Devastating.
Imagine waking up this morning as World Surf League CEO Erik Logan. Sleep still in eyes. Excited, though slightly nervous, with the start of the 2020/21 Championship Tour Season mere weeks away. Competition. World’s best surfers, world’s best waves. Heats.
Scores in and out of the excellent range.
You get out of bed, make a cup of bracing herbal tea still wearing your Kai Lenny pajamas, check the El Porto surf cam, throwing “Hawaiian Handshakes” to the boys in the lineup and whispering “See you in two shakas…” giggling at the play on words then walk past your wall mounted Laird Hamilton signed SUP to the front door to retrieve the morning paper.
The New York Times.
Only the best.
After flipping through many scary stories of Covid-19 spikes and President Trump’s lasting damage to the nation, you stumble across the headline Endless Subscribers: Surfers Follow a New Path to Stardom with the subhead “In the digital era, a carefully crafted persona has become more valuable than contest results.”
What?
You read again “…more valuable than contest results.”
A shiver races up your spine.
Surely the sentiment was meant in jest. You laugh at your own tension, purpose to do some mindfulness exercises later in the day and press forward, excited that surfing is getting the spotlight it needs and, as surfing’s “Global Home,” it will all reflect directly on Santa Monica.
Except the whole thing starts with Sterling Spencer and his forsaking of contests and going the traditional structures in order to carve his own path.
Spencer’s vision held true. After decades during which legacy surf publications folded and the glow of contests dimmed, the longstanding route for promoting the sport and its participants has almost entirely vanished. Surfers remade it, cultivating their own audiences through the digital world and in turn altering the way professionals map their careers. The value of stories told by surfers soon eclipsed the world rankings, and a carefully crafted persona garnered more currency than contest results.
The piece transitions to Dane Reynolds and how he too became truly famous without contests and then to Jamie O’Brien…
With weekly videos that follow his life on the North Shore of Oahu and abroad, O’Brien has gained 655,000 YouTube subscribers, 10,000 more than the World Surf League.
Alana Blanchard, 30, followed a similar path after leaving the World Surf League’s tour in 2015. Her 1.8 million Instagram followers dwarf the number of her former sponsor Rip Curl by 800,000. O’Brien and Blanchard didn’t just get past the gatekeepers. They leveled the whole structure.
“Ten years after I quit surfing, I became a professional surfer through making YouTube videos,” said Graeff, who is known as Ben Gravy. His career took off when a 2017 video of him surfing off a ferry’s wake in his native New Jersey went viral.
And by the time your eyes find the last line, a quote from Justin Quintall saying, “You are your own media outlet…” tears are also streaming out of them, landing softly on your customized Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch placemats.
A hit piece.
The Gray Lady just carried out a hit piece on your World Surf League.
Sad.
Who is this Erik Logan ? An X man ?
Taylor who ?
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
I have or regularly watch all of the above pro surfers ( swap Ben Gravy for Mason Ho ) on social media. I struggle to watch a few waves let alone a whole heat of a WSL contest. I could not name the top five surfers from the WSL .
Contest surfing has been on life support for decades and it’s time someone did the humane thing and pulled the plug on it.
Elo does not check Porto, but the Manhattan Beach pier where you might find him driving up in his golf cart with his Sup foil.
No shame in that game my friend. I bet ya probably feel tons better getting that out. The hangover on the other hand sounds like it could have been a bitch!
Wait, is your name seriously Chas? That’s amazing. Anyhow, I loved every second of this story. I’m an Colorado mountain dude who has never surfed. However, having watched the cultures of my favorite sports (skateboarding and snowboarding) be pooped upon by contests like the X Games and the Olympics, I’d love to see them follow a similar path as surfing. I’d rather watch a video of Travis Rice (yes I know he used to compete) throwing crazy shit off a backcountry ledge any day over having to witness Shawn White doing some pre-programmed routine on a manicured pipe. Give my sports their damn edges back
Unfortunately if you keep watching you are going to get a heavy dose of deja vu!
Wash your mouth out. Before the ‘net, he was a prophet!
Can’t wait to watch the girls out at 10ft Sunset, that’s gonna be some solid entertainment no matter how it goes.
