It’s long term. 5-10+ years!
Are you the product of a broken home? Growing up with the wonderful promise of love and stability only to have the rug ripped out when dad went to Cabo and didn’t come back. Or didn’t come back the same all distracted and thinking about other things until he packed his bags and moved in with those other things?
Very sad and also the fate of professional surfing for the past decade or such. Dad left and we all sit on the carpet surrounded by broken toys and Cheez-It crumbs looking sideways at every one of mom’s new boyfriends.
Do they care about us or they just here for a hot second so they can drive the Camry and eat our Spaghetti-Os?
Well, a new and wonderfully wide-ranging interview with WSL CEO Sophie Goldschmidt in Boardsport Source reveals much but also that our new daddy is gonna be sticking around for a minute. Would you like a snippet?
Do they (the Ziffs) have a plan as to how long they will be invested for?
It’s long term. 5-10+ years. Most importantly they want to leave the sport in a better place than they found it, but they bought it for business reasons. And I think they have already significantly increased the value of the company and the profile of surfing. And hopefully this will continue.
Oh that makes me happy.
Very happy.
And it should make you happy too.
Daddy? Daddy would you tuck me in tonight?
Lots of you foljs seem to know whats wrong with WSL and the financial strategy of multi billion company and its respective owners and major share holders ,why dont you get toghther and make a new WSL and make billion why you are at it ? Least these folks are having a go the rest of the surfing industry sold out.
Hey Linda,
I think you should try reading between the lines and especially the comments.
Normally you’d think the whole point of a pro surfing organisation would be to I dunno, crown a legitimate world champion. In this case it is absolutely not. This whole exercise is tailored to drum up sales of surf ranches. Let that sink in for a minute.
As it turns out, the benefactors went all in too early. They thought they had discovered the holy grail. The problem is, no-one is interested in watching it (it’s not nearly as exciting as a half pipe for the spectator), and no one is going to build one when there are competing technologies out there that deliver more waves and therefore win on a cost basis.
So basicallythe WSL is a zombie entity, shuffling along until it gets stabbed in the brain or should I say the benefactors get sick of propping it up.
You wanna talk about selling out? A professional organisation that let itself get bought by a millionaire, who lost a bunch of money and sold it to a billionaire who is losing even more. How is that sustainable?
It’s all going to go tits up within 12 months, and guess what, a new tour will rise from the ashes, funded by either an energy drink or the same surf companies that you accuse of selling out (and who still sponsor half of the comps and most of the surfers).
“I’ve been a fan of surfing for quite a long time and knew a bit about the professional sport, but not a huge amount. I’d never been to a professional event and didn’t really know the surfers and about the brands involved, so I had a lot to learn. But it’s been the best job I’ve ever had.”
Yep. She was “obviously” the ideal candidate to be CEO of a PROFESSIONAL SURF CONTEST organization.
LOL.
This WSL ship has no captain, and it’s taking on water from all sides…
It’s a titanic mess.
Someone out there who understands surfing: there is an amazing opportunity on the horizon:
Put together a Dream Tour at the 10 world’s best breaks (half in Indo), at times that they will be breaking, hire an Internationally balanced team of Judges with Pro Surfing backgrounds, forgo the Contest facility structures circus in favor of a great ocean/land mobile online production crew, and if the current top 30 Surfers dont want to compete, start over from the WQS.
Here’s a good CEO choice:
Bobby Martinez
Just to shake it up, ya?
(or at least as contest supervisor, he’d be epic)
Bobby is too abrasive to be a CEO. Rad surfer to be sure, and a breath of fresh air, but not the one to be negotiating with all the various parties. From the interviews i’ve read, he doesn’t really even care about competitive surfing much anyway. They should be looking at I dunno, someone like Barton, or maybe even CJ? Someone with competitive cred, but also brain cells that still function. Someone articulate, someone who knows how the surf industry works.
They totally blew it appointing a pom (that’s ‘brit’ to you 🙂 ), with no background in the game. They could have easily appointed someone with the right credentials and then put her as the 2IC, given her a few years to get the hang of things and then if she was ready, tap her on the shoulder.
