"Wipe out! We're working on it. Paddling back out soon."
Yesterday, during the Billabong Pipe Masters in Memory of Andy Irons presented by Hydro Flask semifinals, the World Surf League’s internet feed crashed in the United States of America leaving great swaths of professional surf fans locked out of the action.
Technological glitches happen and I don’t fault the WSL, or its CEO Erik Logan, for the momentary troubles but I do blame them both for declaring “Wipe Out! We’re working on it. Paddling back out soon.”
Gabriel Medina was in the water battling against countryman Italo Ferreira who was wearing hot pants. It was tense, high-octane, a likely preview of finals day 2021. Professional surf fans were on the edge of their stools, early afternoon cocktails clutched tightly but unconsumed as the action was simply too great to turn away from.
All of a sudden nothing.
Frozen.
A suspended production.
Wild refreshing of browsers ensued which, eventually, was met by a bit of whimsy.
The professional surf fan’s blood, already boiling due the interruption, might have forgiven the WSL if surf jargon had not been incorporated into the message. “Wipe Out! We’re working on it. Paddling back out soon.” was a bridge too far.
Unconsumed cocktails were chucked at long-suffering dogs. Computers near cowering children.
Marriages destroyed.
What was otherwise an exceptional day turned dark and many lives will not fully recover.
“Wipe out! We’re working on it. Paddling back out soon.”
Sad.
Commented on Disqus? Log out, tap the Disqus button, and your old name and comments come back. The box is ours.
Your comments are still here. Every one of them.
Twelve years of BeachGrit comments came across from Disqus. Connect and we will show you how many are yours. We get your username, nothing else.
Connect Disqus to reveal.
So my roommate unplugged the internet router to vacuum and I was like “Dude, whatt” and she quickly plugged at back in, but during this five second outage the other outage happened. So I kinda yelled at her. Then I figured out it was the Surf League’s fault. Oh, my roommate is also my common law gf. Oh boy.
I feel better now…
They should have consciously “misused” the BG’s lingo, “Live-streams down, whine about it at Beachgrit.com Val!”. Every mis-hap they should at least direct complaints to Chas’s email.
Thats Joe’s thing. making sense comes secondary to relentless lip flapping.
Man, post 1960’s Ventures is some rough stuff. Not a Mosrite to be seen…
Fingers crossed for a shark “incident” at Val D’Isere!
Whoever thought of the grinch collab is fucking idiot
Invokes images of backwards wetsuits, legs spread wide and feet dangling over the rails with loosely applied leggie, tail poking out and nose submerged, flat side arm paddling and mats of hair on the face as a relentless barrage of whitewater pounds them shorewards. WSL – geniusly self-effacing!
Do this please!
More kooks doing kook things. VALs probably thought it was clever.
We’ll give another go. The problem was that not everyone’s feed is the same so it quickly became apparent that we couldn’t really call live action. I’m sure there is a way to fix, though.
Watch out for copyright on broadcast, Chas.
They’ll crucify you if given the chance.
Thats no excuse… the WSL doesn’t call live action either.
I’m ready to go again.
How did E-Lo not have a grinch animation for this?!?! C’mon E-Lo get your friggin act together man.
Is there a difference between a grumpy local and the WSL’s whineging entitled couch surfing audience?
I mean the dog at least got money
Repugnant
Beavis and butthead
Again unrelated however very important. JJF is now married and Kelly is now single? You see where I’m heading with this
Off topic, but today I tuned into the local sports news where they only reported on Tyler’s win (obviously showing the rainbow on her sleeve) and said nothing about JJF’s. Didn’t even say he won.
Same
Same – Sydney Morning Herald.
I think they thought it too much work, being of the lazy white priveleged type
Wont somebody think of the dogs
Chas and Dave allready tried that, they even had guest interviews with Hemi and phone ins with Longtom.
WSL pinched all their ideas.
See who’s to blame here?.