There’s a lot of talk about 9-time World Champion Kelly Slater developing a new pro surfing tour that could start as soon as next year.

According to the website insurfnews.com, Slater’s longtime manager Terry Hardy is in the advanced stages of discussions with ESPN to create a new world tour in 2010.

The new tour would include eight events and much bigger prize money with the first round losers walking away with $40,000.

That would mean by just showing up at every event, the last place finisher would take home a huge $320,000 salary for eight contests.

The current salary for an ASP World Championship Tour surfer who gets equal 33rd at every event in 2009 would bring in $47,000 ($4700 for a 33rd and ten events).

Insurfnews.com also says that there will be 15 top pros joining Kelly Slater, but how they will be chosen has yet to be determined.  Whether this new tour gets picked up by the ASP or becomes a rival tour depends on upcoming talks between the ASP, ESPN, Terry Hardy and the surfers.  An announcement is expected at the U.S. Open of Surfing next week.

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