Burn book.
The “Global Home of Surfing” almost made news, ahead of the 2024 Championship Tour, by inking a deal with ESPN to broadcast the top-tier events on a sub-sub-sub channel. Surf fans thrilled at the possibility of catching Kelly Slater, Filipe Toledo, Caroline Marks et. al. on cable television, as opposed to new-fangled YouTube, and celebrated surfing’s mainstream acceptance.
Not satisfied, never resting on laurels, the World Surf League has just announced a collaboration with NBC for a limited documentary series following professional surfers on their Olympic journeys. Set to air on the cable television business channel CNBC, “Tahiti Bound” will undoubtedly thrill.
Per the breathless press release:
“Paris is re-imagining the presentation of the Olympics in so many exciting ways, and staging the surfing competition in Tahiti will provide one of the most evocative backdrops imaginable,” said Joe Gesue, Senior Vice President of Olympic Programming and Executive Editor, NBC Sports. “Partnering with the WSL for such in-depth access to the athletes’ personal journeys to this unique Olympic setting aligns perfectly with our commitment to storytelling.”
“2024 is set to be a transformative year for the sport thanks, in large part, to the Olympic Games, which is the biggest stage in the world,” said Cherie Cohen, WSL Chief Revenue Officer. “The WSL is in an ideal position to provide content, access, and insights that will significantly enhance NBC’s coverage of the Games. This partnership is also a fantastic opportunity to bring the compelling stories of our athletes on the road to Tahiti to NBC’s audience.”
Throughout the series, fans will get insights into the lives of surfing’s biggest stars, such as reigning Olympic champion and five-time world champion Carissa Moore, two-time world champion John John Florence, and 2023 world champion Caroline Marks, as well as up-and-comers Griffin Colapinto and surfing phenomenon Caity Simmers.
Wait.
Carissa Moore, John John Florence and Caroline Marks all described as “champions,” Caity Simmers a “surfing phenomenon” while Griffin Colapinto is tarred with the demeaning “up-and-comer?
A lowly “parvenu.”
How rude is that?
What do you think San Clemente’s second finest did to deserve such disrespect?
While you are thinking, there will also be “a single highlight show recapping the Olympic Games and the 2024 WSL CT results, “Tahiti to Trestles,” airing Sunday, Oct. 13, at 1 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.
Tahiti to Trestles.
Erik Logan’s stillborn idea continuing to haunt.
Poopoo touch.
This would be great, if they actually followed surfers not on the WCT that qualified for Teahupoo/Olympics .So many guys and girls out there who have never even been to Tahiti and could be facing down the scariest waves of their lives. That would be more interesting than this shite!
I Love doing my personal daily journaling here. How many people’s journals actually yell back at them, name call, make false accusations, tear down their deepest thoughts, deconstruct their every perspective? It’s a safe space for all that.
So this isn’t a safe space for me to do my journaling?
Gonna pass DSS in the posts per day category at this rate.
Almost? My mind sees a turkey necked wannabe, sweater tied around the neck, glasses down at the tip of the nose, a snifter of hoity toity brandy, Sperry topsiders, who can’t really spell or compose a sentence correctly. That might actually be my eyes seeing that, not my mind.
Fucken WSL is so seppo
Every surfer mentioned in this press release is a yank, I don’t have anything against them but it’s meant to be the World Surf League
So much for inclusion
It’s so weird that this random US surfer gets parachuted into the draw. Was that deliberate, or was he the only guy who happened to be floating around the contest? I mean Brazil have deliberately named a team without Joao, and Yago is there in case of the third spot coming their way. Maybe Griff was a late out due to illness or personal reasons (?)
A conspiracy theorist would posit that this is all about parachuting Kel into the US team if they get the third place (Barron could sue their ass if Kelly got given the second spot and he missed out) but it’s not really clear in the rules whether the third NOC surfer has to actually attend the WSG. Let’s see Chas run with this when he works it out 😀
he may have come down with a severe case of Acute gastrotoledoenteritis.
heard it’s been going around Hawaii, but only effects San Clemente residents.
Beautifully succinct rebut!
Fucken A !
Zactly.
ISA conceded that to them to have wooz “athletes” eligible but they still make them surf ISA World Games. Wooz has to kowtow to ISA as the sports governing body. ISA got the muss no matter how wooz dresses it up.
Not that I think Fernando’s mob is any better – they’re both clown organisations in my book.
Fitting!
