"You go out on a boat, shallow reef …”

The rise of the VAL, or vulnerable adult learner, will be one of the great marking features of 2015-2025 when historians look back and lionize this age. Grown men and women deciding to pursue surfing, whole-heartedly, splashing out into the great unknown, chins out and brave but also older.

Oh and we know the wonderful story of Jonah Hill, Patron Saint of VALs, and World Surf League CEO Erik Logan, Oklahoman who discovered power inside a wetsuit, but now let us learn about San Francisco’s lightly controversial district attorney Chesa Boudin who lives in Ocean Beach and, according to a new profile in New York Magazine, “surfs many days a week before dawn” at the “famously difficult break where winter waves can exceed 15 feet” though this has not always been the case as Boudin picked up our surfing after graduating from Yale Law school at the ripe VAL age of 31.

The magazine was profiling Boudin due the light controversy surrounding his tenure as San Francisco’s DA. Videos of mass burglary and theft have circulated online, images of very full tent cities crowding sidewalks, leading many to believe that his progressive attitude toward crime has made San Francisco a lawless pit.

The writer, famous Daniel Duane, meets Boudin in his office and describes thusly:

Boudin has thin brown hair and a scraggly beard that barely camouflages a gigantic jaw. The first time we met, at his office in Potrero Hill, a light-industrial neighborhood popular with start-ups, he wore a fashionable gray-blue suit; he was bound for a political event later in the afternoon. On a wall opposite his desk hung framed photographs of Boudin surfing substantial waves. He pointed to one and said, with the vowels of a Midwesterner and the rapid-fire cadence of a trial lawyer, “That’s me right there in El Salvador. And that’s Samoa — the first wave I got barreled in. I was on this backpacking trip, and I found this resort. You go out on a boat, shallow reef …”

A VAL trifecta, El Salvador, Samoa, backpacking discoveries. Boudin then swings to his childhood, fascinatingly the son of two Weather Underground radicals, his rise into law and politics and the troubles he is facing in San Francisco today. Well worth a read but, for our purposes, Boudin’s position, his stature and his open love of surfing is what will most interest historians.

Does the VAL now own surfing entirely?

Are we mere purposeless danglers?

Like appendixes?

Much to ponder.

"He might be smiling, but this is a man used to winning at life."

Now that the Olympics is behind us and the upcoming Mexico event is very much hanging in the balance due a Covid outbreak in Oaxaca, even though Surfline has just given the swell report a “favorable” rating, and the 2022 Championship Tour has been announced to fanfare-adjacent, rabid surf fans are looking for the next next and, thankfully, the World Surf League is here to deliver.

The Ultimate Surfer, to air August 23 and promising to find “America’s greatest up and coming talent,” is putting its greatest up and coming talents, those who hope to crack the aforementioned Championship Tour and maybe win a title, in the spotlight.

First up world #572 Alejandro Moreda from America-adjacent Puerto Rico and let us read and learn together.

For the last decade, Alejandro Moreda has been at the beating heart of Puerto Rican surfing. The natural footer has been considered one of the Island’s best surfers, mixing stone-cold bravery with oodles of style. And while his surfing has been compared, favorably, with the late, great Andy Irons, unlike his peers like Brian Toth and Dylan Graves, “Ale” he never strayed too far from his beautiful island home.

For the ever-smiling, ever-moving Ale, it was just a way of giving back to the place he loves. With his partner Mia Blakeman Gomez, one of Puerto Rico’s top models and entrepreneurs, he has carved a life that balances eternal surf stoke, a sense of community, and successful business life. Make no mistake though, this is a serious surfer with serious talent. He might be smiling, but this is a man used to winning at life.

But wait.

I thought the World Surf League was set to play matchmaker on the show, introducing former Bachelors and Bachelorettes to the cast in order to spark romance?

How will Mia Blakeman Gomez feel about that?

Oh drat.

Lemonade out of lemons!

“When the world gives you lemons, make lemonade,” is a fine aphorism, one that inspires and delights in times of trouble, one that the World Surf League has just utilized by revealing next year’s “landmark fully-integrated 2022 Championship Tour” in order to paper over the now-more-than-likely cancellation of the upcoming Barra de la Cruz event.

As you know, Covid has ravaged the state of Oaxaca and images of smiling professional surfers traipsing in for play play fun time will likely not make a positive impression on locked down locals. Also, the WSL does not have the best track record as it relates to its patented “abundance of caution™” as CEO Erik Logan contracted the respiratory illness at the beginning of the year, in Hawaii, even with much daily testing, promises of safety procedures etc.

But on to the lemonade, and per Santa Monica’s press release:

The 2022 WSL CT will include 10 regular-season events in seven countries, starting in January at the world-famous Pipeline in Hawai’i, for the first-ever men’s and women’s joint event at that legendary break. The CT will return to G-Land, Indonesia, which is back on the CT for the first time in 24 years for the men and for the first time ever for the women, and conclude in August at the infamous Teahupo’o in Tahiti before the second-annual Rip Curl WSL Finals in September, where the WSL Final 5 men’s and women’s surfers will face off for the undisputed World Title.

“The WSL exists to steward and celebrate the world’s best surfing and this redesigned Tours and Competition framework is historic in many ways, serving as the core engine of our business,” said WSL CEO Erik Logan. “In collaborating with our surfers and partners on delivering events like the Billabong Pro Pipeline, the MEO Portugal Pro, the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach, the Quiksilver Pro G-Land, the Oi Rio Pro, the Margaret River Pro and others, we’re thrilled to announce one of the most exciting WSL Championship Tour calendars in history for next season and set the framework for the sport for years to come.”

2022 WSL Championship Tour Schedule*

Pipeline, Hawai’i – January 29 – February 10
Sunset, Hawai’i – February 11 – 23
Peniche, Portugal – March 3 – 13
Bells Beach, Australia – April 10 – 20
Margaret River, Western Australia – April 24 – May 4

Mid-Season Cut – 36-man and 18-woman fields reduced to 24-man and 12-woman fields.

G-Land, Indonesia – May 28 – June 6
Trestles, USA – June 15 – 22
Saquarema, Brazil – June 27 – July 4
Jeffreys Bay, South Africa – July 9 – 18
Teahupo’o, Tahiti – August 11 – 21

WSL Final 5 determined to battle for the undisputed men’s and women’s World Titles.

Rip Curl WSL Finals, location TBA – September 7 – 18

How do you feel about that?

Refreshing and delish?

Lightly bitter?