A bold pro-milquetoast agenda!
Surfline, the world’s largest surf website, has had a very long run at the top. What started as a telephone call in service turned online in 1995 and has been a go to for any serious surfer since. I’ve always been fascinated by it. Thousands upon thousands of eyeballs coming every day for surf reports. Captive eyeballs since no one else has the camera network etc. I always imagined how powerful the editorial voice could, in theory, be.
Brands killed, brands made. The world shaped.
And maybe, the specter of this power kept Surfline from ever trying to discover an editorial voice, preferring to stay safely in the bland where no hurt feelings dwell.
Until last week.
It appears that new-look Surfline (the site has changed and cameras are no longer offered freely) has decided it is going to be the Fox News of surf media. A bullish mouthpiece of the current administration. A bold pro-milquetoast agenda.
The transition was signaled by a softball interview with World Surf League CEO Sophie Goldschmidt and continues today with unvarnished excitement about Olympic surfing’s schedule which, apparently has locked down dates. Let’s read a touch together?
So we did what anyone curious about surfing and the Olympics would do — called the ISA’s Fernando Aguerre, who, by his own admission, “knows more about surfing in the Olympics than anyone on earth.” And who are we to argue? It was Aguerre’s vision, drive and commitment that led to surfing’s inclusion in the 2020 Games.
Turns out, those dates are placeholders. “This is one of difficulties in having a competition in the ocean,” Aguerre said. “They need initial competition dates to put some pins on the wall to start selling tickets. And if we have a good swell, we’ll run then — but if not, we have all the way through August 9th to run. They do the same thing in sailing — if there’s no wind, they can’t run, but they need to have dates on the board.”
This is good news, obviously. Surfing in the Games needs four days to run, and a two-week waiting period is essentially the same as a current men’s WCT event. Decent chance of surf.
Then later…
More good news: there is flexibility. It’ll be the ISA — not the IOC or Tokyo — making the call to run each day. They can run a few hours during the morning offshores, then hold till the next day, etc. Just like a ‘CT event.
Etc.
I think it is wonderful that Surfline has found its voice though I do wonder if the Huff-Po inspired The Inertia will get testy. What do you think? Do you think the Huff-Po inspired The Inertia will get testy?
Can you guys have your developer make a “Hot Cams” section, so I never have to go to Surfline again?
TheInertia blows
I would inseminate the lady in the blue dress if she needs my services.
Sadly, unless you are pulling 7 figures, vote republican, and are famous, you’ll never touch it.
Well as a matter of fact, if you go check the Surfline GFS prog charts for the Western Pacific you will see a quite powerful little typhoon revving up about 800 nm directly east of northern Chiba, right now. And another one lazily beginning to wind up well off to the south.
Get a similar early season layout in 2020 and you won’t need to worry about swell.
Who will have the last laugh here? Fernando? TheInertia? Surfline? Beachgrit? Or some 19 year old kid from Costa Rica who blows all the pros out of the water?
Interesting point, Nick. My money’s on us to have the last laugh.
Any word on the judges ?
They say ISA are going to run it …
I’m with you… during the Chinese Olympic games they modified the weather. Clear skies the whole time. Good weather usually equals small surf.
Imagine if they said the track and field events have a 60% chance of running in two weeks. NBC would rejoice!
The best thing about Surfing in the Olympics is that as it’s being run in Japan at a location and time of year that almost guarantees dribbly waves and flappy surfing it’s surely got to be axed never to be olympified again.
Agreed. The U.S. Open already has a monopoly on the shittiest-surf-to-greatest-overall-investment ratio.
Even with the tanks on the competitive horizon, surfing seems unappealing compared to sports that’re easy for non-endemic viewers to understand (running & biking: fastest guy/gal wins; throwing: farthest toss wins; etc.).
Non-practitioners watch some sports for the physiques, others for the grace, others for the combat, others for visibly intense concentration. I don’t know that surfing really captures any of those things more/better than anything already on the Olympic docket.
Repeat after me; Olympic surfing will be run in wave pools.
Repeat after me… this is not surfing!…it’s not in nature! It’s a swimming pool with chlorine.
Not saying i like it B. Its just inevitable
I’m glad wsl dropped some money wisely into Surfline.
