"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.