World Surf League appears to troll Bethany Hamilton, posts official “men’s championship tour rankings” after Pro Pipeline as 1) Carissa Moore, 2) Tyler Wright, 3) Lakey Peterson and so on!

I’d say that this article is barely passable.

“Cultural Marxism”

Although similarities with the Nazi propaganda term “Cultural Bolshevism” have been noted, the contemporary conspiracy theory originated in the United States during the 1990s.
Originally found only on the far-right political fringe, the term began to enter mainstream discourse in the 2010s and is now found globally.[7] The conspiracy theory of a Marxist culture war is promoted by right-wing politicians, fundamentalist religious leaders, political commentators in mainstream print and television media, and white supremacist terrorists,[8] and has been described as “a foundational element of the alt-right worldview”.[9] Scholarly analysis of the conspiracy theory has concluded that it has no basis in fact.

Every few months I stop by and try to listen. Generally turn it off when the poddy goes into that broken record “the WSL is doing everything wrong, and we know exactly how to fix it” schtick. Years of that bs and you guys still have an audience, impressive. Even the people calling in are on board, threatening for the 1000 time that they’ve had it with the WSL. Was actually kind of surprised to hear Chas pull his own teeth and try to be objective. He even Watched a day pro surfing that was alright. Anyway The problem isn’t the WSL, it’s that pro surfing itself is eternally flawed. Conditions can make or break a contest. To get permits you need to commit to a specific time frame. The new Vans Triple Crown skirts that eternal flaw in pro surfing (committing to a time frame for permits) by having people submit footage so they don’t need permits, doesn’t create a better product, but still allows motivates some surfers to try and get paid. Same with the wave pool, finally able to control the swell and blah, doesn’t work. The problem ain’t the WSL, pro surfing doesn’t lend itself to a scheduled live television broadcast. The problem is people think there’s some profitable height out there to be had, that contests can be core, etc. The fact that the waves sucked for a lot of the once Pipemasters- is surfing to it’s core. The waves suck sometimes, that is surfing. Hell that’s part of the addictive draw. Always Wanting more. Surfer’s want the WSL to control the shit none of us can. Yep, surfing sucks sometimes and that’s on showcase in contests more than anywhere. But Chas was right, it was cool to see what JJF and Medina could do at crappy pipe. It was predictable Kelly wouldn’t do good either, cuz he doesn’t surf crappy pipe. He probably won’t do well at Sunset either. Would an outside audience give a crap about any of that. Probably not. But it’s still entertaining, hard to make profitable though. The debate about finals day shows how we hold competitive surfing on a pedestal. As if there’s one true way to crown a world champ. Really? Were every one of Slater’s titles pure, untarnished, perfectly judged, etc? F it. Competitive surfing should sell out. A one day title is an easier way to sell out. Selling out is competitive surfings highest calling. Competitive surfing is one element of surfing that’s not worth trying to hold sacred cuz it ain’t (even if there are transcendent moments). Fun to watch though. Look at all the different formats for Pipe contests this year. The only thing that mattered were the conditions and who surfed. Difficult/imperfect conditions made JJF’s 9.93 memorable. So Always scoring perfect conditions might not be the answer either.

Joel Tudor and Luke Shepardson – two excellent interviews conducted by David L Scales recently.