I wonder if the ISA will end up picking up the pieces once the music stops: https://www.isasurf.org/
I know…. I suggested Bobby for the pleasure of it. And yeah I know an Aussie from a Pom or a Seppo (me)… 🙂
Barton is a very together guy, but not so sure he’s got the vision needed.
Bob Hurley could though. He has the Midas touch, and he typically has a sense of Market flow, and isn’t afraid to take risks. And people love working for him. Another good guy is Randy Hild, from Quiksilver… Or more recent ASP/WSL veterens… Simpo!
does the Grit have someone over at Azores for the Masters event?
Thought that the speech from the waterman’s award given by Ziffy was rather interesting given some of the points he brings up like war, new world and many others that are all done by his connections.
This is not by chance!
Here’s his speech..
This is the speech for those who haven’t seen it…for an award for waterman and woman of the year given by the Surf Industry Manufacturers Association and presented to them by KS…
Thank you, Kelly.
It isn’t every day that you are introduced by the person who has put together the single greatest and most dominant career of any athlete, in any competitive sport, anywhere, ever in history. Pretty humbling. And then he decides to transform the future of the sport by imagining, designing, and delivering a magic wave machine. I hope world peace is next on your agenda, buddy, because if anyone can get it done, you can.
Natasha and I are grateful for this honor, but honestly, it’s also a little awkward for us. We are private people. We have never put our names on anything, and probably never will. Recognition does not motivate us. But surfing motivates us. The amazing men and women athletes of the WSL motivate us. Our partners and colleagues motivate us. And doing things really well motivates us.
So, we are super motivated to do everything we can to create a successful, vibrant and durable enterprise in the World Surf League, so the athletes of today have the opportunity they deserve to achieve success and recognition, and the groms of today can look forward with confidence, and know that if they work hard, even greater opportunity will be there when their time comes on the world stage.
For this to be the case, we absolutely have to build a strong, stable, solidly and consistently profitable business. And we are making that happen, with a patient but focused long-term view, led by our fantastic CEO Sophie Goldschmidt.
But, as anyone ever associated with professional surfing knows, it is a tricky challenge. Waiting for the ocean to deliver exciting conditions has been an obvious issue. So has the culture of free attendance. Fans of other sports know that the broadcast starts at 3 pm on Saturday afternoon, not some time in the next 12 days when the commissioner calls it on.
And the events take place in ticketed arenas and stadiums. If all competition start times were completely uncertain and attendance was free, I wonder how many sports would be successful today?
The miraculous ability to become our own broadcast distributor, pushing notifications and streaming live to desktop and mobile devices around the world, was essential to our mission, and we are very proud of how we have delivered for the fans.
But that is not enough. Events are still longer than most good swells, and multiple lay days can be a killer for audience momentum. Imagine a basketball game that pauses at halftime, and will resume at some unknown point in the next few days. How many fans would remain engaged?
The event format remains confusing to new fans. Think about it. A surfer can finish second in three separate heats, and still finish second in the overall event. We continue to have an antiquated system for determining world champions, in which all events count the same, and points are simply added up until someone has an insurmountable lead, regardless of when that happens.
This all too frequently results in confusing scenarios at the end of the season. Many times since we have become involved, the new world champion was sitting on the beach, not even at the last event of the year, hoping for someone else to lose. This is when many fans tune out.
In 2016, when John John won the title in Portugal, the audience for Pipe was down almost 50%. The title was not on the line. This is not great sporting drama, in my opinion. Just like the thrilling finals of our individual events, I believe our world champions should win the title in the water.
We will innovate, but we know that brings risk. We entered into our arrangement with Facebook for the same reason we do everything: because we believed it was in the best long- term interest of the sport. There are huge WSL fans at the highest levels of Facebook, and they were very eager to work with us. It is the largest and most powerful media platform in the history of the world, and we are among the very first sports to distribute live on it. And Facebook has been a fantastic partner for our social media group since we got involved with the sport.