Noz was right
Doesn’t matter that wooz has nothing to do with Olympic competition, it’ll try and make it look like they’re a vital part of the main event.
Claim On you fucking fraudsters!
So weird. I think barron will take his place on the olympic if hes DQd though.
Oi Derek (or maybe even Chas), why haven’t you reported this ?
It might put some people off saving stranded whales.
MASSIVE N.Z. SHARK EATS WHALE AT RICARDO CHRISTIES LOCAL SURF BREAK IN FRONT OF RESCUER (plus women and children)
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Pretty gnarly shit.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
That poor rescuer can probably now claim compensation for shock suffered during this incident.
Possibly a tax increase if there’s more similar incidents…
Whale…you got that White!
yeah, that sounded hectic.
Shit… still trying to get through make or break season 2.
its great because its mainstream meaning zero miss information
I gonna just go ahead and say that only a pretentious douche would use the word parvenu. And a bigger douche would put it in quotes for no apparent reason.
I would have gone with “damned with faint praise”
Chas, I’m not really buying your Elo’s gotta “poo poo touch” claims. As you well know from your and DLS’s time eating puppy treats straight from Elo’s hand (dreaming of WSL access that went denied, etc..) Elo ran like a 1000 or 10,000 country radio stations back when that crappy new country stuff came on the scene.
I hated that new country garbage, the music wasn’t just “Poo Poo”, it was a steaming pile of cow crap. Redneck kids I worked with loved it, played it at work and set up some unique conflicts with us haters. I remember one gal breaking into tears when another kid demanded she turn off that crappy music on her birthday.
After analyzing that garbage pop music which was now being called “country music”, I came to the conclusion that the majority of songs were essentially song versions chick flicks, generally directed at women. If you could turn the movie the Notebook into a country song, you were guaranteed a hit.
Elo’s country music stint came a time when the music industry was imploding from Napster, etc.. Which made country music surprisingly valuable because its audience just wasn’t up to the task of pirating music for free online, like everyone else was.
Anyway, fast forward 20 years. I’m listening to a random podcast with the WSL’s new CEO Elo and he explains how he turned this new crappy form of country into gold. Elo said his epiphany was to direct country music at the women and the men will follow… Eric Logan was behind that, he realized country songs about women’s country fantasies are what would grow the audience and sell. Elo turned “poo poo” country music into gold. Who would have ever thought Beyoncé would try to tap into the country gold mine Eric Logan helped create?
When Elo wrongfully went to bat for Scooter Braun, taking Scooters side over Taylor Swift…? Why would he do such a seemingly foolish thing? My guess is Eric Logan, having controlled the vast majority of country radio stations, understood and had a hand in Taylor’s rise. Eric was a gate keeper, possibly the gate keeper that opened the doors to 10,000 radio stations for Taylor. Eric didn’t see Taylor’s rise as destined, but saw it as crafted in a way that he and Scooter took part in. Sure, Elo wrongly miscalculated in that Scooter Braun dispute, since Taylor clearly had been empowered to easily crowd surf her way past any gate or gate keeper by that time. But no doubt Elo helped create that behemoth he no longer had any ability to control. Shame on Eric for not ditching Scooter for Taylor, but who knows what was at play for Elo at the moment (wasn’t he on the board of that record label or something?). Regardless, even with that misstep.. Look at the phenomenon Taylor is now. It wasn’t a “poo poo” touch that opened the door for that economic powerhouse Taylor Swift’s become. Also, Oprah is currently worth 2.8 billion dollars USD. 2.8 billion $$$ isn’t “poo poo” but it does convert into gold.
Now back to surfing.What’s up with all the paradoxes in surfing? Everybody hates crowded line ups, but everyone’s mad at Elo for failing to make competitive pro surfing a juggernaut? Why is everyone so precious about surf comps, always crying they’re not good enough? If Ultimate Surfer was an abysmal failure, ain’t that a win for surfing? You can’t bottle and sell the magic we feel in our hearts, LOL.
I love surf contests as entertainment and background noise equally. But pretending there’s a higher form of surf contests is a joke. It doesn’t matter what Elo did with the WSL. I’m just glad it’s still on for me to watch. Is it a money loser? Great, less investment might lead to less people in the water. Pissing off the core? Please do, maybe they’ll quit too!
“K.L.O.N. Radio… We play the songs that sound more like everyone else, than anyone else.”
“Everybody hates crowded line ups, but everyone’s mad at Elo for failing to make competitive pro surfing a juggernaut?
