Listen all y'all.

The ISA World Surfing Games is currently underway in El Salvador’s lightish brown water and Olympic dreams are being made hourly. Jordy Smith has punched his ticket to Tahiti and so has Billy Stairmand who smashed Ethan Ewing and Ryan Callinan to take the Oceania slot. Brazil’s Gabriel Medina, on the other hand, has spectacularly withdrawn.

The current World Surf League number six is just coming off major disappointment/rip-off at the Surf Ranch Pro in Lemoore, California where he lost to Ethan Ewing in the quarters and ignited a firestorm, taking to social media in the form of an open letter.

“Dear WSL,” he began.

Please understand the importance of this discussion.

Surfing has been my life and my love for this sport is unconditional. I have put all my heart into and and want to leave a beautiful legacy one day when I look back at it.

However the surfing community, especially in Brazil, is mesmerized with the poor clarity and inconsistence of judging for many years now, but lately it has been even more shocking.

It is quite clear that judging is now rewarding very simple surfing, seamless transitions and have taken critical turns in critical sections off the criteria. This is very frustrating and is stagnating the sport.

Fans and sponsor will not accept this to continue and will in a near future be draw away once all they want is equal and fair judging to the sport.

Also, important to note that many coaches and managers have had the opportunity to speak to WSL after heats/events to ask about PROGRESSION and VARIETY in the criteria and the lack of reward for this space. The response given by them is always quite defensive by giving poor examples to illustrate THEIR point.

WSL needs urgently to clarify judging and apply equal and fair judging to save the progression of the sport.

Thanks,

Gabriel Medina and Brasil

Well, the World Surf League’s CEO, Erik Logan, did not like that open letter one bit and opened fire with one of his own, shaming Medina and all who dared question “the integrity of the sport.”

The Championship Tour, in any case, will follow the ISA World Surfing Games in El Salvador, though Medina’s withdrawal from the latter is quite stunning. As I understand it, the top two ranked surfers from a country on the aforementioned CT will receive tickets to the Games. Currently, Filipe Toledo and Joao Chianca are above Medina there meaning he will not get to participate in the five ringed dance unless a Brazilian wins the ISA World Surfing Games at which point Brazil will receive one more slot.

Surf watchers are busily wondering whether or not Logan will interfere and try to sabotage the South American nation’s chances like he allegedly did at Surf Ranch.

What do you think?

Will he or won’t he?

Medina’s withdrawal might also point to his feeling that, not matter what, he will dominate the rest of the CT and put himself in one of the two slots at the end.

But, again, sabotage.

Listen all y’all etc.

More as the story develops.

It goes on and on and on and on and on!

Pulitzer in the mail.

But is there any new source as powerful, as important as The New York Times? The answer, obviously, no. The Gray Lady, serious and sober minded, gently guides its public into all manner of truth and and the way to properly think about this or that. Indispensable. But that reputation, burnished to a fine sheen, has not been won overnight. The writing has to be flawless, research impeccable and sources above reproach.

I suppose, then, there is no surprise that the world’s most influential surf website was utilized in a fair and balanced piece gently titled “Robert Kennedy Jr., With Musk, Pushes Right-Wing Ideas and Misinformation.”

A sampling:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a scion of one of the country’s most famous Democratic families, on Monday dived into the full embrace of a host of conservative figures who eagerly promoted his long-shot primary challenge to President Biden.

For more than two hours, Mr. Kennedy participated in an online audio chat on Twitter with the platform’s increasingly rightward-leaning chief executive, Elon Musk. They engaged in a friendly back-and-forth with the likes of Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman turned right-wing commentator; a top donor to Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida; and a professional surfer who became a prominent voice casting doubt on coronavirus vaccines.

