When it rains it pours.
It has been a helluva week for the World Surf League. The troubles began at Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch in inland Lemoore, California which just so happened to be stop six on the re-imagined Championship Tour neé Dream Tour. The professional surfers not at the tippy top were not allowed to attend, as they had been publicly decapitated at stop number five. Still, eighteen men and an equal number of eleven women donned the singlet and sat in the tub, waiting their turn to mark snaps in the mechanical wake. Nia Peeples’ ex-husband was in the VIP section but otherwise things at the Surf Ranch Pro were as they had been for the last three-ish years.
Boring.
Boring, that is, until the end when three Filipe Toledo, Gabriel Medina and Italo Ferreira, currently 3, 6 and 11 respectively and each former champions, took to social media to complain about the judging. That spark lit a fire so large that the World Surf League was forced to respond. Chief Executive Erik Logan took it upon himself and wrote an open letter filled with victim shaming and scorn.
It made things worse.
Since then Lonely-Boy Logan has been abandoned by his colleagues and the League itself has gone into full head-in-sand mode waiting for the Brazilian Storm to pass.
Well, across the ocean, the non-billionaire funded International Windsurf Tour has just hosted what is being called “one of the most legendary wave-riding competition days recorded in history” in absolutely pumping Cloudbreak.
Five athletes competed and it looked like this.
Windsurfing, which was thought to have gone extinct in the mid-1980s, able to do what regular surfing could not.
i.e. hold a contest in pumping Cloudbreak.
But how much shame do you imagine Erik Logan, World Surf League Chief of Sport Jessi Miley-Dyer, et. al. are feeling right now?
Enough so slap windsurfing with an open letter?
To the IWT 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 then you jerks went off and held the contest our fans wanted us to hold at Cloudbreak.
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. But you guys, completely un-chill to swoop Cloudbreak.
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 because the small number of athletes who made them are Brazilian and… well, you might have Brazilians in windsurfing too so…
Back to your event though, please stop holding them in good surf and if you don’t stop I’ll be forced to come and rest my hand upon your thigh or make a t-shirt of your naked chest.
Sincerely,
Erik Logan
WSL Chief Executive Officer
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Yeah wtf does that mean? I’m not even a surfer or into the technicals of all this I’ve just been reading about what’s been going on lately kinda ha
half-masted? a funny thing happened on my Cal20 rounding up to exit King Harbor…mast and guys snapped with full sail heaving under the port side acting like a hug fin. we drifted slow enough towards the Horseshoe Pier that the Harbor Patrol intercepted us. no panic! even from the gallery who had no cell phones in those days. they just waved & fished & drank. i can still relive the scene…in black & white! one of nine potential live-savers that occured under sail, under my watch…what ’bout the others, you ask? well a poorly moored Catalina 27 was washed into the line-up; (not visible in Troll’s photo above.)
Windsurfers going were on other can. https://media2.giphy.com/me…
Only reason surfing has more money is that companies can sell tshirts and other shit to wannabe ‘surfers’. Windsurfing is way more progressive right now and always was. Just too hard for most people with low IQ and attention spans, so it died out a little bit…
The dude in the lead photo is hooking a proper banger right there. With all that weighty equipment, that takes some skill. Fuck yeah!
Windsurfing ..what it may lack in excitement and money it makes up for in masculine women
I don’t what the rst ‘a tink and can’t stress it enuf…”the 1st paragraph captured me…is it available on FM?”
No one in the world thinks windsurfing is cool except people who windsurf🤣🤣
marco polo?
It is way harder for one.
The “non billionaires tour”..WTF!! That is the most rediculous terminology I have ever heard, Windsurfing will never have backing to the degree of surfing, name ONE iconic windsurfer?? Surfing has had hundreds of iconic surfers over the years,
Robbie Nash?
What does the WSL have to do with the PWA??? This artical makes no sense
You must be new to BG?
Do they plant non native plants and be sponsored by a ladder company?
I wonder does windsurfing have progression, or are they just happy to still be existing? Also, poostance?
Just watched some imbedded vid of what these guys can do while reading comments – if they were going off like that, they would torn cloudbreak apart!!
Never gotten into it but Fuck they actually make the tour look fucking mediocre AF and as others have said without any progression at all.
This blows
Charles, I’ve seen the footage of you surfing. Logan surfs better.
Just saw a clip of this on fb, it looked like the same sort of day when Owen got his bag of 10s. Makes you realise how far the tour done fell under E Lo’s watch, even when it just comes to quality surf
Lost:
– Cloudbreak
– G Land
– Snapper
– Pipe masters
– Triple Crown
– France
Gained
– Surf Ranch
– El Salvador
The momentum is crap
replace momentum with narrative
Great observation. Owen’s 10’s were actually spread out over 2 days and 2 heats. To me that was the pinnacle of pro surfing. Semi’s and finals both perfect 20’s in pumping 8′ Cloudbreak.
Next best thing in recent past was 2017 J Bay. In particular the arrival of Felipe as the king of, as well as best ever power stylist at, Jeffreys Bay.
Was that windsurf comp streamed live? Is there any footage you can watch now?
Yes, it was. I imagine a highlight package exists and it could look highly entertaining, but it was as boring as batshit to watch and the wind was cross/offshore. Thus, there weren’t too many waves surfable.
The highlight package is unreal! Watch the round one highlights on YouTube the waves aren’t pumping for all the heats but some they are and it’s incredible watching those guys launch off of barrel sections and clear 30 yards before landing with all that equipment it looks like the most dangerous shit ever. I was kind of blown away by it to be honest and it looks like from their insta they are super keen on only running at good waves which is such a nice shot across the bow to the wsl.
I imagine it is and I should have been a bit clearer. It was the extensive down time between waves which had me channel surfing.
what great conditions! but they are having a tough time fitting the mast & sail into a barrel.?
Stop going woke and ruining everything including now surfing with ur bs rules and trans crap these guys DONT need u and the threats are real people are sick and tired of the CRAP from these corporations keep it up but don’t complain u asked for it
What in the holy fuck are you on about? Go take your lithium and check back in after.
Technically adept poledancing crowd has a barndance at cloudbreak with huge wavecount and photogenic giant airs. Surfers go into hiding and question life choices.
windsurfer’s are a way cooler crowd
Than who?
Spandex wearing rode bikers?