"It is inconceivable that we could, should or would eliminate the mid-season cut which is the foundation of our redesigned Championship Tour."
World Surf League CEO Erik Logan brought a hammer down on mutinous surfers, hours ago, ending any hope of salvation for those championship-level professionals who are not, currently, the 18th best in the world or worse.
The “mid-tour cut” has long been a grumbling point for those who make their living in the saltwater mines as the financial security that even equal 32s provide are stripped away not to mention sponsor obligations etc.
Reported here first and yesterday, a mutinous fever began burning amongst the CT surfers with talk of boycotting the upcoming Margaret River event if the cut was not cut.
Conner Coffin, Filipe Toledo, Lucca Mesinas, Kohole Andino, Griffin Colapinto, Jadson Andre and many more signed a petition imploring Logan to think about what he was about to do. Notably not signing, Kelly Slater, John John Florence and the semi-retired Gabriel Medina.
Well, Jessi Miley-Dyer’s left hand man made very clear, in a letter back to the agitators, that “it is inconceivable that we could, should or would eliminate the mid-season cut which is the foundation of our redesigned Championship Tour” and “even if we wanted to make a change (which we don’t) it would be truly destructive to the company and our sport” and “the petition was painfully untrue in many respects – and wrongly attempted to portray and adversarial relationship” amongst other zingers.
Ouch.
A well-placed source close to the levers of power, though, said the fury of Owen Wright (one of the signers) was all bark and no bite, a strike at Margaret only ever a whimsical fantasy.
“There will NOT be a strike or labor action down in oz by the disgruntled surfers about the cut down. There is neither the will, solidarity nor strategic plan to do so. There will be no scabs crossing a picket line. The ‘letter’ was simply a plea for understanding and an attempt to ‘work through the system.'”
Well?
Do you believe or do you think Callum Robson (signer) might just might be the next James Phillip Hoffa?
Or that Erik Logan is the next Jeff Bezos?
Many variables.
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If you don’t ride with ELO.
You get cut by ELO!
😂
Saltwater mines. That was good.
Yeah go total old school. Blokes paddling over the top of each other. Fins up the arse. Leggies wrapped round necks. Kick splashes to the head. Wayward paddle arms connecting with cocaine fuelled noses. What fucking glorious drama that would create.
Can you imagine Gabe up against Griffin? Or seeing Mikey’s mullet yanked clean off?
I just want to see Filipe bob on the shoulder at maxing Box again.
They need a mid-heat cut for that. < 5.00 at 15 mins and you’re subbed for a local in the channel.
Not his sport!
Your either good enough or your not Champions don’t make excuses. Otherwise join the rest of us and get a real job.
I think I’m missing something here, but who has acquired the nickname is ‘The Mid Tour Cunt’???
Are they related to ‘The Mud Tour Cunt’ AKA Joel Parkinson?
Perhaps I should read the story a little more carefully.
Professional surfers have had all year and then some to oppose The Cut and they are only now attempting to organise and take action?
Too little, too late.
As many have said, The Cut is only a bad idea if you are on the wrong side.
Rather telling that Ke12y and JJF declined to sign –
I’m pretty excited that Rusty Cudgel has joined the tour. He’s always been one of my favs on the QS.
I thought it was Caio’s new pro model
Oh possibly.
Not ‘Wing & Prayer’?
Kaipo just dropped a FCS commercial during the broadcast.
??????
Whether you agree with the cutoff or not, E-Lo is just a clueless cunt. In his reasoning in that letter, he actually fucking wrote that the mid-season events had no stakes. The fucking hide of the cunt.
They have no stakes coz you, yes you E-Lo, created the stupid fucking Top 5 finals format. Your stupid fucking brainchild created the lack of drama and low stakes contests, coz by mid-year contests don’t count for a world title, just a shot at the Top 5, or survival.
Then he has the audacity to turn around and use that as a reason to cut cunts off mid-year.
Un-fucking-believable.
