Goodbye Elo and thanks for the laughs.
The rumours of WSL CEO Erik Logan’s tenure coming to an end had been circulating for months. The despair in meetings, the tears, a replacement being openly discussed.
“Santa Monica is a troubled realm,” said our source.
The straw that broke the ol camel’s back, likely, the mutiny of the sport’s three Brazilian world champs over judging criteria at the Surf Ranch Pro and Logan’s response.
As JP Currie wrote in an open letter to Logan,
I wish to address your recent letter, written in response to the judging criticisms from Surf Ranch.
Once again, you respond to criticism of the WSL (from your athletes, no less, your most valuable commodity) with a tone that lies somewhere between a dictator and a domestic abuser.
“It is an important reminder to us all that words have consequence,” you write.
Let’s ignore the poor sentence construction for the moment and focus on the sentiment. Words do have consequences, Mr Logan, they absolutely do. And of course you well know this, because when you’re not wielding corporate psychobabble like a weapon, you’re spinning language into something so inconsequential it might as well be gossamer on a breeze.
I would suggest the words of your athletes are not just words in the way you understand them. Rather, it’s their voices, and you might do well to listen to them.
Now, in a brusque sorta press release from the WSL and just loosed to the press and WSL athletes, it writes:
Today, the World Surf League (WSL) announced that CEO Erik Logan has departed the company, effective immediately. As the WSL begins the process of identifying a new CEO, Emily Hofer, WSL’s Chief People and Purpose Officer, and Bob Kane, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Legal Officer, will jointly lead the company and continue to drive the WSL’s mission to showcase the world’s best surfers on the world’s best waves as the global home of competitive surfing.”
More soon,.