What kind of missteps would it take to kill the WSL?
I’m having a hard time focusing on surfing at the moment. Been too wrapped up in our glorious election, in the implosion of the Republican party. Beyond fascinating to watch someone hit their own self destruct button. And that’s what this is.
Hateful hate-filled straight white dudes, and their mid-west Schlafly-esque counterparts, are loud as fuck. But they are a minority. Something of which they are well aware. Which explains the terror and acts against their own self interest. We all know how they feel about minorities.
I’ve been struggling to think of a similar meltdown within the surf industry. Lots of failures out there. Nature of business within an industry that relies heavily on being trendy. Like skateboarding, it’ll always be up and down. Feast and famine. Hold on tight and hope you can ride it out until the kids wanna look surfy again.
What kind of missteps would it take to kill the WSL?
Like, if Speaker made a public comment about the lack of black surfers on tour, claimed, “It’s because of their higher bone density. They don’t swim well. Ask a scientist, I know what I’m talking about.”
Would that do it? Maybe not. Hard to alienate an audience you don’t really have to begin with.
Maybe something anti-woman?
“We don’t have a women’s Pipe event because of the physical dangers they’d face. Their vaginas could fill up like balloons during a wipeout, damaging their wombs, rendering them infertile and therefore useless to society.”
That’d surely piss a few people off.
I think the problem with the two aforementioned examples, they’re obviously not true. So they wouldn’t be said, and if they were they’d be largely ignored. We all like to watch surfing, and the WSL is the only game in town.
You know what might do it?
Actually drive people away, rather than fail to attract new eyes, like they’re already doing.
Tell the truth. Call a press conference, get up on stage, and tell it like it is.
“We’re only in this for the money.”
Dude pro surfing is exactly like all other pro sports in at least one respect: it’s haemorrhaging someone else’s money.
Hey, at least the WSL don’t use public money to build new stadiums for the owners every five years like American sports do, from football to baseball to basketball. Similar scam in Aussie rules, rugby league?
You think pro surfing doesn’t spend public money? It runs on millions of dollars’ worth of bullion from various govts around the world who kick in to ensure the location of CT and QS events on their soil. And when it comes time to build wave pools in prime locations for CT events, do you reckon they will be shy to approach the same govts for moolah? Right now, governments would be bigger contributors to the financial health of pro surfing than Samsung.
Such a contentious tone, Nick-o! I’m with you old boy, I’m with you. The WSL scam is even better though, because they just pop a scaffolding up for a week instead of pouring cement for a decade.
I can’t control my contentiousness!!
i think the days of cities subsidizing billionaires are mostly done, thank christ. witness los angeles’ willingness to pass on pro football for so long rather than do so. san diego, same story.
I wasn’t keeping up: did San Diego block the stadium initiative? Or upcoming next month? If they killed it, good for them.
People on the neighbor islands do not want contests. We don’t want our islands to become like Oahu. I get your point, which is the viewpoint of mainland America, i.e., develop, grow, strive, be famous, rich, etc. The vast majority of Hawaii born surfers just want to surf in peace; we don’t want contests bc contests help to accelerate the erosion of our way of life – uncontrolled development and huge influxes of money and all the power and opinions that come with it have changed our lifestyle. It’s very complex, and of course, there’s many sides to the story, but, overall, local people don’t want more people; and obviously, there’s not much anyone can do to control the migration of people/money to Hawaii. If we were our own country then it’d be a different story. Anyway, you’re right too-when I’m on Oahu I love to watch pipe contests, etc.; haha, you see, it’s very complex.
Remember when the WSL was the ASP and they used to run Women’s Longboarding at Pipe? Thought for sure it would be carnage but the girls actually kind of killed it out there on the logs.
Women and black people don’t watch surfing. So no. Paul would never insult the average white male.
We already have too many contests in Hawaii; we don’t need “help.”
This is truly earth-shattering stuff–“We’re only in this for the money.” Just like every other professional sport on the face of the planet.
Are they paying you by the word?
That’s easy. Charge for webcasts. I’m already not buying Brazil and Margies. There’s 9 comps left. Surf forecasting can tell a viewer if there will be waves or not. I’m not paying to watch 2-4ft chopes or Fiji. What about the stand alone women’s events? Nope. The WSL would be finished with one business move.