P.S. To make the first 5 contests fairer, there should be no seeding at all. Just pull 3 names out of a hat for first round heats. And keep doing the hat pulling for every round. No seeds means the rookies don’t have to keep facing the top dogs early, which is grossly fucking unfair in the cutoff race.
The top 5 finals is a dumb idea. Crown a winner at the second to last event in Portugal or wherever if they have the cumulative points. If you’re there to watch great. If not you missed it — just like everything in surfing and life. That’s what makes it special. Not everything can be canned!
Your losing the plot bloke.
Sure everything you say makes perfect sense if your trying build a professional sport but it’s pointless if your trying build a reality tv show?
Haha I lost the plot 25 years ago! And yeah, good point. But if you’re creating TV, be fu king honest, and say it’s all for the TV cash. Don’t fucking create a top 5 which completely deflates the importance of contests, then use that lack of high stakes as a reason to cut blokes. High act of cuntery
On the plus side, Elo has approached Hurluley as the WSL’s official sponsor for fin-cozies and other associated board safety equipment.
Exciting new PR guff /ads coming soon.
The back half will definitely strike if the cut is not rescinded.
Refers to the WSL as a company, not a league. So yeah, says it all…
You can script this. Especially when you have a docu/reality crew meeting w Elo having daily production meetings.
I soooo want to be the one that hands out the “your cut ” slips , thats my dream job.
Must really piss Jordy off that he cant get the kaffiers to do his surfing for him and the just waltz in and take the title.
Ha! Because casual racism is funny.
Meanwhile Jordan is heavily involved in such charities as Surfers not Street Children and Let’s feed J Bay which addres the legacy inequalities of apartheid.
Lets feed J Bay give me a fucken break …
Imagine if dirk just said fuck it and pulled the pin on the wsl and they all had to find real jobs.
THIS is the elephant in the room. Need reporting. Paging Derek. Derek help.
How can you do a boycott when you don’t even generate enough revenue to pay the bills and it has to be bankrolled by one wealthy individual? You would have to fucking delusional. Had a look at the YouTube the other day and there was just 6000 views
The WSL fail to understand that the tour was never about paying its way, it was about advertising for the surf companies and any hangers on who were flirting with the youth market.
The old guys running the ASP had it right, all they were there for was to crown a legitimate world champ. That dream ended when it was given to zosea.
Problem is now the real industry cashed out a while ago and the youth market couldnt care less about surfing. The tour always had a big daddy taking care of it. Its just its old daddys used to actually rip and its new step daddy Dirk, is only supportive and playing the part to get laid.
I think it would be great if somebody creative could put together a breakdown of each surfer on tour and what they would be doing if they had to find real jobs.
Fuck the cut. I’ll boycott watching the event if the surfers boycott the event. Fans want to see all the surfers, and no fan supports or wants the cut, period.
Alternatively, imagine surfing all day, every day and still not be good enough to make the top 18. More cuts are needed.
“Alternatively” imagine caring about what a person with a garden gnome for their profile pic actually thinks when they say dumbass shit.
That gnome just made more sense than you have.
What sense would that be? Being a professional athlete is easy? That’s nonsense
Is this Owens account?
Yes, owen wright, how’d you know?
I’ve surfed my whole life every day, so you’d imagine i should be top 18 in the world, according to the drinking gnome with a wand.
Imagine being such a dumb cunt you couldn’t tell the difference between a sub-race forest gnome and a regular gnome.
As a fan, I do have a problem with the cut -they should cut more
Why?
Contests are too long often leading to shitty waves. That and there’s some guys who shouldn’t be there
I don’t think there is enough surfing. Only 11 total championship tour events? If they are even shorter then that sucks even more. Maybe you don’t like watching surfing as much and should just stick to the heat replays
Maybe you should watch a bunch of edits of the guys getting cut if you need to watch more surfing
Yes because that’s so similar to watching CT surfing right? Enjoy your cartoons 🤙
Also, if a guy is have a bad year and can’t get through heats, the last thing I want to watch is more of that. Hop on the sled and reset
I do
+1