Agree To Disagree - The Demise of The WSL
As you know we have one of these columns in every issue, always have done, covering everything from foamies to the olympics to the beauty of growing vegetables, everything goes. Now we're quarterly, we get way more than we can print, so we thought we'd post a couple on here occasionally, starting with a topical one on the WSL ...
Stephen Williams Ellesmere Port
I am an avid consumer of the WCT, although a successful surf for me is simply doing the odd really average turn or two, and I am definitely more on the side of surfing as an art, I still appreciate and love competitive surfing. I've been surfing for almost forty years, I'm in my fifties so have watched live, seen the vids and consumed the live webcasts for all of that time. I love the occasional dramas and watching a contest for days is something I relish, probably because I was brought up on the boredom of test match cricket.
The glory years of the dream tour and the likes of AI v Slater etal. were awesome, the rambling monologues by the likes of Occy on webcasts in the early days were hilarious, and then the WSL came along. First off the name, please anything that changes its name to include the word league when it is nothing of the sort is shit. That was obviously a warning shot to what was to come. The webcasts got slicker from a coverage point of view, and I appreciate how boring and difficult it is to commentate for hours on end through lulls and dead heats, but at least treat those few of us who will sit through hours of webcasts with a modicum of intelligence, and as for Joe Turpell, just dont get that guy.
There have been plus points, they have kept competitive surfing going throguh a really unstable time thanks to the mismanagement of large surf companies. They have allowed some interesting docs to be made like those by Red Bull around the events. The big wave tour has been an interesting addition. So whilst there is a lot wrong, they have kept my attention. Then they fXXked the whole thing up.
The basis of being a world champ in surfing is simple - You battle through shit WQS events for a few years, then you get on tour. Each year on tour you surf point breaks, beach breaks, reefs and a couple of hideously challenging heavy waves. At the end of the year, you get to the pantheon of our sport which is Pipe where you battle for re-qualification, world title and if all of those are dead the glory of being crowned a Pipe Master, the second best thing in surfing. Whoever is world champ can walk away knowing that they have performed in every sort of wave, in varying conditions and are the best competitive surfer that year.
It's an exciting format, so naturally the WSL have screwed it. This whole playoff bullshit destroys the good thing about competitive surfing and takes it all down to Trestles for one day of competion. An absolute joke, I had the dubious pleasure of living in So Cal for 7 years, I surfed Trestles a lot, and it is one of the most overhyped waves on Earth, definitely no place to decide a world title. The WSL are clueless.
They argue it will boost the sport, and make it more focussed for the main stream media like other sports. This is total bullshit, F1 is one of the biggest sports in the year and is decided over a season, no ridiculous run offs. Simple fact is WSL couldn't market the sport as it is it would seem, so have taken the easy option out and try to copy how other sports have done it, and anyone who tries to justify the new system is clearly on the WSL gravy train. It's disappointing, I would hate to see the WSL disappear, but sometimes you have to destroy the thing you love to build something better...
PS - I didn't want to burn it down after writing this, then I watched ultimate surfer....
FOOTNOTE -
I watched the WSL finals at lowers, surf looked decent, and the world number one won both events, which is good especially seeing how far ahead they were at the end of the usual season, I still stand by the above column though. Roll on Pipe, oh wait it's not in December anymore.........