Culturewash too!
Surf fans have had trouble sleeping for the past two nights after the World Surf League announcement that it would be hosting a Championship Tour stop in Abu Dhabi. The petro-kingdom, a manmade wonderland featuring islands shaped like palm trees, indoor skiing facilities and gleaming towers lovingly built by the hands of Pakistani slaves now also stars a Kelly Slater surf pool producing the “longest barrel in the world” while precious desalinized water romantically evaporates into the hazy Arabian sky.
I have done multiple tours of the fine United Arab Emirates, first going in 2002 after spending three months in Yemen, even wakeboarding on the Persian/Arabian Gulf. A gorgeous slick of oil making a rainbow on the water’s surface.
Alas, it is the only sort of rainbow allowed as same sex relationships are criminalized and it doesn’t really rain.
Which brings us back to our World Surf League. The “global home of surfing” has positioned itself as the most environmentally forward organizations on earth what with professional surfers planting a shrub in Western Australia and others planting a coral in Tahiti. The World Surf League’s One Ocean initiative, for example, promises to focus on “WSL priorities of coastal restoration and conservation, eliminating plastic and taking climate action.”
Huzzah.
The League is also at the bleeding edge of equity, groundbreakingly supporting LGBTQIA+ surfer Tyler Wright in “using her platform as a World Champion to express a message of inclusivity” by affixing the Pride flag to her singlet. “We believe surfing is for everyone and are incredibly proud of our athletes,” the statement continued.
How, then, the World Surf League will greenwash and culturewash the Abu Dhabi Pro the most exciting bit of moral gymnastics since Sarah Jessica Parker and besties graced the desert.
You go, girl.