No, we’re mad at Elo because he took a pro surfing system that largely worked and tried to make it a juggernaut by adopting a stupid format for the sole purpose of injected artificial drama. In the process, he enabled competitors who are clearly not capable in all conditions to become world champ, something which the prior tour format generally prevented from happing.
Felipe would have most likely won his world titles under the old system too. But I like your arguments. Especially the criticism of “injecting artificial drama”. I’d say it’s more manufactured drama than artificial. The tears in Margie’s are real, the consequences are real too.
I defend Elo for fun (can’t help but be a contrarian. Love playing devils advocate in heated online communities). On a few levels I’m against the mid season cut. The women only having 10-12 spots after the cut is ridiculous. It’s stupid when their side of the sports progressing so fast. The Rising Tides program seems great, but for what? 10 spots after the cut? Jeeze. One positive thing the cuts done is cleaned out those B rate surfers that use to hang on the tour forever. Sending em’ back to the Challenger series is fine.
I’m interested with or without the manufactured drama. I just want to see people in rashies going at it in 30-40 minute heats. I’m not too attached to any format. The old one was fine with me, but didn’t seem to generate enough $$ to sustain the tour as a business.
I like your criticism of Elo for trying to make pro surfing a juggernaut too. At a certain point Dirk or the WSL will need to acknowledge that pro surfings just fine with its limited audience and appeal. It’s still a business and needs to make enough money to keep going though, cuz I need it in my life.
You are overthinking it mate.
Everyone is down on Elo cos he’s a kook who doesn’t surf.
Since the tours never made money when it was run buy surfers, I figure kooks might be fine to do the businessy stuff. Elo had Slater and Stryder there to give him core advice.
Yep he americanised it
are you that kid from The Lost Boys?
and wasn’t there some weird Hollywood gay pedo thing that happened to you?
No. Corey Webster, I was in Thrashin’. Was one of the Ramp Locals that took a lot of crap from The Daggers. Might have lost a skateboarding joust too.
TLDR
Grounded reasoning.
There’s an article by Chas way back when Elo had just taken over the role. Presumably written the same time they took that photo together at the WSL offices. Chas kissed his ass because Elo had given him that golden ticket: “access”. But because we are all a bunch of sarcastic bastards we gave it to Chas both barrels for selling out. From that moment on, Elo had “kook” stenciled on his back and in fact it was Longtom who was constantly writing shit about him, calling him “flim flam”.
I always thought that angle was short sighted and beside the point. It’s not like Elo was some evil mastermind remaking pro surfing in his own image. It’s patently obvious that Elo was parachuted in to (a) monetize the pool and (b) monetize the viewership. That was his job. Too bad that he had no idea about surfing, too bad the surf brands all went broke, too bad the pool was boring to watch, and too bad it didn’t get built for the Tokyo Olympics like they hoped. If pundits want to blame anyone, blame the billionaire who sent him there.
If we look back at the original proposal for the final 5 (which I think dates from the Goldschmidt era but Elo gets the blame), it was going to be in Indo. Presumably they realised that oops not a good time for prime time viewing in the States if the event is held after midnight LA time. Hence the fairly obvious decision to hold it at Trestles. Too bad all the surfing public (and the competitors) think this idea blows. But they aren’t trying to attract the surfing audience and haven’t tried in about 20 years. It’s all about setting this thing up to be the next UFC and make Dirk rich(er). And it might have worked if the pool had not been a flop. As I have said before. If the pool was 10 ft and had some variation to it, it might have worked. But pro surfing would effectively the floor routine in gymnastics and there’d probably be no comps as we know it.
Ya that Elo interview on the grit with DLS and Chas was great. Elo read their desire for access like a book, dangled that carrot, had them eating out of his hand. They got a little access before they got cut off. I think Chas and Dave got to surf the pool on journalist day. I think DLS was at the first pool event interviewing people.
Interesting thoughts on why the Finals is at Trestles and not in Indo. Indo would be great. I’m personally fine with Trestles and the Finals in general. A one day event they can sell. I can get my girlfriend to go. It’s free (one of the eternal issue’s the WSL will always have when it comes to making money. Especially since the pool didn’t work out). Personally I want to see the top pros making good money. For that to happen the tour has to turn a profit. Right now the lowest paid NFL players that never step on the field make more money than some top 10 surfers.
Fuck. At least 4 people read this
Fools!