Welcome to the OuterKnown of hypocrisy.

The world’s greatest surfer, Kelly Slater, is also its most… diversified. The 11x World Champion, a staunch environmentalist, is proud creator of Surf Ranch, which sucks diesel power for an island wave. He created a surfboard company that crafts boards in Thailand and ships them around the world. Choo-choo. He dreamed a sandal inspired by the moon and turtle shells, made from algae but delivered with much paper.

He also gave us OuterKnown.

The clothing brand, introduced to the consumer as a new way to spend money on stuff, promised to “protect the environment.”

Much landfill.

Kelly Slater, though, is also a staunch vaccine sceptic, especially as it relates to Covid 19.

Goose Gander

“A number of people I know died,” the just-turned fifty one year old said about the jab. “I know a doctor who stopped administering it in Australia because two or three of his patients died on the Sunshine Coast. It personally affected my mom. She lost feeling in her jaw and tongue and in her hands and feet. She has what seems to be some type of transverse myelitis (a neurological condition caused by an inflamed spine). My friend’s mother from Barbados is in hospital right now in Florida and she’s dying slowly from the affects of the Pfizer vaccine. She’s on a quick dark, downward spiral and they don’t know how to fix it.”

Well.

All very fine and well to be anti-prick, though not if you are applying for a position at the aforementioned OuterKnown.

A new job offering, just available, promises all the greenwashing except with a cost.

Applicants must be Covid vaxxed.

Per the posting for a full-time women’s outerwear designer:

COVID-19 Vaccinations: Outerknown requires all employees to demonstrate proof of receiving all COVID-19 vaccinations that they are eligible for, as a condition of their employment.

Good for goose but not good for gander?

Help!

"The momentum of professional surfing is real!"

The World Surf League (WSL) is about to launch its 2024 Championship Tour and fans are excited. Or, maybe not excited but resigned. South Africa’s J-Bay has been disappeared, much to chagrin. Cloudbreak has been added, with huzzahs. Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch is gone. Whew. Lower Trestles will crown Filipe Toledo champion again. Argh.

But might there be a little trouble in paradise? While the powers continue to insist that “the momentum of professional surfing is real,” there are growing signs that it might not be. For one, former CEO Erik Logan’s chair is still being occupied by the WSL’s head of legal and its head of Human Resources. For two, the “global home of professional surfing” abandoned its beloved Santa Monica headquarters in favor of El Segundo.

Where it shares space with veterinarians.

And wheezing cats.

On the verge of death.

Devil in WSL details

But has the WSL found a way to “monetize?”

The serious surf fan, all one hundred, still consumes WSL surf contests via the WSL app. It is fine enough, as far as apps go. Antiquated, maybe. Antiquated, probably. Also unnecessary? The WSL’s surf contests, of course, available free on Caffeine.

And YouTube.

But serious surf fan gonna serious surf fan. The WSL decided to tug heartstrings, begging serious surf fans to allow advertisements to track them in order to “support the sport.”

A legitimate ask when the serious surf fan attempts to update.

Touching privates.

But how many serious sporting leagues want to finger through their most ardent supporters’ delicates? Oh, I am certain all of them. But how many beg?

The World Surf League likely stands alone.

Though what do you think El Segundo will do with the information received? Gift it to Joe Turpel to juice his love life? To Selema Masekela? A non-functional mirror image of deceit and fraud?

Do you trust the WSL with your deepest, darkest web browsing?

Asking for a friend.

Fare thee well, Pipeline.

We all know that the end of the world is here or at least here adjacent. Israel is busily setting up armageddon on the eponymous plains of Megiddo. Nobody really cares because Travis Kelce is officially dating Taylor Swift. Jada Pinkett-Smith and Will Smith and their “brutiful” relationship make up the other 50% of the news cycle not spoken for by Travis Kelce officially dating Taylor Swift. And the “Doomsday Glacier” is much closer to annihilating iconic surf breaks worldwide than previously thought.

Also probably people.

Officially part of Thwaites Glacier, a vast shelf of Antarctica east of Mount Murphy, the Doomsday bit may be well further along to completing its mission than previously thought. Researchers in Antarctica have been studying how much of the glacier might be saved. According to their models, not very much. Even if we all stop driving gas guzzling cars immediately. Even if World Surf League shutters its energy-starved Surf Ranch tomorrow.

According to the journal Nature Climate Change:

We find that rapid ocean warming, at approximately triple the historical rate, is likely committed over the twenty-first century. With widespread increases in ice-shelf melting, including in regions crucial for ice-sheet stability. When internal climate variability is considered, there is no significant difference between mid-range emissions scenarios and the most ambitious targets of the Paris Agreement. These results suggest that mitigation of greenhouse gases now has limited power to prevent ocean warming that could lead to the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Kaitlin Naughten, an ocean modeller at the British Antarctic Survey said, “Unfortunately, it’s not great news. Our simulations suggest we are now committed to a rapid increase in the rate of ocean warming and ice shelf melting for the rest of the century.”

Goodbye Pipeline

With the glacier already basically melted, it is simply a matter of time before Pipeline, G-Land, J-Bay etc. stop working. As every surfer knows, waves are fussy things that require precise conditions in order to work. Too little water and weird. Too much water and soft.

El Porto, a bellwether, is already broken. By “broken” I mean “doesn’t break.”

We must, therefore, imagine a future where the world’s surf mirrors Southern California. Slow burgers punctuated with the odd set that breaks too far out.

The question, I suppose, is will the World Surf League adjust? I mean, aside from having Ethan Ewing plant a bush in Antarctica. Will the judging criteria change? To reward slow pumping down the line followed by a weak whitewash bash? On a mid length? Hips swiveling lightly while the arms windmill?

Is there a World Title in my future?

More as the story develops.