Then, to our surprise and disappointment, despite all assurances and testing, they were simply not ready technically to start broadcasting at J Bay. No question, it was not pretty. Since then, Facebook has been a very good partner. They have fully and humbly admitted to the full extent of their shortcomings, and have dedicated huge resources to making it right going forward. We remain hopeful that great things lie ahead for our partnership. It is certainly far too early to declare it a failure.
Let’s talk about surfing as a sport. I will happily argue that, in the ocean or in Lemoore, surfing is among the greatest of individual competitive sports. Visually it is second to none. I have literally never encountered anybody in any walk of life who does not react with wide-eyed positivity to video images of our athletes in competition.
The combination of physical ability, hard-won skill and technique, self-confidence, and on the spot decision making required to be consistently successful in our sport is mind-blowing.
Do they not deserve to be rewarded for their magic, in a way comparable to the greatest athletes in other sports?
Not everyone seems to think the answer is yes. It is hard to imagine this happening in other sports but I think we all know that there are strong and vocal elements within the surf culture that question whether the very ideas of competition and profit are compatible with the true spirit of surfing – whether there is a place for the WSL at all.
Some of you are here in this canyon. Journalists, and other influential voices who unload on social media. I wonder if some of you get up every day and stir the milk into your coffee, thinking about what you can write that day that might humiliate the WSL. It goes way beyond constructive criticism, which we all need and which the WSL frequently deserves, and into the realm of foul spirited attack, which I think we can all agree we have enough of right now in this country.
I have a message to the haters, and it is simple. Be tough. Call us out. Keep us honest. Tell us what we need to improve.
But don’t pretend you don’t know that when you go beyond constructive criticism and cynically try to rally negative sentiment towards the WSL, when you try to take us down, you are not just going after us. You are going after Kelly Slater. You are trying to take down Lakey Peterson. You are going after the dreams of Caroline Marks and Griffin Colapinto. You are undermining the hopes of every kid who lives with salt in their hair, dreaming of being a world champion one day.
And I ask you: Why? It seems pretty obvious that if the WSL keeps growing in popularity, and surfing takes its rightful place among the great and elite competitive sports, everyone connected with our sport, and certainly all the members of SIMA, will prosper, except maybe a few grumpy locals who have to deal with some new faces in the lineup. So…why not work together?
We thank SIMA for this award, and we share it our partners in the business, Terry Hardy and Jeff Bizzack, and with our colleagues at the WSL. Everyone here is invited to come by WSL headquarters on Bay Street in Santa Monica and have a cup of Dogtown coffee.
If you stop by, you will see a deeply dedicated and wonderful group of mostly young women and men who are deeply passionate about surfing, and have probably driven to Leo Carillo or County Line and back that morning before work. To our colleagues, we thank you from our hearts for your hard work and belief.
We sometimes feel like we are working to improve a car while it is going 75 mph down the highway. We have made mistakes and will make more in the future. But I suppose we have also done a few things right. It has been quite a ride, and under Sophie’s leadership, you can expect the next chapter for the WSL to be even more transformative and exciting than this chapter has been. We have big dreams and plans.
One thing I can promise is that Natasha and I love the sport deeply. We never dreamed of being in this situation with the WSL. But here we are.
We believe the World Surf League has the power over time to bring positive change to the world, by protecting our precious oceans, and through the universally bonding language of stoke.
Surfing has changed our lives, as it has changed the lives of everyone in this room, and millions of people around the world.
Surfing heals. Surfing empowers. Surfing inspires. Surfing is magic.
Thank you very much.”
Have we been fools for a reality that we wanted? Suspect judging, mystery ailments, questionable champs, billionaire investor taking over the sport… where have I seen this plot play out before?
https://youtu.be/El11u9uN4wo
I never thought Slaters pool would ever make a profit, It seems I was wrong. No wonder I am poor.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
sad face
Why do the professional surfers have a pension with the WSL? Don’t they already make enough money?
