A world title decider at the Lemoore tank?
Back in October, before the WSL’s historic 2021 Tour announcement, I had what I thought to be a brilliant idea: I was going to break the 2021 Tour Finals event location before the WSL released it.
It seemed obvious that it’d be Lower Trestles.
The waiting period matched with Lower’s swell window, it was close to the WSL’s headquarters, and it was just the sort of milquetoast move Elo would make.
So, I began pestering Californian bureaucrats. I sifted through countless government webpages and fired off Public Records Act (PRA) requests.
And then… nothing save for an email politely telling me that there was no record of that permit.
Bittersweet.
I was bummed about a dead story but stoked for the Tour. A final at Trestles felt about as anti-climactic as it must’ve felt entering Ellie-Jean Coffey’s subscriber-only site. Good on Elo.
Then, on November 10th, I was directed via BeachGrit to a WSL press release titled in part, “The WSL Finals Are Coming Back To Trestles.”
How the hell did I miss that?
It gnawed at me. I’m fully aware that bureaucracies tend to be inept, but I still couldn’t square it.
Didn’t make sense.
I was going to break that.
I filed another PRA request. It was free and even if I had missed the story, I wanted to see the permit.
Two weeks later I received the same email.
No records.
Huh.
I started firing off unsolicited emails to random email addresses, thinking I might have sent the PRA to the wrong department or maybe the WSL was piggybacking onto some other entity’s permit.
A few weeks passed before I received a very terse email from one of the people who oversaw special event permitting for the area including Lower Trestles. They had overseen the 2017 Hurley Pro permit (the last year the Trestles event was held) and were still at the department.
I asked if they had received a 2021 permit application for the Trestles event.
(The permit would be from the California State Park system. CA has several districts overseeing their parks system; the Orange District oversees San Onofre State Beach. Permitting can occur up to one year in advance, so it’s assumed that the WSL has had more or less four months to get their permit application in for September. )
“We have not received a permit (application) yet.”
I must’ve read that wrong.
“We have not received a permit (application) yet.”
The World Surf League does not have the permit for the WSL Finals event?
The World Surf League does not have the permit for the WSL Finals event.
A misspelled name on the back of a jersey or a spotty feed I can forgive, but this feels egregious.
Is the WSL so cash poor that they’re unwilling to shell out the minimum of $30,000 required to “rent” the site?
Or are we guaranteed a final event in Lemoore?
Various WSL press releases stressed the need for flexibility amid the pandemic.
A sort of, “We wanted to have the Trestles event, but we can all agree that Lemoore is the safe option. Plus, we own it.”
Of course, I’ve rather buried the lede. There’s a far more important point here.
The site of the WSL Finals is unpermitted. We can take the finals event hostage.
Can you imagine?
How incredible an image. Chas and Derek strolling like conquistadors through Santa Monica to nail a list of demands on the door of the WSL Headquarters.
Indelible.
There has to be a commenter or two with some bucks to spare. Or maybe us Americans can pool together our stimulus checks.
We can still save surfing.
BeachGrit’s Ninety-Five Theses.
Thirty gees, all we need.
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When the WSL announced, I was surprised they had a 10-day contest window. Trestles has traditionally limited the window to 7 days, Sunday – Saturday to give locals a weekend day for free surfing. Makes sense they never got a permit.
I think the pool is a great choice , can you not see it , corporate sponsors boxes , lining the left and right , electronic billboards , drone and multi camera angles even underwater and night vision , music lights action its got it all , Wave pools are the pot of gold at the end of the long road to mainstreaming professional surfing its kangas rabbits the bronzed ozzies jeff hackmans jerry lopezs MR s TC AI Pottz BL all of the pros dream , wave pools even tick the Olympic box.
I really cant understand why all the pro surfers are not 100 % behind the wave pool events its the natural home of the business that is pro surfing and its supporters.
You are a pro surfer or pro surfing fan then you should be pro pool if not fuck off.
