Eddie Rothman is an intimidating guy. There are all sorts of stories about him whirling around the North Shore. Most of them, as far as I can tell, are true. But like most things, it’s hard to really judge someone’s character without actually meeting them.
Eddie Rothman is a nice guy. Intimidating, but nice. He’s got a firm handshake, as you’d expect. His dogs look scary too, but they’re friendly. Like Eddie himself, though, I imagine if they were so inclined, they could do some real damage. I sat across from Eddie in his living room in December, talking with him about the video you see above and the video he put out a few months back. He welcomed us into his home, glanced at our feet to make sure we removed our sandals, and showed us around his house. Curious about a few of the accusations in the video, we spoke for a few hours. Our conversation jumped from Mother Teresa to Andy Irons, and just about everywhere in between. He’s an interesting man to talk with. He knows his reputation and doesn’t shy away from it. He is passionate about Hawaii, if nothing else. One of the most interesting things about him is his clear disdain for anyone that comes to Hawaii to make a buck off of it, although he’s not technically from Hawaii. But Eddie Rothman has been in Hawaii for decades. So when does one become a local in Hawaii?
Here’s the thing about Eddie’s battle against the WSL and the state of professional surfing in general: he’s got some good points. He’s gruff and raw, but he’s got a real beef. He wants the points and money to reflect in the waves they’re made in. He wants surfing to be a little more pure and a little less of a business. He wants more Hawaiians on the Tour. He wants great surfers who can’t afford to surf on the Tour to be able to afford it. Which, for the most part, is true of most surfers. But as the ASP continues its transformation into the new World Surf League, it’s becoming just that: a bigger, more organized business. It’s that “butts on the beach” mentality, where more people watching means more money, which makes perfect sense. Here’s the shitty thing about that, though. Businesses exist to make money, not to keep what they’re making money off of “pure.” Of course, the soul of surfing will always be marketable as well, but so is the professional side of it. And the ones pulling the levers at the highest levels of professional surfing aren’t pulling the levers because they love surfing–although they probably do–they’re pulling them like a slot machine, hoping for that big payout. And like any other business, it’s cutthroat, and no amount of soul surfers yelling about it is going to change that, not while there’s money to be made. It sucks, but that’s business. That’s the way it’s always been, and that’s the way it always will be.
Eddie Rothman, in all his roughness, is saying things that many agree with. He’s saying things he believes in. And while he might be going about addressing them in a pretty damn aggressive way, he’s making people question what he wants them to. He’s causing the discussion he wants to talk about. And shit, you know what? I kind of want to see this lie-detector test happen. Everyone loves a good David vs. Goliath story, after all.
