The old judging tower on the reef at Teahupo’o is slated for destruction and replacement in time for the upcoming Olympics. Photo: WSL
Regardless of what century, decade or year one’s wave-riding voyage began, the surfing biosphere has always been a fascinating place, and rare is the year that passes without presenting those who follow the sport with a number of stories that reinforce this assertion. But if any single trip around the sun has produced more compelling, controversial, incredible, heartwarming, tragic and downright silly headlines than the one just experienced…well, take a look at this list and you tell me.
10. BAGGAGE CLAIM
Here’s one in heartwarming department. This past November traveling surfers gained a huge moral (as well as financial) victory when in response to an outraged yet effectively articulated Instagram post from Maui’s big wave champion Billy Kemper, Hawaiian Airlines revised its previously Draconian oversize baggage policies to accommodate surfboard bags, including reduced fees and higher weight limits. Figures, though. As a four-time Peahi event winner, Kemper’s made it clear he knows how to charge – or in this case, how an airline shouldn’t.
Gabriel Medina shrugs at the crowd at the 2021 Surf Ranch Pro. This year, everyone was talking about it… but because it was like a soap opera. Photo: WSL
9. BRAZILIAN BLOWOUT
Following a close quarterfinal loss to Ethan Ewing at the Surf Ranch Pro, a much-aggrieved Gabriel Medina submitted an open letter to the WSL accusing the sanctioning body of anti-Brazilian bias. Not only did online death threats to Ewing quickly follow (a lamentable trend begun following Griffin Colapinto’s win over Filipe Toledo at 2022’s Surf City El Salvador Pro), but Toledo and fellow Brazilian Italo Ferreira also posted their support of Medina’s claim. Odd, considering that Brazilian surfers have won six of the last eight men’s world titles: Ferreira one, Medina and Toledo two each (and De Souza, 2015). Still, death threats? C’mon, Brazil, what do you think this is, World Cup Football?
8. OTTER BE MORE CAREFUL
Less-than-elite surfers in Santa Cruz, California, have long grown accustomed to aggressive behavior from territorial locals, but July saw this conflict taken to remarkable new levels when a frosty female sea otter, designated by wildlife researchers as Otter 841, began menacing surfers in the lineup, on occasion even driving them off and then making off with their boards. With a preference, apparently, for soft-tops. Naturally, the videos went viral, but while 841’s behavior baffled researchers, few local surfers were surprised. “This is nothing new,” commented one longtime Steamer Lane regular. “She’s obviously from the Westside.”
7. #BREAKUP
File this one in the Somewhat Silly Column, but the fact that this story made major headlines in a broad swath of the mainstream media earns it a spot on this list. We’re speaking, of course, of the news that after less than a year of very public, widely covered romantic bliss (including the joint purchase of a Malibu love nest), renowned surf/action sport commentator and entrepreneur Selema Masekela was subjected to rather brutal, full-press tabloid commentary himself after being summarily dumped by actress/girlfriend Lupita N’yongo (Wakanda Forever), and on Instagram, no less. Very few surfers get profiled in People magazine or discussed on CNN, but this is one honor I’m sure Selema would gladly do without.
A swimmer went missing on a Marin County beach who was later identified as an influential kite surfer.
6. WE’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BOARD
Animal-versus-surfer stories were big this year, but while cuddly otters getting agro was cute, the increasing number of shark “interactions’ was nothing to laugh about. Even a quick Google session resulted in dozens of headlines like these: CBS: “Surfer’s body missing after reported attack by large shark,” Business Insider: “Shocked beachgoers witness a surfer killed by a suggested large shark,” The Guardian: “Search underway for body of missing surfer after shark attack,” SF Gate: “Surfer hospitalized after reported shark bite off Bay Area.” Remember the old “you’ve got more chance of getting hit by lightning than being attacked by a shark” adage? 2023’s statistics show that if that’s true, then surfers are frickin’ lighting rods.