He was momentarily distracted by Gabe’s moniker and hairless body. Thought he was in with a chance, until he realised Gabe already had a movie deal with The Search.
I love the look on Greg Long’s face. Look at where his eyes are looking, like “wtf is going on over there?!!” sorta look. Only guy in the room who seems taken aback by it all.
How much of Wiensteins money is Ziffy managing….this is too creepy!
Business deal…you say this clan needs more money? I think not! It’s about control of the little kiddies… just give some thought to the individuals on the right side of the image, whom are they? Do some research!
Now the left side of the image…they want money.
its not the tucking in that is concerning. its the possibility of some strange new half brothers and/or sisters moving in. a weird looking guy with pale skin who looks he has never spent an hour in the sun. much to your embarrassment, your mother makes you be “friends” and take him with you when you go anywhere. you make it quite clear he is “slowing you down”. 4 years later he has a major record deal and is neck deep in pussy while a good day for you is getting a phone number from a girl who thought your semi final finish in regional juniors comp was “cool”. (turns out she heard you were “brothers” with the guitarist from that hot new band”.
you best try to be nice to your new brothers and sisters, if Ziff pulls this off they just might be the new cool.
if you are one of the grumpy old thorns in Ziffs side and don’t give a fuck, then carry on as you were.
terrible analogy. Ziff has no talent
he makes money and lots of it!
I hope you are right. but if all the people cruising malls in Hurley tees and bottle opener thongs suddenly find them selves in position to “surf” because pools become affordable it will be you (the more traditional ocean based surfer) who will have to explain the rules, rescue, dodge and share the line up with them when they decide to venture into the ocean. with any luck the paddling aspect will be viewed as a waste of time by most of this new bread of “suffers”.
and if you cant paddle strong than will not catch many waves
There you go again making me upset!
You are funny as…..
Take something unique. Drag it kicking and screaming into the mainstream so that its contesting in a market against other products that have 1000x its reach/base/funding. After five years use some bullshit metric like “increased social media engagement” or “increased paid media reach” to demonstrate success. Add said metrics to your resume before packing up shop and leaving with the rest of your marketing/BD cronies and moving onto the next package to sell.
Meanwhile in fifteen years time hundreds of disused wave pools litter the landscape. The children of unemployed wave pool workers form gangs and create a new sport of plow skating out of the ruins. It’s a wild success and before long catches the attention of Sophie and co so they move back in and start the whole sad process again.
It’s the circle of marketing life.
this seems like it might be very good news for the Brazilians
I believe the WSL bought the old ASP for under $5,000, so saying you boosted it’s worth is not saying much at all
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Skillz
You’d be surprised at what you can accomplish when no longer fearful of the WSL’s insolvency. I am reborn. This affirmation of financial security should help us all rest a little bit easier.
I think this is a case of surfing not being smothered in a cocoon free of outside forces.
there is no money in surfing. sorry.
tell that to the people that destroyed Uluwatu and countless other places with capitalist greed
Hey, I stole that line first!
I thought we, us, all, of the People™ had already drawn that conclusion. Where, or what Ziff may be looking at to shift his money into next is more intriguing. In fact, it’s some pretty prime BG rumor real estate for creative minds here. If Ziff allowed Sophie to give such a 5-10 year investment statement, then he’s already thinking what next. Am I wrong?
Well here is the actual question: when there are six KSWC pools around the world, all owned by the WSL in part or whole and certainly under their wing, how much will the WSL then be worth?
More importantly, who’s he going to flog it off to ?
Some Kelly Slater clone. I mean an actual clone of Kelly Slater. Sans broken wheel.
I said this below.
You trying to start an information war?!?! j/k
I saw that. Weird
You can’t out info the Jones. Well maybe with like simple math, reason, and the truth and stuff but that’s all a media black out, to distract you from Obama is a mennonite!
Stop it! Aliens, and weird hair! Obama, Trump, and Bush. You have found the truth! Everyone other than me is in on it.
Globalist scum! I’m shocked George Sorros isn’t in that suss as pic.
