Rebel yell.
The Margaret River Pro is currently bumbling along in glorious Western Australia, bumbling being the optimum word. The World Surf League, caught yet again in a ten day run of bad swell, has been forced to start, stop, start and stop its competition with even its most ardent fans growing frustrated and surly. Waves, when they do come, are somehow miraculously missed by the team, Joe Turpel’s mouth has entered a twilight zone and silly branding rules the day.
But what, then, is the most ardent fan supposed to do? There has long been hope in a “rebel tour.” One that boils off the World Surf League’s nonsense and simply puts the world’s ten or twelve best surfers in the world’s five or six best waves. But, let’s be honest here. Red Bull is not going to come to our rescue nor is Kelly Slater.
Enter Liberia.
The west African country hovering just north of Côte d’Ivoire, just south Sierra Leone, has just announced it is hosting Africa’s very first surf tour entirely independent from the World Surf League.
Per the Liberian Observer:
President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, Sr., has expressed excitement over Liberia’s rise to a place among the top 10 surfing destinations in the world and the choice to host the Africa Tour: Surf to Rise competition.
The event, scheduled to take place in West Africa for the first time, will be held in Robertsport, Grand Cape Mount County. It will be a five-day event, bringing in more than a hundred (100) persons including sixty (60) athletes, all of whom will be staying in Robertsport for the duration of the event to be held from May 23-28, 2024.
According to a press release from the Executive Mansion, this initiative is a significant moment for Liberia’s tourism sector, which aims to rebrand the country and attract visitors from around the world. It also comes as the President prepares to submit the Tourism Bill to the Legislature as part of his legislative agenda.
As part of the transformative agenda outlined in the Agriculture Roads, Rule of Law, Education Sanitation, and Tourism (ARREST) Agenda, the President reaffirmed Liberia’s commitment to harnessing its natural assets for sustainable development.
Arrest? Tell me this isn’t the future.
You can watch a film about professional surfing’s savior here.
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Only 20 years since the civil war ended, a war featuring cannablism and child soldiers. A far, far cry from the sanitized WSL. A positive step for the country, good luck to them.
a clash with the Fatherland?
I heard there’s this spot in Africa called JBay that’s pretty good
Freedom for all. Including relegated surfers.
B.G.S.L. its official.
beach grit surf league is awesome. but let’s start locally. Doheny or Cardiff?
Surf contests/tourism events put el salvador back in the surf travel map, im sure it can work Liberia as well?
Liberating news.
Liberia is a country in West Africa founded by free people of color from the United States. The emigration of African Americans, both freeborn and recently emancipated, was funded and organized by the American Colonization Society (ACS).
….and wherest Liberace adopted his name.
SanitationSecurity…100 persons for sixty surfers.EducationEnvironment…who’s teaching who what?TourismEconomy…how much is a six pack? What’s the going rate for hostage ransome? Google “Is Nigeria a safe travel location?”I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about….but I miss the rains down in Africa
great time for A Concert For Liberia, A Benefit…starring T. Swift, Vanilla Ice, Snoop Dog, Herb Albert& Tijuana Brass, Rage Against The Machine. And if that causes no tension…then bring in the contest crew!
They’re bleck brah ,blecker than bleck .they have machetes brah. Better to stay in the hire vehicle and film from there until the temporary finces get set up .
Black Shorts of Da Hui on short list for security!
Relax all the right people at the top received kickbacks to make this event happen
Google Nigeria if the event is in Liberia? Are California and New York two different countries too?
ha! yeah, I’m in Cleveland and a prime target for the WSL’s expansion experiment into the midlands.
Character burning!
1st place wins a bag of rice
Looks fun, but now the WSL are involved, I will be boycotting this wave.
In the middle of Africa but – just north of Côte d’Ivoire, just south Sierra Leone. Oh those naughty frenchies
Senegal through Angola are all holding super good waves but getting there is another story.
Looks like something Johnny Lawerence from Cobra Kai would wear – when he is a grown up loser!
Andino will be lucky to still have 2% of his money left after this
Taking a swipe at Florence Marine X in his manifesto.
“An in person brand that you can’t quite put your finger on what it is, that embodies global surf culture and real surfing. Not sailing. Not foiling. FUCKING SURFING.”
No returns policy! OMG!
Manalytics😂😂😂😂
“How can you put that in a spreadsheet and into analytics. I’m into manalytics. Man power that you can’t put into numbers.”
“Surfing has always been on the forefront of fashion…” Um…
90’s lost model?
Bullshit, everyone knows that Joel Tudor discovered Liberia and those Hodad Malloys never went there!
but it’s terrible in exactly the way I thought it would be terrible
Yeah I looked into getting to the town above. Flights from here to there killed that thought.
Another tour is the last thing Kelly wants to see because every year that goes by that a world title is won and not by Kelly a little bit of him dies inside.
Free Af-ri-kuh! Fuck I bet there’s some good setups der.
In other news, K-Hole is launching his own surf brand so that all the South County homeschooled trust fund groms can have a brand that they really identify with.
2percentunion.com
The Jesus, wonder bread sandwich, E bike demographic.
Matt Biolos’ Kids Who Can’t Read Good Foundation
*but know their metric volumes, dammit
I like Josh Loya’s post about it saying “Yea but the two percent crew wears Lululemon to hot pilates class “
We should start a competing brand called 98% percent union for the older, overweight, high volume, unmotivated, beer drinking, weed smoking, atheist, shit talking demographic.
98%: out of my fucking way, grom
Amen, brother.
woah! im standing right here dude
No shit Sherlock…set the lower bar at 7%…that’s the solution~
Good on him.
we need to get you this jacket Negs
https://2percentunion.com/p…
Nah, not enough writing on the back for me.
if I ship it to NZ. will you wear it though?
My son would. He’s a label whore.
But 2% ? Really?
I spose ok to wear out coz noones gonna steal it, coz lame af.
Oh not surf fashion, he turns his nose up at that
Wise young bloke.
looks like it’s somehow sold out, but i am going to totally ape this idea of putting a bunch of gibberish text on a regular old dickies eisenhower and selling it for over twice what such clothing otherwise retails for
Yeah, they forgot the phrase “Im a proud Western chauvinist, and I refuse to apologise for creating the modern world”.
Black flysece
jake marshall training regime – have a house at every CT stop
Conner and Lakey training regime- Do just enough with two turns to stay on tour for multiple years with rarely getting over a 6 point ride. When you finally miss the cut you fall back on trust fund.
and add a “mystery turn”
Egg McMuffund in Lakey’s case
Jake across very well in the latest lipped poddy, he said he waited tables for a little while.
Wow.
I note that he does not explain the “2%” but I’m guessing it’s the percentage of people from his homeschooling year that know how to use a possesive apostrophe correctly.
see: “FAQ’s” on his page.
Bless his heart.
Not the best argument for being a privileged second generation white home schooled surfer from Orange County. Be afraid, kids.