5. ONLY HUMAN AFTER ALL
Get a bunch of older surfers together and along with tales of epic swells past, the conversation inevitably turns to the toll that “overuse injuries” have taken on their performance capabilities, most being plagued by various knee, hip, shoulder, neck and back problems. Yet we’ve rarely heard the sport’s elite discussing, or even eluding to these very common issues associated with aging. Which made when two of surfing’s greatest revealed that they, too, had outstanding toll payments – Kelly Slater with hip surgery, Shane Dorian with innovative stem cell therapy applied to virtually every joint in his body – there was something comforting in the news. Reminding us that, despite our respective surfing abilities, we’re only human. And they are, too.
The first shots of Kelly’s pool from the air, showing just how big the UAE facility is.
4. SURFING’S EMPTY QUARTER
When in November the first video was posted of the Surf Abu Dhabi wave pool, located on Hudayriyat Island in the United Arab Emirates and reportedly, according to promo material, “…the world’s longest ride, largest barrel and highest man-mage wave,” rather than amazement the news was met by surfers with a very noticeable sense of déjà vu. Small wonder. Substitute this former pearl-diving islet, now a manufactured tourist destination in the southwestern corner of the Arabian Desert’s “Empty Quarter,” for irrigated farmland in California’s Central Valley, and you basically have The Surf Ranch, but with camels. Be interesting to see to which demographic they eventually market the experience, a surf trip to Lemoore, let alone the United Arab Emirates, currently affordable only to the most affluent wave riders.
3. UNE MAUVAISE IDÉE, IN ANY LANGUAGE
Say what you like about the merits of holding the 2024 Paris Olympic surfing events almost 10,000 miles away from the French capital, not to mention at the fearsome reef break at Teahupo’o, the Games’ organizers must certainly have been warned of the many obvious challenges of transporting their logistic juggernaut to a sleepy little village at the end of the road in Tahiti. They apparently chose to ignore all informed input. A gold-medal level sh-t show has ensued with an unwelcomed, culturally insensitive infrastructure development, culminating in the totally predictable grounding of a large construction barge on Teahupo’o’s fragile reef, followed by passionate local protest and the Tahitian government’s “pause” on the current site development. Which can’t help but make one wonder if this whole thing isn’t a bad idea…in any language.
North Shore lifeguard Luke Shepardson and a story for the ages.
2. EDDIE WOULD…BE PROUD
The statement, “You couldn’t have scripted it any better,” may have become a tired cliché, but in the case of the 2023-2024 Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational, the phrase is completely appropriate. Max-sized Waimea Bay, with wind and surface conditions described by longtime observers and competitors as the “best ever seen” at the venerable event and a cast of the world’s best male and female big wave riders would have been enough. But the fact that when the points were eventually tallied up it was Luke Shepardson, an on-duty Honolulu City and County lifeguard, surfing his heats between shifts spent protecting and aiding contestants and spectators alike, who took out the title, it became a surf story for the ages. Somewhere over the horizon Eddie Aikau, Waimea’s very first lifeguard, and personally responsible for over 500 recorded rescues at the Bay, was smiling.
Lahaina was destroyed by wildfire.
1. MAUI STRONG
While any number of global surf centers have been profoundly affected, and some even devastated, by natural disasters, none have experienced the tragedy visited upon the surf-culturally rich Hawaiian town of Lahaina, which on August 8 was literally razed to the ground by an explosive, eventually deadly wild fire, which left 1,700 buildings destroyed and 100 souls dead. Considering Lahaina’s long history as a surfing hotspot – Hawaiian historian John R.K. Clark notes that ‘Uo, as the region was once known, is mentioned more than any other Maui surf break in translated ancient Hawaiian texts – it came as no surprise that the island’s surfers were at the sharp end of the relief efforts. Renowned locals like legendary waterman Archie Kalepa, along with the likes of Kai Lenny, Zane Schweitzer, Shaun and DK Walsh, Albee Layer and Matt Meola, applied extraordinary energy, and plenty of their own money, into providing food, shelter and even much-needed gasoline to surviving residents. Their selfless generosity (serving as an example to all surfers) takes the worst story of the year and turns it into, if not the best, than at least one we can be proud of.