He is with his funding of …Harvey Wienstienl!
Did George Soros take over the WSL finally? Was hoping to become a globalist sooner rather than later
Not saying it’s why, but we must have used some red flag words that disqus algorithms found offensive, hence you being exiled to spam. Weird.
Russians and/or Trump will be looking for a job.. Further more has a league ever gone public?
And when San Fran, San Diego and LA get one, Lemoore is redundant. Collateral damage?
What was it, like 18 $55K rental spots for Surf Ranch that were booked? I guess multiply that by six. I can see these six pools around the world being influenced by local powers just like Surf Ranch benefits from doing business in the United States.
like a Marriott hotel franchise in a good location. feel good stuff.
But a Marriott hotel franchise isn’t trying to assemble an Olympic Surf team. What I meant was more local government and/or athletic association involvement.
In the context of the Olympics I get it. But the Olympics are kind of boring from my humble opinion. Surfing and the Olympics well….Seems like a future event based on a easily forgotten absurdity.
They you have it. We should all be investing in a robot shark company to sabotage all the coming surf tubs.
Well a few things.
– In the last year and a bit there have been 55 revenue days at $55g a pop (I’m sure some at a discount whatever). BeacGrit reported recently that all upcoming days are booked and suggested this was a total of 88. I can’t confirm that. But a quick calculation on those 55, given that running costs are around $11.5g a day, shows the thing plucked over $2m out of the rich’s pockets, more than enough to keep it running.
– Not everywhere is America, ie not everywhere in the world are there piles of fuck knuckles with too much money ready to throw it at this sort of thing. They’ll throw it at other shit perhaps esp in parts of Asia, but in Asia they have no connection with surfing or Kelly or anything. In Australia the thing will face some competition from that other thing, Surf Lakes, that is if it works and they find somewhere to build it within range of a population (lots of ifs there). And again in Australia the pool of people who will pay $55g for a day in a wave pool is way more limited than in the USA. This is a long winded way of saying in each location the WSL will have to find slightly different ways of making the pools flow cash enough to stay afloat.
– If all this shit actually happens and there are six or seven full functioning in-the-black wave pools in the WSL portfolio, the business will be worth a LOT more than people think.
I dunno, I still can’t see it, a lot of known unknowns ahead, I feel as if this is all currently coasting along on the top of the USA wealth pool’s enormous resurgent confidence, a big market correction could kick it all around a great deal.
But it’s original, my god it is original, you have to give ’em that.
Bang on the money, Nick. Dirk could pull this off.
Take a dead dog and add enough value to it to make it attractive.
It could work. He’s not stupid and has enough money to prop it up.
Hell, in 5 -10 years WSL could be owned by the Canadian Coal Miners Investment Society or the Deutschmark Auto Workers Union or some sheik who has just had a surfing epiphany. Seriously.
Count on it…maybe Pfiser or Nabisco!
Oooo! I hope Nabisco! Nilla Wafers for everybody!
That would be a radical pension fund move, buying the WSL.
Oh yea it would – but I think Nicks point is who knows what WSL will look like in 5 – 10 years. It could look considerably different from what it is now. My point was only to highlight that once something is for sale and it’s value assessed then interest could come from anywhere.
Who would have thought 10 years ago that in 2013 a billionaire would buy Pro Surfing and invest millions ?
I’m frequently dealing with rich euro people, because of my job. Since it’s in the south west of France, I see more and more of them “trying to surf”… Based on what I heard recently, plenty of them would looove to have a taste of such wavepools, and they all ask where is this small town where there is one being biult…
I’m quite sure they’ll find customers, from Austria to nederlands, ready to pay big bucks to have a safety surf in a pool, without currents, tides, crowd…
I fear you have hit the nail on the head hear Walt. My experience with the clients of the wavepool in Abu Dhabi was very much this. Very few ‘real’ surfers, (other than myself of course), were seen there. The majority were buying into the 6 people in the water at a time for cheapness gig, peak from the middle of the wall to closeout option so they could all attempt to launch their soft-tops together on the same wave*.
