The good thing about the world’s best surfers is that they can make shit look great. Photo: WSL
The first contest of the new World Surf League season was in danger of falling flat on its face. It was, at least, until the waiting period was extended, something that is pretty damn rare in the world of jersey-surfing.
For the first few days, the waves at the Quik/Roxy Pro Gold Coast failed to materialize, which, as anyone knows, does not a good contest make. One of the biggest difficulties faced by the WSL is setting up a contest around Mother Nature’s whimsy. There’s a lot that goes into setting up a surfing event, especially at the NFL-size level the newly revamped World Surf League is shooting for.
Like it or not, a big part of professional surfing is getting as many eyes on the tour as possible. That’s not to say that I agree with it–in fact, I’m not all that interested in competitive surfing, and God knows I hate crowds–but I understand that a business is a business and the only real reason a business exists is to make that almighty dollar. And I also understand that although I might not care about professional surfing all that much, a lot of people do. Of course, there are other things that a good business can do in the process of chasing the buck, but in the end, a company with employees isn’t a company just to further a cause for mere peanuts.
The WSL isn’t looking to keep surfing as a soulful pursuit. They want crowds. They want surfing to become even bigger than it is. They want to take it from the fringes to the mainstream. And although surfing still actively tries to maintain that fringe-sport feeling, it’s pretty much time to face facts: surfing has hit the mainstream. And it’s happening because we’re complaining. And the powers that be are listening.
For those that love the contest scene (and there are a lot of you), one of the main complaints has always been the loss of the “Dream Tour.” In essence, moving surf contests from far-flung perfect waves with no audience to mediocre ones with a huge one. There are all sorts of problems with pro surfing as a spectator sport: waiting periods that don’t quite match up with swells, terrible webcasts, and some of the most stilted, unprofessional commentating made for a series of events that was, if nothing else, really easy to bash. But here’s the thing: although the World Surf League is in the game to make money, they’re listening to consumer complaints, and actively fixing the problems that were so obvious to anyone watching. They’ve brought in a few commentators that are actually great at their job. Peter Mel, for one. A well-spoken, intelligent guy with actual insights beyond “cut back to the power source.” The webcasts used to be nearly unwatchable, and now, watching surfing via the internet is nearly seamless.
The most recent recent manifestation of that is the extension of the Quik/Roxy Pro Gold Coast waiting period. While competitors have been killing time on lay days and battling in tiny, dribbling Snapper, someone over at the WSL decided that if people were going to watch the best surfers in the world, they should probably be watching them surf the best waves in the world. With a good-sized storm flinging its way around Fiji, forecasters realized that holding the first contest of the year in between two incredible swells would be just plain stupid. So they made to call to hold out for a few more days, until at least March 13th.
“After a lot of discussion with the athletes, our on-site staff, our executive team in Los Angeles, our event partners and the local government, we have extended the competition window two days to take advantage of a swell system moving in,” Kieren Perrow, the WSL Commissioner, explained in a press release. “The WSL is the world’s best surfers in the world’s best waves, and the extension is an illustration of our commitment to that philosophy. It’s a significant financial, personnel and energy expenditure for the league, but we’re passionate about the world’s best surfing and we’re excited to see what this swell brings.”
Rumors has it that the addition of two extra days in the waiting period is running the WSL a cool $100,000–which will be worth it… if the swell shows up. So although the World Surf League might be wrecking surfing for those that assume that the popularity of surfing in Nebraska will have a direct effect on their local break, the beast that’s turning surfing into a whole different animal is actually looking in the complaint box in the lunch room, and making pro surfing better for those that love pro surfing.
