Congrats, Dillon Perillo, on your maiden ASP 6-Star victory! Photo: ASP/Shadley
After back-to-back ASP 3-Star events held at the indisputably world-class reefs of Ilo, Perú and Arica, Chile, and consecutive lay days at the Oakley Pro Bali, the surfing world turned to the 6-Star Los Cabos Open of Surfing in Baja California Sur, México.
ASP newcomers Carlos Muñoz (CRI; T-5th) and Vicente Romero (ESP; T-3rd) looked in form and took down big names round after round before falling short in the quarter and semifinals, respectively. Perennial rankings contenders Tanner Gudauskas (USA; T-3rd), Ricardo Christie (NZL; T-5th) and Heitor Alves (BRA; T-5th) also posted big scores before exiting competition on the final day.
WST warriors Beyrick De Vries (ZAF) and Dillon Perillo (USA) bested the WCT contingent in early rounds to meet in the final. Perillo found his way into only his second ASP final ever since taking second at the 2-Star Oakley Newport Pro back in 2008. De Vries claimed his first ASP finals appearance after a solid 9th in Japan (4-Star) last month. In the final, Perillo posted two mid eights early and held priority throughout the heat before scoring a 9.57 in the last minutes to lock in his first ASP victory. While De Vries posted a high six and low seven, he injured his knee while landing an air reverse on his second scoring wave, never quite regaining his composure after the mishap, and ceding the title to Perillo, 18.24 to 13.84.
But the contest results are less consequential for professional surfing than the nature of the event itself. The Los Cabos Open highlighted some of the issues that surf culture’s limited social conscience must overcome if ”progress” will ever refer to anything but bigger maneuvers.
Privileging “the Scene” Over the Waves
One thing was apparent: this contest wasn’t about high performance in the best waves possible. It was about a return to the 1980s stadium model of contests complete with beer sponsors, bikini contests, and an attempt to reconstruct Huntington Pier in Baja California Sur. Lacking the sand and shape of years past, Zippers looked like an anemic Orange County closeout although competitors made the wave look better than it was. In contrast, at El Gringo (Arica, Chile) and Piedras Negras (Moquegua, Peru), competitors went barrel-for-five-second-barrel in critical waves and pegged off six or seven turns per wave for half the points, a fraction of the cash, and little fanfare. I urge viewers to check out the heat replays of the three contests: which event was best for the evolution of surfing?
The viewing public is aware that, as it currently stands, major sponsors and tourist infrastructure are necessary for high-profile star, prime and WT events to take shape. And it appears that when the new changes at the ASP are fully enacted in 2014, things might change. But does the sacrifice of waves for corporate support always have to be so apparent?
Surfing’s Institutionalization of Sexism: Wet T-Shirts (and sex tourism)
Strider Wasilewski, Chris Cote, and Joe Turpel all repeatedly promoted and defended the alcohol-fueled wet t-shirt contest as a “longstanding tradition” in the surfing world that has a deserved place at surfing contests. Using historical precedent as justification for the institutionalization of sexism and chauvinism, the commentators’ frequent references to “raging” throughout Cabo also alluded to the hire of prostitutes, patronage of the sex tourism industry, and a general disregard for women in Baja California Sur and worldwide.
Such discourse reflects how little surfing cares not only about women’s surfing, but also about women in general. The broadcast’s allusions to Mexico as a playground “to rage”—although engrained in California’s surfing DNA—demonstrates a disregard for the social violence that tourists and expatriates have proven responsible for throughout coastal locales worldwide.
ASP events and sponsors are worried about their environmental footprint. Shouldn’t they at least pretend to be concerned about their socio-cultural footprint in hosting locales? Regardless of what production staff and sponsors encourage commentators to say, the words of these men were irresponsible and indicative of a dangerous paradigm of exploitation of both women and communities that host major events.
Two Steps Back for Women’s Surfing: Anastasia Ashley’s Shameless Self-Promotion
The broadcast featured a segment titled “Anastasia’s Sun’s Out, Bun’s Out” (I doubt that their improper apostrophe usage was intentional) hosted by Anastasia Ashley. In said segment, Ms. Ashley employed her limited vocabulary to narrate backsides of the female attendants sunning themselves on the beach. The “objective,” if there was one, was for Ms. Ashley to identify the lady with the best “buns” seen over the course of the day’s events while praising the female figure through seductively toned semi-literacy. It wasn’t a commentary on fashion, nor an attempt to sell beachwear: it was a pandering of sex itself and a suggestion that beach-going women have only one thing to offer.
During the quarterfinals, Ms. Ashley staged a camera shot in the competitors’ showers in which the commentators discussed her “talent” and “exciting” physique for five minutes in terms just short of spelling out their own erotic desires. Before the final, Mr. Wasilewski suggested to Ms. Ashley, “let’s go hang out,” to which she responded, “sun’s out, buns out!”
Now, I champion the rights of individuals to express and responsibly act on their sexuality in whatever way they please. I also applaud Ms. Ashley’s publicist for making the week-long broadcast largely about her (or her body, anyways). Yet as a business decision, Ms. Ashley’s former branding as a professional surfer has just died a cold death in the hot sun. As the regular commentators attempted to stamp Ms. Ashley as a sex symbol, they succeeded only in reducing female surfers everywhere to their base sexuality through cheap innuendo. I only hope that the mothers, sisters, and daughters of Ms. Ashley, Mr. Cote, Mr. Turpel, and Mr. Wasilewski are aware of the misogyny and gender violence that their words propagate.
Given that the surfing world’s collective enterprises are bending over backwards to transparently convince consumers of their environmental and social consciences, the Los Cabos Open is a blow to the legitimacy of sustainable surf enterprise, if not evidence of the empty rhetoric behind such claims. The Cabo Open also questions the ASP’s ability to balance wave quality with event partnerships, as, in this case, they’ve sacrificed competition conditions for marketability and spectator access. While the ASP has promised to strengthen and expand the Women’s World Tour with support from new management in 2014 (and has also made it clear that 2013 is a transition year), Ms. Ashley’s self-interested media participation and the broadcast team’s rhetoric subjugate women’s surfing to “sex sells” marketing and grossly demonstrate surfing’s long history of institutionalizing misogyny.
I congratulate Dillon Perillo for his maiden ASP 6-Star victory. Yet I’m sad to say that surfing’s social progress is still losing.
