International man!

An international bombshell just exploded across the surf world as it appears that Leonardo Fioravanti is set to be Olympic alternate for France, South Africa and Japan after qualifying for his home country Italy.

That is three more countries than 11x World Champion Kelly Slater is alternate for, not to mention the fact that Fioravanti is already heading to Tokyo via Roma.

“Lucky” Leo’s relationship with Japan and South Africa is, currently, unclear.

His step-father lives in France though is Australian.

Per the International Surfing Association’s explanation of Surfing in Tokyo 2020: Reallocation of Unused Qualification Places

The processes in place to replace a qualified athlete for Tokyo 2020 should they not be able to compete in the Games are as follows:

If a quota place allocated is not confirmed by the National Olympic Committee (NOC) by the June 21 deadline for confirmation or is declined by the NOC, the quota place will be reallocated to the next highest ranked athlete not yet qualified at the respective event, respecting the maximum quota places of two surfers per gender per NOC.

If the athlete qualified through ISA Continental Qualifying Event – 2019 ISA World Surfing Games and/or Pan American Games 2019 – the quota place will be reallocated to next highest ranked athlete in the respective event provided the athletes are within the ISA quality control ranking (top 30). If no available athlete from the continents finish within the ISA quality control ranking, the place will be allocated to the next best ranked athlete, not yet qualified, regardless of the continent.

The deadline for the Final Entries list of participating athletes in the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 (sport entries deadline) is 5 July 2021 at 23:59 Japan time (UTC+9).

After the sport entries deadline, where there are medical conditions preventing participation of an athlete, proven Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV), a positive COVID-19 test, isolation or quarantine due to a COVID-19 infection or other exceptional reasons, the IOC, after consultation with the relevant IF and IOC medical experts (when deemed appropriate by the IOC), may authorize a permanent replacement of an athlete by another athlete only in the same sport and discipline and event provided the reallocation is complete prior to Surfing’s Technical Meeting, which is scheduled to take place at the surfing venue in Tokyo on July 24th at 3pm local time.

For surfing, in which the quota place is allocated to an athlete by name, the reallocation procedure will be initiated in accordance with the approved Qualification System for surfing. In this case, replacement athletes must meet the eligibility conditions and qualification criteria, must have been registered on the NOC’s ‘Long List’ of athletes eligible to serve as replacements, and must have no doping control issues pending.

Very cool.

World peace through Leonardo Fioravanti or am I somehow parsing that top list wrong? I’ll be honest, I haven’t read all the text that follows but assume it says something like “Leonardo Fioravanti can surf for Italy, Japan, South Africa and France assuming enough surfers get hurt.”

What if he wins gold, silver and bronze?

First time in Olympic history?

Kelly Slater very sad.

Joe Rogan, likely, indifferent.

Will he or won't he?

In news that reverberated across the waters, surf rich El Salvador, days ago, became the first nation on earth to make Bitcoin legal tender. President Nayib Bukele believes that full adoption of the cryptocurrency will help the country’s many poor who have little or no access to banks, tweeting “It will bring financial inclusion, investment, tourism, innovation and economic development for our country.”

Dour economists worry that pegging an already volatile region to an extremely volatile financial instrument will create havoc.

Debate rages across El Salvador’s many small towns with residents trying to figure out how these events will change their daily lives. “How am I going to agree with this? I haven’t seen it even in photos. I know nothing about it, you need to understand your currency,” Estela Gavidia told Reuters.

“If you go to a McDonald’s or whatever, they cannot say we’re not going to take your bitcoin, they have to take it by law because it’s a legal tender,” President Bukele vigorously countered.

But while that debate rages, the eyes of true market watchers are fixed solely on U.S. Olympic surf team first alternate Kelly Slater.

The 11x World Champion recently savaged Tesla founder Elon Musk for his crypto currency strategy, writing at the time, “So a guy who owns an energy company doesn’t understand this stuff before he buys it? Has no problem taking the profits. Does he have an issue with kids mining cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo to build batteries? He could probably address and potentially help solve the real energy issues (68 per cent of the energy produced in the US, for instance, is wasted … seems like a bigger issue to me which would solve any BTC problem).”

El Salvador plans to tap their many volcanoes in order to make energy to mine Bitcoin.

Slater later revealed himself to be a “diamond-handed” Bitcoin investor, or someone who bought in early and isn’t worried about sudden drops, and so analysts wait with bated breath to see if he will purchase some property in El Salvador, maybe in Surf City, where the World Surfing Games just wrapped or, better, “Bitcoin Beach.”

He seriously should.

Imagine how cool it would be for him to put his crypto where his mouth is.

Very cool.

Can you guess who shaped? Does it even matter?

U.S. President Joe Biden wife, Jill, has traveled to the heart of English surfing, Cornwall, for the very important G7 summit. While the leader of the free world meets with his counterparts and discusses various ways to squeeze China, the First Lady took time to meet with Bude Surf Veterans, a group that helps military men and their families cope with trauma through surfing.

Ms. Biden praised the “healing power of the waters” and also announced she, too, was a surfer, even describing her first board.

It was “with with a big butterfly” on it.

Very cool and doesn’t it make you wish for simpler times? Before you knew, or cared, about length, width, fin set ups, liters, who shaped and boards could just be described by their colors and adornments?

It does me.

What was your first surfboard?

Mine was rainbow.

What was World Surf League CEO Erik Logan’s?

Hmmm.