Paul Speaker grabs Medina by the pussy, seen on WSL webcast by 10,202,319,468 unique viewers
Pro surfing going to implode anyway as aren’t all the Samsung phones blowing up!! Samsung broke = no tour – can script this??
Samsung just released a phone that you put inside your wetsuit to heat it up…..
Yes that would be “hot” AF – patent that one!!
Was thinking of some solar ideas few years ago for patents – that is better
The plan to hold competitions in sub standard waves seems to be working well. Outside of Tahiti, Fiji and Hawaii, the only interest is if you are vested in the result. My boys are out, so are my eyeballs. When Rory is on the sauce/giggle weed there’s enough entertainment to go around…
Who made the following statement to the evil bankers at Goldman Sachs:
Candidate X declared to a crowd of Goldman Sachs bankers that in order to “figure out what works,” the “people that know the industry better than anybody are the people who work in the industry.”
(Hint: It wasn’t anyone with an R, I or L next to their name.)
Which begs the question…were the same people encouraging “Occupy Wall Street™” mocking them at the same time (no need to hint on that one…the answer is, obviously, yes).
Anyway…maybe that’s it…maybe this is Paul Speaker’s surreptitious bid for the White House. Lie. Lie again. And make yourself personally wealthy selling favors to your influential friends all the while grabbing that pussy.
Fuck me. Your comment makes me feel like I’ve just taken a bong load too many. I’ve re-read it 3 times now and I’m still not sure if I’m skipping words, if I’ve turned dyslexic, or if you just wrote complete nonsense. Help me out here.
It’s a direct quote from Hillary basically telling the Big Banks that they’ll have free reign to do whatever they want. Which means the crash of 2008 was closely coordinated between Big Government and the Big Banks.
Meanwhile…Speaker is using that game plan to scam advertisers, grab that pussy and enrich himself at the expense of the truth (i.e. Inflated viewership).
Wow; Hillary calluded with the banks to crash the economy? Dayum. I guess when they tell you in school that you can do whatever you want in life, they really mean it!
Technically it started in the Bill Clinton admin with the repeal of Glass Stegall and Janet Reno suing the banks for redlining minorities on mortgages. As we know…the solution was to give a mortgage/home equity loan to anyone and everyone irrespective of their credit or ability to pay. But…since the banks knew that the government would bail them out they went full speed ahead. What Hillary is telling the banks now is that they will be free to do the same type of thing again (or something different…after all she is telling them to make up their own rules) without consequence. Coupled with the fact that we’re now 20 TRILLION in debt doesn’t give me a warm fuzzy feeling.
Interesting; but, weren’t the house and senate republican in 1999? Also, it’s my understanding that the white owners of this country also run this country – that’s just my personal observation . . . same rich Americans going to same schools, sitting on same boards, bailing each other out, making and keeping their wealth . . . people get lost in the “this person” and “that law” . . . the reality is, rich America protects itself by employing armies of well off, hard working accountants, attorneys, managers, politicians, beurocrats, etc. We all either work for the man or partner with the man. In that regard, nothing much has changed since the advent of industrialization; aside from the increase of wealth for all Americans. I can forever and I’m sure you could too.
In 1999 that was called “Bipartisanship” which was really code for lining your campaign pockets. You’re 100% correct that the rich run the country but that’s always been the way….from the Carnegies to the Rothschild and now the Gates’ and Soros’. But people like Oprah, Robert Johnson and Stanley O’Neal have a role so it’s not an exclusively white club anymore. The real problem is that what’s been created is the political class where people like the Clinton’s who have never worked a private sector day in their lives are now excessively rich. To be fair….it started with LBJ who died a multi-millionaire owning radio stations which were essentially gifted to him in return for political favors of one sort or another. Even man of the people Bernie Sanders owns three vacation homes. This country needs to put an end to career politicians and the sooner we get rid of the Bushes, Clintons the Schumers and the McCains the better off we’ll be.
aren’t there any moderators on this? if i wanted to read idiotic faux-politics musings by the unwashed masses i’d be on fox news.com
You’re the idiot in this discussion which is just the way Carlos Slim, Jeff Bezos and the rest of drug addled “journalists” at CBS/NBC/ABC like it.