The “professional surfer who became a prominent voice casting doubt on coronavirus vaccines” bit highlighted and hyperlinked to Derek Rielly’s seminal piece “History’s most decorated surfer Kelly Slater reignites vaccine mandate debate with most explosive social media post yet, ‘I could voice a lot about hypocrisy and lies from our media and politicians…'” in which Rielly quoted Slater as commenting on Instagram, “Maybe Stockholm Syndrome can now change its name to Melbourne/Australia Syndrome. It’s sad to see the celebrated division by the ‘virtuous; vaccinated. If you’re vaccinated why are you concerned/worried about anyone else’s status… unless, of course, it doesn’t protect you? Or you’re scared you’ll catch it or upset you had to take the risk of vaccination yourself? So much brainwashed hatred in people’s hearts regardless of vax status.”

Sensible.

The New York Times, in any case, without allowing an editorial position to seep out, declared Mr. Kennedy “repeated a host of false claims,” including that Democrats were getting more money from pharma than Republicans, Covid being a bioweapons problem and psychiatric drug use tied the rise of gun violence in the United States.

Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s chat was listened to by more than 60,000 people, during its peak, and I’m still trying to sort out if Slater actually called in?

Tweeted in?

I don’t know. Who cares.

Saving the earth one fib at a time!

Per the press release:

This World Ocean Day and every day, the World Surf League (WSL) and its WSL One Ocean initiative are committed to protecting and preserving our one ocean for generations to come.

WSL One Ocean engages fans, hosts event-based activations throughout the WSL Championship Tour season, and funds ocean protection around the world through the WSL PURE Grant Program. WSL is an early signatory to the recently announced Sports for Nature Declaration, pledging to deliver transformative nature-positive action by 2030 and beyond.

WSL Asks Fans to “Speak Up for the Ocean” By Sharing Sustainability Stories

To celebrate World Ocean Day on June 8, WSL One Ocean is launching its “Speak Up for the Ocean” campaign. This campaign asks fans to share their stories and sustainability initiatives through social media with the hashtag #WSLOneOcean. The WSL will use its platform to amplify the voices of people around the world who are taking action to protect our ocean and encourage others to do the same, with the goal of building a community of surfers, fans and ocean lovers around the world who are aligned with protecting our one ocean

To learn more, please visit WSLOneOcean.org.

And/or.

To the WSL community,

I want to address the conversation that happened in our community following the recent Championship Tour event at the Surf Ranch. As you likely know, a small number of athletes made statements questioning the judging of the competition and the final results.

I want to respond directly to those statements, however, we first need to address a much more important issue. In recent days, a number of surfers, WSL judges, and employees have been subject to harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence, including death threats, as a direct result of those statements. Those things should never happen in our sport or any sport, and we’re devastated that members of our community have been subject to them. It is an important reminder to us all that words have consequences. We hope the entire WSL community stands with us in rejecting all forms of harassment and intimidation.

In terms of the statements made, we completely reject the suggestion that the judging of our competitions is in any way unfair or biased. These claims are not supported by any evidence.

Firstly, the judging criteria are provided to the athletes ahead of each competition. All athletes competing at the Surf Ranch Pro received these materials on May 20th. Every athlete had the opportunity to ask questions about the criteria at that time. None of the athletes who made these statements took advantage of this opportunity at the Surf Ranch Pro.

Secondly, our rules allow any athlete to review the scoring of any wave, with the judges, and receive a more detailed explanation of how they were scored with the judges. This process has been in place for a number of years, and is the direct result of working with the surfers to bring more transparency to the judging process. It is not acceptable, and is a breach of league policy, for surfers to choose not to engage with the proper process and instead air grievances on social media.

A number of athletes at the Surf Ranch Pro received points for elements such as progression and variety, so it is simply incorrect to suggest these are not taken into account in the judging criteria. Furthermore, our rules have been applied consistently throughout the season, including at events this season that were won by athletes who are now questioning those same rules.

Surfing is an ever-evolving, subjective sport and we welcome a robust debate around the progression of our sport and the criteria used to judge our competitions. However, it is unacceptable for any athlete to question the integrity of our judges who, like our surfers, are elite professionals.

No one person or group of people are above the integrity of the sport.

Sincerely,
Erik Logan
WSL Chief Executive Officer