Mysteries abound!
The biggest surf news of the week has been the mass exodus from the upcoming Pipe Masters by every single good surfer on the World Surf League’s Championship Tour. John John Florence gone. Kelly Slater not showing. Gabriel Medina, Italo Ferreira, Filipe Toledo staying away. Stephanie Gilmore no more.
The event, which has long been the most prestigious in all of surfing, has created unforgettable heroes. Gerry Lopez, Rory Russell, Michael Ho, Jamie O’Brien, Andy Irons etc. And the thought of today’s surfers turning down an opportunity to Pipeline or Backdoor to fortune or fame has surf fans scratching their heads in disbelief.
Why?
Wherefore?
Well, speculation initially fell upon the World Surf League itself. As you know, the Pipe Masters used to end the Championship Tour until last year when it was decided that it should kick it off instead. Problem? January is the better time to begin but Vans, owner of the Pipe Masters name and window, did not want to make it in January forcing the WSL to rebrand their offering the Pipeline Pro. Vans then teamed up with Stab to create the “new and improved” Pipe Masters, an invitational specialty event that scores Pipeline, Backdoor plus airs at Ehukai.
With the WSL stars dropping out, certainly Santa Monica was either fining or disallowing participation.
Sources within the League’s office declare, definitively, that not to be the case. That the Pipe Masters has been sanctioned and any and all are welcome to play.
More noggin itching.
Much confusion.
And so, as a surf journalist, I reached out to a in-the-know industry source who has been around the game for decades and seen many iterations of professional surfing. The wizened soul who prefers to remain unnamed opined, “The Pipe Masters used to have real stakes. Best surfers with something on the line. Used to be the title itself. Anyhow, now it’s just a sorta strange exhibition event with no stakes at all. As much as surfers want to surf Pipe, to do it with a real lack of prestige and not against the best surfers in the world makes it a lot less enticing. I think it’s a lot like Vans turning the Triple Crown digital. They messed that up good with much less interest compared to when the events were each live and based on results.”
But do you think correct?
Has Vans attempted to fix something that was not broken?
And are you excited for the new format?
Speak from the heart, please.
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Vans is now 0-2 by ruining the US open, no surfing grandstands but multiples for skate and bmx. Now calling this the Pipe Masters when the best surfers are not even involved. Time for Vans to move on. Da Hui should have that title now. Bring back the true Triple Crown.
They should pay Da Hui for stealing the format. Scoring airs at pipe is like scoring a head dip in Brazil like a solid tube. Do not call whoever wins this a pipe “master” as the best are not even there. Andy would be ashamed.
Or have the two Sams’, Freid and Briton be your soul. Return all the stolen money and luggage, and then we will see how well the demo Rats do. Pushing sex on kids is just not my thing but it seems to be theirs. (yours?)
This is the globalist trend of the oligarch elite corporate owners, they try to exoloit everything until its virtually worthless. Thing is that surfing is not a sport that can be monopolized if top surfers stand for what they believe. Just like many surfers didn’t take the cobit quackscenes, like kelly, and kept on tour because he is the GOAT, he even surfed australia while the hippocrit commie australian govmt banned a famous tennis player because he went public abt not wanting the quackscenes. The NFL for example mandated fans and all players like a freakin naxxxis! If the players stand they win, just like if the people stand together as lions not sheep, we win!
1. No way… still don’t believe a word from anyone in Santa Monica…
2. Who’s ready for the Red Bull Pipe Masters in December 2023?
I want to love you, feel you
Wrap myself around you
I want to squeeze you, please you
I just can’t get enough
And if you move real slow, I’ll let it go…
Maxime
You’re not the only one
To take the whole world on
But no one’s ever won
I’ll take Veronika
So get us Jamie O’Brien, Sin City, Ben Gravy, JP O’Brien, Blair Conklin, Kalani Robb, and the rest of the Catch Surf crew. More people are watching those videos than this event anyway. And guaranteed to have better in the water coverage during the heats. 😂🤷🏻♂️🤙🏻🌊🍍🥩
Throw in Kai SUPing while wearing Zuckerberg in a baby bjorn
What they’ve done is chat and none of it benefits anyone. This part of the year was the highlight and put Haleiwa and Sunset on par with or above the rest of the CT tour stops. The triple crown was legit and depnding on who won and in what conditions, it carried the flowers to the CT. Bring back the ASP world tour
full house there, Baz…WSL is dealing off the back of the card deck!
Haha yeah all that suggests there’s some strategy at all which I reckon there isn’t!
Poor idea. The pipe contest should end the competition season. Do you think it’s easy to surf out there?!! It’s the perfect topper off’er. And sometimes the waves are epic. A professional contest there deserves to have the best pros competing for the coveted title of Pipe Master Champion.
Just move the trestles final day comp thing to pipe and keep the permit slot they have for second week in December or whatever it is. There’s enough opportunity lefts and rights, bums on beach, etc. It’s so obvious. I dont get why they aren’t doing this?!