I can now dump Windyty. I mean it’s pointless.
Surfline can tell me where I need to be. And hey there’s some Airbnb links !
And links to preferred wsl partners !
Cool.
Anyone got any footage of tsurigasaki “firing”? Seems like a problem that can’t be overcome with a two-week waiting period. Or am I just being too optimistic?
God I hope you’re right. Can’t imagine it being much better than this clip though..
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Oh, have no fear, it will be shit.
This brings us to the million dollar question. Why was surfing never in the Olympics? Answer… most countries don’t have oceans, and if they do the waves sick. All these top excutives just want you to buy…all about money!
I shamefully followed the QS highlights and results there earlier this year because I’m on the Matt Banting comeback bandwagon, the waves reminded me of the misso’s rig post-child birth – a bit sloppy and lumpy but you can still have some fun with it.
Article idea:
WSL will use ironclad Olympic Games unaffiliated product endorsement guidelines to squeeze out surf industry.
After looking at guidelines for Team USA, we can expect stickerless boards, no clothing worn other than Team issued gear, including clothes, hats, sunglasses, shoes, etc. In other words, surfers may be forced to endorse competitor companies during the Olympics. Since the WSL and ISA are running the show, any waivers will only go through them. If a company is already a primary sponsor of WSL (not just event sponsor), they’ll likely get waiver. What will this mean for the surf industry leading up to Olympics? Will WSL demand obscene $ amounts from companies?
Reference:
https://www.teamusa.org/Ath…
Fook the article, let’s just go off the rails with speculation and vitriol here and now!
You’re right!!!!!!! The WSL has two lists that gives us a jumping off point. 1.) Acceptable brands for broadcast. 2.) Unacceptable brands for broadcast.
Red Bull is on list 2.
Though seemingly benign the lists show that the WSL is a listing sort. Or at the very least aware that aboard their ship there is an uneven distribution of weight causing the craft to heel to one side. Beyond 45° would be catastrophic. To right the ship, Red Bull must not sit alone on the Unacceptable brands. There must be others. But who? This might explain why JJF has lost interest in the WCT. JJF knows his nautical terms. At the Ranch Sophie said to JJF “don’t jump ship! It’s just listing! We won’t capsize I promise!” To which JJF responded “my knee needs time to keel.”
Chas why you hatin’? Do you need a wsl / Airbnb getaway with a pro™️ to soothest thy soul?
I’m trying to decide if my readership here is because I deem BeachGrit to be (pick two):
A. Playboy-inspired (content, cuz God knows the visuals are wholly lacking; similarly quickly hidden from sight in public)
B. MAD Magazine-inspired (Chas & Derek as Spy vs. Spy)
C. New Yorker-inspired (nah)
D. National Enquirer-inspired (unfounded and borderline libelous rumor)
E. The best online congregation of genuinely funny fuckwits who are kinda/sorta here for the surf thematics (but more because working sucks).
Dez BG = A
Chaz BG = D
Good thing Chas is too cool for school, that way he dunno or care what his marks look like!
Es are good as the Shamen told us in 92 .
Ah well if the toast wasn’t jellied you and Derek couldn’t throw it at the floor until it lands sticky side down. The WSL is to Beach Grit as Trump is to Colbert, if they didn’t exist you’d have to go back to smiling politely while pretending Anna Kendrick’s top isn’t see through ….
Gosh, it’s a good thing for Surfline’s bidness plan that there ain’t several other forecasting / shit-talkin’ surfy-adjacent sites out there, or they’d be screwed!
And think of the horror if the general public was allowed access to publicly-funded collections of weather data and were able to create their own surf forecasting rigs with open-source efforts.
Fuck me Amadeus!
Yup. I’m putting ALL my pennies into Surfline stock, NOW.
(Sleepy chorus voice: ALL HAIL THE FACELESS CORPORATE OVERLORDS. THEY KNOW WHAT IS GOOD FOR US….)
Straight up, a weather radio (now app) that robo-reads the buoy numbers and conditions is better than any cam when there’s proper swell.
Surfline was always a good time to call if I wanted my ass whipped by my dad for the $0.98/minute call circa 1995. NOAA reports live in my blackened heart and warm my calloused soul, though.
‘Windy TV’= great site / app