering the disciplinary ruling could leave Flores unable to qualify for the 2015 tour it seems heavy handed. Sure, Bobby Martinez was suspended after his televised career suicide in New York back in 2011, but that also informally announced his retirement from the tour.

Flores is a Pipe Master and a man who has scored a perfect 20-point heat score at Teahupoo. The suspension is even more heavy-handed when he misses his strongest event of the season. Photo: ASP

Before J-Bay, and after adding another poor result, Jeremy was sitting in 28th place on the rankings. But with four world tour and six ASP prime events still to run this year, Jeremy still has an opportunity to rectify his 2014 campaign and you can bet he’ll be gunning hard through the next six months.

Flores claps when he hears of Seabass getting the required score. Photo: Kolesky/Nikon.

Despite apologising in both writing and in-person, the ASP took a hard line in their decision and the ultimate losers are us as fans, because Jeremy won’t be in another heat until the Hurley Pro at Trestles in September. The seventh stop on tour is at Chopes and Jeremy’s history there is one of the greats. Remember his 20-point heat total in 2011?

Flores has taken the ruling like a man and accepted full responsibility for his actions.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time Jeremy has been banned from competition. In 2011 he was suspended from the Breaka Burleigh Pro after an altercation with a freesurfer alongside Sunny Garcia. But, qualifying events don’t mean as much as missing a world tour and the questions has to be asked in this circumstance, does the crime really equal the punishment?