Duplicity!

A blast has just gone off in the generally placid surf world, shaking the ground from Australia’s Gold Coast to California’s orange one. Sending surf enthusiasts reeling. Stumbling like drunkards and gasping for air. You have, no doubt, been following the story of Laura Enever’s very recent Guinness record for the largest ever wave (paddle-in) (female).

A wonderful story, certainly, and one that should be celebrated.

Except.

The World Surf League is involved in the whole business and, as surf watchers well know, everything the World Surf League touches turns to poo.

It was World Surf League tabbed scientists that declared Enever’s wave to be 43.6 feet. All extremely impressive, save the ride out which somehow went missing. That bit was evocative of the XXL Big Wave Awards from three years ago where Brazil’s Maya Gabeira beat out France’s Justine Dupont for the coveted Ride of the Year.

She, too, won a Guinness.

Now, new revelations from that event, then owned by the World Surf League, suggest much duplicity.

World Surf League Bombshell

According to well-placed sources, the judging committee, a “veteran team” who had been judging big waves since the dawn of time, decided that Justine Dupont had won. The World Surf League Chief of Sport, then commissioner, Jessi Miley-Dyer disagreed. She brought in her team of scientists. They determined Gabeira’s wave height, and then, Miley-Dyer forced the committee to declare her winner.

Dupont, at the time, not pleased, penning, “The @wsl announced that the record for the biggest wave surfed would be awarded to a surfer who does not finish her wave. I decided to smile about it even though I am deeply hurt to be subjected to a decision that I believe is totally unfairI’m especially disappointed and ashamed of this league which claims to represent our sport.”

She went on to criticize the “report from scientists who use the word ‘approximate’ in front of each of their statements.”

She ended with, “The season is starting and I know that I can surf even bigger waves without waiting for some records from them.”

Well, three years on and Dupont just snagged an absolute bear at Cortes Bank while filming HBO’s hit series 100 Foot Wave.

It went completely unrecognized by the World Surf League.

"Catty, rude and morally bankrupt!"

What should be a joyous hangover, today, for the surf world is, instead, one of the rotten varietals. Stomach sick. Head not right. For not even 24-hours ago, Narabeen’s own Laura Enever was awarded the Guinness record for “largest wave surfed paddle-in (female).” The beast was snagged roughly ten months off off Oahu’s North Shore. It was officially measured by World Surf League selected scientists.

Wonderful and happy.

Except.

The questions around the complete ignoring of Justine Dupont, who had ridden a probable 75-foot monster earlier in the year, soon began to bubble. Dupont won three awards for the feat at the just-wrapped Big Wave Awards now no longer affiliated with the aforementioned “global home of surfing.”

Enever, of course, an employee.

Hammertime

Now, charges of retaliation by the World Surf League against Dupont are flying.

You will recall that the Frenchwoman was snubbed, three years ago. The XXL Big Wave Awards, then owned by the World Surf League, hosted the affair. Brazil’s Maya Gabeira was awarded the “Ride of the Year” and also gifted a Guinness record “for the largest wave surfed (unlimited)” thanks to those World Surf League selected scientists.

While the wave was very impressive, Gabeira, much like Laura Enever, did not ride away cleanly.

Or at all.

Dupont took to Instagram at the time to declare, “The @wsl announced that the record for the biggest wave surfed would be awarded to a surfer who does not finish her wave. I decided to smile about it even though I am deeply hurt to be subjected to a decision that I believe is totally unfairI’m especially disappointed and ashamed of this league which claims to represent our sport.”

Boom.

Would the World Surf League be so catty and rude? So institutionally fraudulent, as to do Dupont dirty, again, for speaking out back then?

More as the story develops.

The "global home of surfing" steps in it. Again.

The champagne was not yet warm when controversy rippled though the surf world over Laura Enever’s recent big wave record. Hours ago, the World Surf League declared Narabeen’s first daughter to be the Guinness World Records™ title holder for “largest wave surfed paddle-in (female).”

Awkward syntax aside, a real moment. Enever, 31, no doubt deserved all the praise and accolades for her North Shore bomb. The one-time junior champion’s transition to meaty water beasts truly an inspiration.

“Huge congratulations to Laura for this incredible achievement,” Jessi Miley-Dyer, World Surf League Chief of Sport, declared. “Laura is fearless, committed, and a real inspiration, and I’m so proud to celebrate her. These World Records really allow us to shine the spotlight on athletes like Laura who are pushing the boundaries of Big Wave surfing.”

Notably missing from any chatter, whatsoever and however, was France’s Justine Dupont. The French charger, who now resides in Nazaré, was part of a Cortes Bank strike mission. It garnered her three awards at the just-concluded Big Wave Challenge awards.

Biggest Wave, Ride of the Year and Surfer of the Year (women)

Her giant, while towed, was estimated to be 75-feet angry.

Notably, the Big Wave Challenge awards are no longer World Surf League owned.

World Surf League Puts Con In Condecession

The World Surf League, despite “really wanting to shine the spotlight on athletes pushing the boundaries of Big Wave surfing,” had no representative there with tape measure.

Thus zero Guinness love.

Now, those who have made big waves their business are properly bewildered by the seemingly condescending way that the World Surf League has co-opted the riding of giants. Billing itself as the “global home of surfing,” the WSL has made a mockery of everything that is not high-performance shortboarding. The longboard tour is a joke, the Big Wave World Tour a fraud.

It has also made a mockery of high-performance shortboarding just to make sure.

Every television production the World Surf League has attached itself to has either ended in embarrassment (The Ultimate Surfer) or failure (Make or Break).

Might Dupont’s wave being part of HBO’s award-winning 100-Foot Wave series be part of the cold shoulder?

Something more cruel?

Certainly more as the story develops.