I went a couple of times with a Kiwi mate, who either knew someone who worked there, or worked out how to game the system, so we would go for the 6 person session, but only if no-one else was booked in, thus giving us 2 people in the water with a wave every 2 minutes, (15 per hour), and you could dial the wave to lefts, rights with a punchy(ish) closeout which was fun. Although, the Nepalese(!) lifeguards were sometimes a bit overzealous in policing surfers given their (lack of) experience in dealing with wave related activities. Nice place to visit, but didn’t feel the need to go too often, even in the wave-starved desert…
*Favourite moment was talking to a Californian lady, who when asked if she had surfed before was all like; “Ohhh yeah, I grew up in California, so we were down the beach all the time. First wave on her soft-top, she dropped in on another kook, landed on him, then abused him for hitting her. It was a weird scene with all the money and entitlement of the ex-pats, and ‘locals too for what it’s worth. Nice place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to go there too often.
Nick you nail it, Market correction… it’s coming too..so will these things sell not likely but they will make a nice golf resort like atmosphere for real estate sale…country clubs.
Surf is here to stay and in a massive global way!
nick, i appreciate the actual reportage you do. so many commentators claiming the kswc deal couldn’t make money based on flawed and hypothetical arithmetic (how many waves/$ etc) without accounting for how many corporations/rich bastards can/will throw down $55k/day.
-ya gotta figure the one they build in japan will be able to charge the same price, given not only the japanese money but so many other high rollers / companies in the region.
-same in russia, same in dubai or wherever.
obviously you can’t go on like that forever, so eventually in some places the price per day will come down but still…
not really sure why there still needs to be surf contests, to be honest. those could end up just being a showroom for the real product
I think they already are (the showroom). Pro surfing has only ever made sense economically when it’s been used to leverage product. You don’t make money from just running contests, as Paul Speaker discovered. You make money from using the contests as a showcase for stuff, as did the big gun surf industry cos till the GFC began their derailment. I think this is key to the WSL’s change of tack two years ago and their commitment to the KSWC — which by the way Ziff invested in BEFORE he got involved with the ASP. They would have realized, after Speaker’s failure to engage significant partnership support and the collapse of the Samsung deal, that surfing as a pro sport on its own was a dead duck. They now intend using the pro thing to advertise the pool franchises and build a self sustaining network of the things worldwide — a virtual surfing empire if you will. If they can pull it, the value of the business might outweigh the investment to a significant degree.
Or it could go totally sideways, or end up somewhere in the middle.
I guess what I truly know is that none of us have any say in any of it.
Better read the Brodie Carr interview. The WSL is burning the house down.
Since, you’ve found the ‘actual’ question, not much I guess. Maybe, just another wannabe PGA golf course.
A fraction of what it’d show on paper?
well write France off , they have already committed to wavegarden in Paris and Near Hossegor.
Sophie in her infinite surf wisdom moved WSL HQ to Portugal , pissed the French off , ah the olly pommy vs the Frog syndrome!!
Nick it’s not about the money!
CONTROL baby CONTROL!
Well if you throw in all the condos circling these ponds with endless retail stores and other real estate offerings… your talking a whole hell of a lot of money.
Think of Walmart, McDonalds or Home Depot…..they made the money by owning all the land in the surrounding 2 miles.
Maybe Ziff’s invested in Oak Tree Capital. That would not surprise me.
Well these wave pools cost a lot to make before they start making cash. We can’t ignore that fact. That’s before we even start asking whether it breaks even on a day by day basis. So we are stuck with the question of is it an asset or a liability? The cool thing about liabilities is the company can collapse in a heap and someone else picks up the bill. We all know how that works in the surf game.
So what is the cost of the land (especially in Japan!!) and the cost of construction before a single wave has been ridden?
This is not an enterprise where economies of scale can make you a fortune (like making boards in Thailand). Every single one of these proposed six surf ranches will start off deep in the red. At one wave every 8 minutes it’s pretty hard to see how any of them will break even.
