A wild theory.
Rare, I would suggest, is the surfer who can forgot the
warm October day in 2018 when the WSL announced it had appointed
the president of Oprah Winfrey Network and “avid waterman” Erik
Logan as President of Content, Media and WSL Studios,
effective the following February.
Even a sceptic hardened by the revolving door of non-surfers
taking up prime positions within a company owned by a non-surfing billionaire
that had bought the ASP for a handful of shekels in
2012, had to concede: here was a man, finally, who
knew his chops.
As was reported at the time, Logan was a media
executive without peer, who had “led OWN’s turnaround
from 2011 and has positioned the company today as the #1 cable
network in its target demographic with 5 of the top 20 shows in
scripted cable programs for women ages 25-54, more than any other
cable network. Before OWN, Logan was Executive Vice President,
programming and broadcast operations for XM Satellite Radio, where
he helped build the subscriber base to over nine million
subscribers, negotiated partnerships, and managed day-to-day
relationships with major content providers including Major League
Baseball, PGA Tour, CNN, Clear Channel Communications and Fox
News.”
Logan’s waterman bona fides are impeccable: he is the co-founder
of Shred and Speed, not sure if it’s a SUP shop or distributor but
I think is big in the SUP game, SUP brand Infinity, and he owns a
store for watermen in LA’s Manhattan Beach called Nikau Kai Surf Shop.
It is “Inclusive” and “welcoming” and was “Born out of the
desire to expand our horizons and open new doors in surfing and
what surfing means to us.”
Beautiful sentiments to complement a dazzling CV.
But, at what point did he think, I can sell pro
surfing?
What precipitated his decision to leave Ms O?
Earlier today, a reader sent an Instagram post from February
2018, eight months before the WSL’s announcement, with a telling
comment from the SUP-riding, VAL-championing CEO.
It is revealing, as well as a little titillating.
On the IG account, Hotsurferguyzz, which delivers a
cavalcade of muscle-studs to its one hundred and eighty-five
followers, under a photograph of twenty-four-year-old
Hawaii-born Jay Alvarrez holding a Wavesetorm surfboard, and
beneath the hashtags #hotsurfer #hotguy #surfing #sun #beach
#cutesurfer #cuteguy #sixpack #eatsurfpartysleeprepeat
#surfingisfun #surfer #staysalty
Logan writes,
Wow, I love this! 🏄 🌊
https://www.instagram.com/p/Be2cuQBnFik/
Alvarrez, of course, is without peer in the surfer-hunk game, as
evidenced by his six-and-a-half mill followers, more than Kelly
Slater, Julian Wilson, John John Florence, Italo, Jordy Smith
combined, with three million in change.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bm_K5zXnPmo/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BRnnhzOBvxh/
https://www.instagram.com/p/zGV6OfMm1X/
What did Logan see in the photo of Alvarrez?
Unlike the average man who might be tempted to linger a little
long on the surface anatomy of Alvarrez’ abdomen
running from the iliac crest to
the pubis, Logan, in my opinion, saw the marketability of surfing
to the fabled American mid-west.
What girl, what boy, could resist a sport that was able to
produce seemingly endless images that emphasise the predominance of
the sex instinct?
A marketer to the bone.
Am I right? Or am I right?