I can still picture Bruna Schmitz going over the falls trying take off on the inside bowl, on an eight to ten foot day from years ago. Brutal.
BRUNA WOULD GO !
Women are tougher than men ….. How do you think you would have gone through your adolescence , always unsettling , plus dealing with Kunt’s like us , periods and the real threat of getting pregnant etc etc ….
So , a friend of mine and former pro ,who still charges at 52 , was staying at the same house on the North Shore mid to late 80s with a bunch of OZ pro surfers and one lone female , future world champ Pauline Menzcer ….. The first week she was absolutely shitting herself just thinking about having to surf Sunset and less than 3 weeks later she was charging Sunset just as hard as the men and boys from that house . You never know …. ?
But they don’t contest at Pipe
Not Yet !
My money is on Caroline.
There is a girl from Culburra who likes powerful waves who is back in the mix …….
I was so impressed by all the people gathering peacefully and from all over the country in washigton to protest the tyranny of the left.
I think the Biden term will be heavy. We will definatly be fighting and killing for our freedom very soon.
We’ve done it before and we should keep doing it.
The propaganda war will make the Nazi propaganda seem like an infomercial.
The people for freedom will be made to look like the bad guys.
Gunna be so much blood.
put your panties back on, we’ll be fine Bexy.
That’s what Chamberlain said
I think a little bit of fresh air between Biden and ol Adolph.
relax and go surfing.
Later bout 7pm
good, your boy had 4 years, let the other bloke have a turn.
I hope he gets the shit kicked outta him for 4 years like DT did
you’ll keep him honest here below the line I’m sure.
I rather like the drunk, emotional LGR reminiscing about his lost Hawaiian pals better, sorry not sorry.
No need to be ashamed!
Did the NY Times effectively steal the story I wrote for BG in Feb of this year? I think: yes
Litigationality??? A whole new level of uncomfortability!!!!
Quick – where can I buy Kai Lenny pajamas!
You have nothing to be ashamed of LGR. It was very touching.
Half of silicone Valley now Gettin gigs at the casa blanca.
Getting rewarded for a job well rused
And the winner is …. Silicon Twits and Tits
Now let’s celebrate with Bex’s favorite Manly Boyz Band ….
https://youtu.be/0THpFmNSUj4
So, wsl does comps. That’s it’s remit.
Surfing could have been where the ufc is during covid if they were smart – ufc is vibrant and alive atm. I pay to watch their content. Instead wsl moribund, unable to get out of its torpor. There has been a massive failure of leadership. It’s almost like wsl took what dls says seriously about being a media company and made it their business model. When they could have had all eyes on their sport when there was no-one else doing anything during covid.
They done fucked up, cuz elo was too busy schmoozing and getting ‘barrels’ at the ranch. I’m sure it’s fun, but you dropped the ball mate. If you really wanted wsl to grow, you needed surf island. But that ship has sailed. I guess it would have been work and innovation and taken some thinking. All we want to see from wsl is competitive surfing. I couldn’t give a fuck about the rest!
All true.
They coulda just hung in Bali.
There’s all sorts of semi pros blowing in there all the time all winter and still now
You could have a whole tour there in a different spot every event and it would be better than a regular tour.
I liked your comments.
Which Is why after being 1st to cancel they should of borrowed skiffs jet told the top 16 they didn’t have a choice and built a Strike mission tour that still crowned a world champion. All other global and national sports did some form of restart because they were paranoid they would lose viewers which is exactly what has happened to wsl, the kids have locked into their favourite individuals and the tour has been forgotten and what’s worse for the wsl is they are actually a bit confused because when I told my kids the CT’s are starting at pipe in couple of weeks the reply was huh that’s strange starting the tour at pipe in December and there is not going to be world champion, more PR is required for this change one episode of lineup won’t be enough.
On another note the wsl app has stopped working on my Samsung smart TVs anyone else have that problem?
Get Smart …. South Koreans are way smarter than a hick dude SUP from Oklahoma ….. Smarten up your act WSL
Maybe if they had set up base in Hi Tech San Francisco instead of in Velcro Valley Santa Monica they could have just went to the next door neighbor’s kid and asked her to fix the app problem ?
If being kind and compassionate is your mistake this year be thankful.