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Bobby Martinez Kicks Off 2009 Sponsorless

Thursday, February 26, 2009

The Quiksilver Pro trials kicked off today in Australia, marking the start of the 2009 WCT season. Local hero Bobby Martinez has been down in Australia for 3 weeks preparing and talking about his breakup with Reef. In this ESPN article, Alyssa Roenigk interviews Bobby about him leaving Reef with two years left on his contract. Questioned about why he was unhappy at Reef, Bobby responded

"I was not happy at Reef for a couple years now," Martinez wrote. "From [Reef] not caring about my video Mixtape, to not being able to get product from the company, all the way to my boss wondering if he gave me a raise, would I just not want to do contests, just sit and collect the money?

"It's kinda hard to be with a company when they have no faith in me surfing contests and trying to win a world title. He questioned me about that a few times, and I felt like I never did anything for him to question me. Because he thought of me like that, I didn't really see a future at Reef. I supported Reef 100 percent when I was with them, but I felt like I wasn't being supported 100 percent by Reef. So I left."

Big thanks to ESPN for putting someone on the scene and asking questions about Santa Barbara's WCT warrior. Surfline also interviewed Bobby. This leaves Martinez with a big sponsorship shakeup two years in a row, having left CI the year before for DHD. We'll try to keep tabs on when and with whom Bobby signs with next.

If the waves hold for Friday, we should see Bobby hitting the water in Heat #2 around 2:30pm Pacific time.
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