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Surf Champion Joel Tudor calls out World Surf League leadership after rumored decimation of longboard tour, paltry sums for women in spite of superior engagement: “Can y’all explain this kind of equality?”

A moral failure? A business one?

Joel Tudor, world champion and longtime vocal proponent for surfing’s roots, has never been shy when it comes to sharing his opinion. Agree or disagree, the San Diego fixture is a perpetual breath of fresh air in the carefully scripted, stale world of professional organized surfsport and his latest missive, in the wake of the rumor that the World Surf League is decimating the longboard world tour, cutting it from three events to one, is very much something to ponder.

Taking to Instagram, Tudor wrote:

Yo @wsl @jessmileydyer @elo_eriklogan can y’all explain this kind of equality? Not very woke of you to treat the log gals with so much disrespect in regards to pay? It’s kinda clear on your own Instagram which style is more favored by your audience! Urging all log gals , parents & friends to write the @wsl asking why this is still happening….also they are planning on canceling the longboard tour to a one event stop! Hit em up , post about it & make some noise to make things right!! Awoooooooooo!

Specifically, his issue is the seemingly purely performative equality.

The World Surf League, as you know, regularly thumps its breast over samsies ‘tween guys and gals except any student of our favorite pastime would have clearly seen that longboarding, particularly female longboarding, dominates its advertisements during events including the just wrapped, and highly successful, Billabong Pro Pipeline. Longboarding, particularly female longboarding, receives much more engagement on the social channels (see Tudor’s Instagram) and longboarding, particularly female longboarding, is the biggest growth sector in the surf world (per a recent study by Firewire).

Now, if the World Surf League was in the business of making money but also the moral obligation of equality, wouldn’t it be leaning heavily into this segment?

This all begs the question, where is the WSL failing worse? Business or morals?

Discuss.

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122 Comments
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nilly weelander

yeah th0se philosophy 101 thoughts and words blowin my freakin mind.

nilly weelander

Jesus lord all of you shut the pretentious fuck up

Gadoot

Yes free crack pipes in the name of racial equality during black history month no less.

4oceans

Don’t boogers need equal time? Short Boards should have to wait until the sponger heats are complete

Jack Barlow

Ignorance is bliss

Dogsnuts

This is very funny.
Rollerblade forth and fag on!!
Xox

channelbottom

Big diff between trolling and earnest exaltations of knowledge about woo.

Derek Hynd's Missing Fins

So what would mushrooms be?

astro

No worries MH.

Seaman Staines

I despise male and female long boarders equally. Equality for all!

Dogsnuts

Sorry if that was in poor taste, this falls under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” directive.
Xox

peter zedaK

This one’s for Jimmy, the tennis kook. While it’s always problematic to compare one sport to another (unless it’s bocce v curling v cornhole), it must be said that wooden rackets and longboarding have nothing remotely in common.

Dogsnuts

Why don’t you ask your daddy if I’m gay.
xox

Derek Hynd's Missing Fins

But isn’t society based on shared haptic experiences? Wouldn’t that predate vocal chords?

Lorlac

Rosie was pretty heavy on it through the Pipe comp

Capt Sensible

I could only hope the wozza drops the loggers into the shredder , the longboard competion is a waste of oxygen.

Dogsnuts

Time machine me back to twink era Tudor oooh la la.

channelbottom

I’m upvoting you for the opportunity to go back to my youth as well.

Huli Opu

I don’t know about whatever nonsense you wrote about above, but I do know that the Japanese men own the halfpipe.
Your mate Shaun White barely hanging on

Jack Barlow

Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional.

“When touched with a feeling of pain,
the ordinary uninstructed person
sorrows, grieves,
and laments, beats his breast,
becomes distraught.
So he feels two pains,
physical and mental” -Buddha

Derek Hynd's Missing Fins

If it’s all discourse and someone throws a rock at you and you duck, then it’s not all discourse.


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