Wouldn’t it only be eight heats, four men four women for the finals? Done in one day. Can’t imagine them setting up scaffolding, a stage, hiring all the camera people etc for that.
Thank you Ms. See!
Whoa buddy, this reeks of journalism. Research? Calls? E mails? Follow up? Feels like a blatant disregard for well established BeachGrit policy.
How’s the permit process for a film production crew thing, like they WSL did for the HI leg…?
All falls under the special event permit in California, though I assume it differs locality to locality.
Trestles will need to be planned around our BG white party at Palm Springs. The comp needs to be fluid just like the party.
Still waiting for the BG Wavestorm Pro-Am that Chas has promised for years. It has kind of lost its unique nature given that there are about 3 million Wavestorm riders in San Diego County alone at this point.
I beg to differ. SD County has 3,400,000 people. Every single one of them has a Wave Storm and surfs. Then factor in the IE contingent, the South Orange County crew, and the Mexican folks who come up and I think we’re in the 6,000,000 – 7,000,000 range.
This new found statistic makes me as sad as our political climate these days. Maybe more sad that that actually. The only thing worse than 6.5 million Wavestorm’s in SD County is that Cori Schumacher still has a spot on the Carlsbad City Council. Let’s see is she can find another reason for most of Carlsbad to despise her. https://fox5sandiego.com/ne…
good shit Hobbsy.
Much appreciated Mr. Carroll.
Perfect time for beachgrit to swoop in and sponsor an event.
Surely this is good news as there is no way Toledo can win the world title now – if in fact it was to run in 2021.
There’s a (2) month gig in Djibouti right now for 30large. You’ll be fine after a few months of no sleep/counseling.
Do they require designers / multi-semi-skilled dilettante craftsmen?
who the fuck handed over the keys to these idiots? it’s so far gone now, I can’t see any kind of tour happening until 2022 at best. WSL will fold and then it will need to rebuilt – again… hopefully by people that actually know what the fuck is required.
The talent will boycott. As if John would surf the lake as the championship event.
Talent cant boycott. Athletes signed contracts that demand unquestioning loyalty to wsl. .
(This may not be the case but never let facts get in the way)
I know a guy that could probably swing the permit for Teramar. It never gets good and is crowded with angry VALs that drive Sprinter vans and call snow “Pow Pow.”
This could work, though I have a feeling that Elo is more of a San Elijo kinda guy.
Same vibe, just more room for his caravan of Sprinters.
So true. Plus it’s closer to the Acai Bowl spot and the Tesla charging station at Lazy Acres….
Shralpin pow pow
The equivalent of shredding the gnar’ gnar’
Both terms raise warning flags.
they have to be cautious with permit because of the pandemic, they probably waiting for the last minute to ask, so they won’t loose the deposit if it gets cancel by the authorities…
makes absolute sense of course
tReStLeS iS bEiNg StOlEn!!11!1!
Pretty obvious they are going to rename Surf Ranch as ‘Trestles East(Lemoore)’
Trestles adjacent.
Lemoore is actually west of trestles… but I wouldn’t put it past them
My dear boy, the inconvenience of facts shouldn’t be allowed to deviate the course of a great narrative.
Toledo was the last guy to win at Trestles, according to Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wi…
Jordy seems like a good bet for Tentatrestles
Youve won there before, so … you’re in with a shot.
But honestly my biggest fear is that you might’ve hardened up a little and there will be no more tears.
Yet I have every confidence that WSL judges haven’t forgotten how to kneecap you and the tears will flow.
Trestles: Tentative
Tentacles?
Testacles ! Fat and full in places – just like trestles.
you win.
God save us all, but especially Toledo.
Even though, Gabby has kicked everyone’s ass on the pee lake.
You can’t script this
(Hammertime)
*cough* just choked on my coconut water lol
Does Mikey Wright need to come save you?
Well, I am known for my resemblance to a pudgy white female tourist…