Someone has to do it.
World Surf League CEO Erik Logan appeared recently on the much-loved Lipped podcast and dropped jaws with an incredibly rosy assessment of professional competitive surfing. Engagement through the roof, new fans turned each and every day, partners fighting each other to throw money at the unfolding glory.
Long part of the bullish WSL growth push, since it was acquired for free by billionaire Dirk Ziff, has been converting those who don’t surf but fall in love with the “sport” as passive consumers much like the UFC has non-combat fans and football has non-brain damaged ones. Transitioning into “real,” as it were, or at the very least “legitimate.”
I am certain both China and India have multiple of these wonders who spend fourteen to sixteen hours a day locked in small cubicles loving professional competitive surfing deeply but for anything to really pop it has to pop in the great United States of America.
Even diminished, the land of the free, home of the brave, still reigns pop supreme.
And so I will drive from Cardiff by the Sea to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Memphis, Tennessee before ending in Nashville. My steed, a 2012 Volkswagen Jetta Wagon in black, that must be delivered to my ultra-talented soccer playing daughter at Vanderbilt.
Leaving in hours.
What will I find in bars and roadside hotels along the way? Gas stations and rest stops?
Graceland?
That, friends, will be the story of our time.
Of professional competitive surfing’s true rise or, as the case may be, Logan’s lies.
More as the story develops.
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It was very difficult but the current WSL has managed to sterilize surfing. I don’t mean no keikis I mean no germs.
a trail of promotion stickers!
https://beachgrit.com/wp-co…
THIS!
Brah… you brave.
All you guys talking stereotypical “your mouth is pretty, banjo bullshit” need to wait 5 years. You’ll end up in Texas, or New Mexico, Colorado, or Missouri. Don’t you think it’s funny how 15 years ago you were making fun of us calling us rednecks and Hicks and when s*** hit the fan everyone came running to Texas and all those Midwest states you used to mock. Now you have an artificial wave in Texas that’s booked out for over a year by people from California. #EatS***F******
WHOA Mikey I spent a fair amount of time banding calves, dehorning calves, buckin bales and running cattle in the chute so I am a subject matter expert. Now I split time between CA and Colorado. The stereotype is MOSTLY accurate and the mocking will continue. BTW, The pretty mouth comment comes from a movie called Deliverance and it is set nowhere near the Midwest. Hey who do you like in this years OU-TX game?
I HATE SOCCER!!
(note: womens soccer excluded)
Congratulations 💪
Since you’ve already traveled through the ME, I think you’ll be just fine as you travel through the section of the country known as Dumbfukistan.
My 94-year-old mom was a hockey fan but she didn’t play hockey. The fanbase of the WSL is primarily made up of parents who want their kids to be pro surfers. Not the best business plan. I don’t box but I’ll watch boxing. If the waves were always big and there were ten guys in a heat without priority wherein one contact is a ten min penalty and the 2nd you’re out, two heats, twenty of the best, roller-ball in the waves, for a million dollar winner take all purse—people would watch. But two guys waiting for a 5 in mush after ten lay days? Nope. They should call these comps ten days out, when they know there’s going to be killer swell somewhere and put the show on there.
Its almost impossible to prove the non-existence of something.
Much as Elo can spin rainboes and unicorns from shit … Chas can spin shit from thin air. You know you may just be different sides of the same coin.
Just did that same trip a year ago. Shit gets weird real quick. Safe travels. FYI: Hope Arkansas, birthplace of Bill Clinton, is ‘dry.’ Be forewarned.
good article
Really?
The heart loves what the heart loves.
You big heart throb you
Noted and will do!
Jonah Hill, homie owns Malibu, good for him!
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
I’ve invented a new coffee style.
Move over ‘bullet’ and ‘turmeric’, it’s time for ‘I haven’t thought of a name for it yet’.
A double shot of coffee + a roughly equal amount of this: https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
It’s not nesc pleasant but it does the job.
will it burn? going in & coming out?
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/9…
Burned going in. I’m crediting it with helping to cure my cold.
went in for an in hospital mri..interpretative results: “we’ve cured ur vertigo, gout and backaches…but that headlice/
dr. presciption said: tapatio & more spicy food!
you’ll never watch this, but its the thought that counts…
Yes, I think about 95% of those mythical viewers are pigments of Elo’s imagination, and Elo’s only saying this to stay in good with Dirk, and to keep his cushy job–it’s got to be way easier than working for Oprah….. (I think Dirk must be the ultimate absentee boss–“here’s another 20 million Elo, text me in another 3 months and let me know how things are going”)…..
Thumbing it home? https://youtu.be/QO3-AAVTeDA
I hope the Trans community give you some recognition above what I’m able to bestow, here at our Beach Grit.
Soccer Mom of the Year, Chas. It’s a hard fought for title but you deserve it.
Ball-handling skills come through.
Your daughter was 7 years old two years ago…. Now she’s going to Vanderbilt?!!!!
Tiger parenting
A lot of guys with WIDE stances.
The voice of experience
I was lucky that I had gay friends who warned/educated me on the Ways of the Gays™️.
Behavior in public men’s rooms was one of the longer sections of the syllabus.
I’m sure you excelled with the personal tuition
I was a loyal wingman!
It’s not sounding any less gay bro
Who said it wasn’t?
going the long distance…
https://external-content.du…
apply sunscreen & hydrate fam, bon voyage…