“airs at Euhakai” and Pipe Masters don’t belong in the same sentence.
Top competitive surfers are choosing not to participate as there are no championship tour points, they have no association with or obligation to Van’s, the title sponsor – what’s the point?
The Pipeline Masters has devolved into a locals-only exhibition event, which is kind of what locals wanted all along, but that’s not particularly interesting to anyone else.
100K should be evenly split for all participants, regardless of their surfing prowess…isn’t that what they are shooting for?
I actually want to agree with you … but then I saw a heat sheet that showed Mikey February, Tosh Tudor, Mason Ho and Ivan Florence all in the same heat and thought, damn, that should be pretty entertaining …
Stab paid it dues slurping industry & Surfers cock. Reaping the benefits now and me thinks it’s finally found its own voice and place in our culture.
Stab is lame.
at least it used to be, I mean really, would a ‘real’ surfer ‘ever’ actually pay to log onto a surf-website.
You pay for your wetsuit and Board right? Why do you expect free content? Do you work for free?
actually, I’ve done quite a bit of volunteer work for free and enjoyed it very much.
For a charitable cause though right? Are you expecting say Jed Smith or Jamie Currie to write for free for your enjoyment?
I would expect their boss to pay them. To produce a wetsuit and board requires an investment in material and manufacturing space and equipment. Writing requires inebriation and a keyboard .
The good old days of surf magazines was really all about the pictures.
The writing was mostly filler, with the occasional good article.
Now the pics and video are free
Their Boss needs coin to pay them.
Why do you think Chas publishes 100 Gisele, Tom & Kelly stories.
Paying a good writer is an investment and development of talent.
It’s not about the writing skill so much as the experiences you are sharing that makes good surf reading, I think.
They shouldn’t have to scrape the barrel and pay to develop talent.
They should get good writers with experience to share.
More people like Andy st Onge. And then maybe they will get higher paying advertisers
Until then, I’m happy with Gisele if it pays the bills
BG doesn’t want higher paying advertisers—that’s not where the real money is at…
Are you saying Chas is not a good writer?
I thought those cats were paying BG—to post their articles.
Umm, I thought the business model was—develop an interesting website and following— and then advertisers would pay to advertise on it.
That’s the old business model that only just paid the bills not the big projects like which STAB is doing.
Oh excuse me, big projects you say?
I actually never though of Stab as big, or consequential.
Umm, haven’t checked Stab out in a long long time, but from what I remember, the commenters all sounded pretty much the same over there, maybe Wsl drop-outs, surf star groupie types, who could not handle too much flack—I think that’s why they dropped the coin to hide behind a pay-wall—and hang out with like-minded groupies, and avoid some flack from the real (the free) world.
You can still comment without paying. But without answering all your comments. But basically, you’re harping on but haven’t got a clue what’s going on.
It seems comments there are strictly a “Stab Premium” feature. Paying customers only.
“These few Wall Street Flesh Merchants seek to unify surfing only to extract the wealth”.
It’s not 2004 Freerider.
Hey Negs, no hard feeling man—we just have different points of views—it’s cool….
I’m a realist and you’re a dreamer.
Your disposition is probably healthier but it’s one that doesn’t gel with how you use the internet.
https://disqus.com/home/for…
I watched an interview with Craig Anderson about the Masters, he was surprised he was invited, very ho hum about it but what he mentioned was there’s no priority – geez I wonder what entrants that favours!
Lifetime subscriptions for last minute withdrawals
This a labor of love!
LOVE!!!
I’m so excited…I just can’t hide it…am about to lose control and me thinks i like it!
One of the songs that defines the glorious ’80’s.
AMAZING!!!
And, according to her Instagram account, Lyndie Irons is skiing in Jackson Hole…
ski instructor?
Axel’s birthday.
BUT…she can instruct me in ANYTHING she wants.
sadly, she couldn’t instruct AI/
No…but he was a diligent student.
I AM!!!!
they can do both
Why would they want to?
Vans isn’t even owned by Vans.
Me-thinks the surf industry is dead—we can only hope.
As we learned from “how surfers get paid”, it’s the energy drink industry. There is no surf industry.
Are you a Stab devotee?
Either that or a lifetime of trying to land on the correct thread comments on BG
JJF turning down a wave with only 3 other guys out doesn’t move the needle for him cause its not like he doesn’t get waves out there anyways when there are 100 guys out. John(2x) blowing out a knee doing a stupid air 2 months before the CT starts makes no sense. He can surf Pipe with his brothers and Mom in a heat at the Backdoor Shootout and get more out of it than the Nathan Fletcher straight Air Invitational.
Could just not do an air.
All his injuries were freesurfs, no? Surely less stupid if it brings entertainment.
I may be wrong, but I think maybe his first injury a few years ago happened in Brazil…during a comp
Yeah, you might be right. I still think that was a tweak of something that happened prior though. G-land was prior, Keramas was post. Both my knees were blown just watching him at Margarets.