Peace in our time.
The Middle East is a wonderful region, one of my favorite in the whole world, though often beset with tension. Unrest. Strife. Etc. You can image the pure euphoria, then, this morning with the announcement that one of the greatest non-governmental organizations on earth, the World Surf League, will be hosting both a Championship Tour and Longboarding event in Kelly Slater’s new Abu Dhabi wave tank.
“We’re looking forward to seeing what the Surf Abu Dhabi facility can deliver for the world’s best surfers – and the broader surfing world – in the future,” said World Surf League CEO Ryan Crosby. “Both the evolving wave technology and the region itself present interesting opportunities for the WSL, and we’re excited to see that come to life in the coming months.
“The collaboration with Kelly Slater Wave Company and Surf Abu Dhabi allows us to build a destination ready to welcome surfers from all levels and communities and nurture a new generation of surfers in the region. Together, we’ve created a facility that provides perfect waves time and time again, new wave profiles suitable for every level, and the uniqueness of this being the first saltwater-based wave pool. We can’t wait to welcome the world’s best surfers and all the new fans this region is bringing to the sport,” said Bill O’Regan, Group CEO at Q Holding.
“The collaboration with the Kelly Slater Wave Company and Surf Abu Dhabi showcases our creation of a world-class facility that will provide perfect waves to a region to help grow an entirely new Surf Community in Abu Dhabi,” said Jeff Fleeher, Kelly Slater Wave Company President. “The partnership with the WSL now amplifies this opportunity, creating a platform to showcase the world’s best surfers to both new and existing fans, seated in the heart of Hudayriat Island’s broader sports ecosystem.”
All very cool. Peace in our time.
Unless.
A picture surfaces of three Australians from the same small island and Brazil’s Pedro Scooby gets a hold of it via WhatsApp.
Then all bets off.
Feelings, though. Do you have any? Will the “world’s longest manmade barrel” be more dynamic than its Lemoore, California sister?
More as the story develops.
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I want that T-shirt
Kelly Slater and the Momentum crew have destroyed most of the best parts of surfing by monetizing every thig they can/could. Now, I travel to the farthest corners of the world and find crowds. All because surfing was sanitized and sold to the highest bidder. It was way better when surfers were outlaws and oddballs.
Bruce Brown really kicked it into action ,post the jewish / hollywood backed gidget series that set the ball rolling for mass commercial exploitation of the surfing life style , Momentum just a natural progression of the orginal acts set in play , as are now the pools and the inclusion in the Olympics.
They need to do a CT in Arica again.
Careful of dengue
Oil bet $5 the WSL holds a compl there in the next couple of years.
If self entitled surf mums and Israeli agro surf heads are banned , then I give it a huge thumbs up.
I hope the surfers can see passed the $$$$ and do what is right.
By right I mean ride a soft board like Kalani did at the Ranch. Safety first.
Migraine Sand Storm,..
Good eye https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Will the women have to surf in black dresses with leggings?
At Padang Airport, a group of 30 young women were checking in behind us. I took a photo with them in their full outfits, I was over a head taller than the entire group. They all squeezed in for the photo and I’ll tell you one thing.
They stunk and I hadn’t showered in two weeks.
they were after the novelty “photo with a bule”
Did they know you are a famous hippy?
Yes! And those events are 10x better
Slaters product sells for what like $600 per wave?
A lot more people with that kind of fuck you money in UAE than in the agricultural butt crack of California
At least in Cali you can smoke a little green but UAE, jail time for four years!
AGAIN wsl is getting away from the heart of what ASL started. Just WRONG!
Well, we’ve all read it before, but thought it would be interesting to break it out one more time, from Mr. Warshaw:
“Waves are the whole show. Waves are the only interesting thing about surfing. You’re a poetry-hating anti-New Age atheist with a penchant for hardcore rationalism? Same here. But at some level we know, we feel, that we are riding ocean-transported sunbeams, and it is magical. It is what makes surfing the very best of all sports. It is what separates us from parkour.
Surfers, furthermore, are only interesting because of waves. The things we do over the course of a life in pursuit of, and on behalf of, waves—the 10,000 bad decisions, the fiery burn rate of time and cash, the rivers of espoused bullshit, the volumes of arcane and otherwise totally worthless knowledge painstakingly gathered, catalogued, and deployed—are what makes us different, and, giving ourselves the benefit of the doubt, cool.”
mic drop
The surfers are going to have to plant a lot of trees to make this environmently sustainable
The trophy should be interesting.
Holding it by the hair with one hand ?
You got to watch out Chas!!
Those camels are known to chop western journalists in pieces. Even worse: while alive!!
He reported from Prague, safe as houses
Will there be a huge holding pen of camels built next door, to mimick the cow shit smell from Lemoore?
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
For hot lovers of
Monotonous barrels and
Terminal nose rides