So to answer your question, I believe the WSL will inevitably go broke, probably by the end of 2019. Pro surfing will go on (in a way) but with way less prize money. Or possibly gobbled up by someone like Red Bull.
Pretty much nothing, because wavepools are boring to watch Professional Surfing events in.
yes, you are wrong. This is bullshit money. Surfing isn’t profitable. Get into plastics!
Dude between 1995 and 2005, surfing, leveraged through the global surf industry, generated over $100 billion, possibly more. Of that, around half a billion was spent on professional surfing and surfers — the whole thing’s only reliable global marketing mechanism.
That was all real actual money, and it’s part of what these people look at when they make decisions.
Feel like those dates and figures correspond to the rise and peak of the mainstream buying into the image and lifestyle of surfing (i.e. buying bong and quik t’s and boardies). This new “wave system” business seems to be based on selling the ACT of surfing w/ a little bit of lifestyle (poorly executed thus far, imo) thrown in. You’re definitely right that it’s original… Replicating such a raw, complex, naturally occurring phenomenon and selling it. I try to equate it to manmade snow, or those fake rivers they use for olympic kayaking… but it’s that transfer of energy through the water that makes this seem unprecedented. And it’s all sure to be a great business case study one way or the other.
Really it gets down to the youth all skateboarding…seudo Surfing. Surf is the pinnacles of this mass image, look at the cost of a beach front homed… these kids are going to inherit this asset…its a no brainier!
Where does it go from here though? Definitely amazing technology and all, but will it be the wrong horse being backed given that there are at least 4 other ‘technologies’ working to the same goal and if we are to believe the spruikers, better than Surf Ranch. I can see a market for the wealthy, wanna-be once a year surfer trying it out on a holiday experience, but does it hold real value long term, when that punter tries out real/ocean waves for the first time, and then tells her/his mates that surfing isn’t that much fun?
Well I don’t feel qualified to predict how all that shit will turn out really, I have no instinct for it. If wave pools turn out like amusement parks, there’ll be at least a 50% failure rate on economic grounds. They aren’t surf spots and you can completely forget the mad idea that they will somehow relieve crowding at surf spots, they’ll probably end up doing the precise opposite. It seems utterly bizarre to tie any of it into ocean conservation, but in some ways the whole thing feels like Bizarro-World. I’m watching with interest but feel connected to almost none of it.
I kinda see it like the vhs vs betamax thing. It’ll come down to marketing for the non-surfing punter. Can’t see the ‘real’ surfer having much of influence on the success of any wavepool’s longterm situation.
Yep, there’s no way it’s pulling people out of the water unless it’s the Spring north-easterly season goes too long and/or the number of shark sightings increases. (There’s a marketing opportunity).
Check out his family lineage? Research!
Pay me!
Are you thinking what I’m thinking?
That’s right. Ziff invests heavily in BeachGrit convinced he can work it’s cultural niche into the mainstream of surf gossip. It’s a no-brainer.
Shit! You’re right!!!! That’s right in his wheelhouse too!
Ha ha, holy shit, can you imagine this place with actual money? We’d cause so much trouble.
So does the picture with Harvey Weinstein have relevance to the article…and I missed something?
Or is it just to embarrass the waterman of the year ?
Only Eddie and Dirk know the pain.
Ziff is a reptillian. He and his cloned slaters own taco trucks where humans are trafficked as carne asada #tacogate.
Zifftillian.
His name just sounds like a marvel super villain.
but looks like an aged Elroy from the Jetson’s
Hahahahahah
Elroy, bitter after Spacely Sprockets retrenched George which forced him to dip early into his superannuation and die in poverty, works hard to take revenge upon the Spacely Sprocket Empire which now owns the World Surf Pool Corporation. It all makes sense.
It’s all glaringly obvious when you think about it.
or a miracle cleaning product.
Do you think A’s or Pedro’s is the primary perpetrator? I knew it. Thank Alex?
I believe it’s pepe’s?