Billionaire-owned World Surf League named in bombshell investigation for “collaborating with controversial governments”

"The World Surf League has largely avoided scrutiny due to its niche audience and lower media visibility."

The World Surf League has been named in a bombshell report report by an investigative reporter over its involvement in El Salvador and the UAE. 

In a story just published, “Abu Dhabi is betting big on surfing” website Sports Politika says the UAE’s wavepool is the “latest example of its use of sports as a form of soft power.” 

“The carefully manicured PR campaign fusing surfing and the desert is part of Abu Dhabi’s latest attempt to present itself at the nexus of sports, entertainment, and luxury tourism,” writes the site’s founder Karim Zidan. 

But!

“While major organizations like the NBA and UFC have faced criticism for partnering with a country accused of significant human rights violations—including harsh sentences for dissidents, exploitation of migrant workers, and involvement in violent conflicts in Syria, Sudan, and Yemen—the World Surf League (WSL) has largely avoided similar scrutiny. This is partly due to its niche audience and lower media visibility.

“However, the WSL has shown little hesitation in collaborating with controversial governments to further its goals. For example, it hosts several events in El Salvador, a nation led by a president who proudly refers to himself as the ‘world’s coolest dictator”… The WSL has also added an Abu Dhabi stop to its marquee Championship Tour in 2025, meaning that the Emirate will continue to be featured as a premier professional surfing destination.”

The World Surf League, which marks itself as a progressive, trans, earth, indigenous people friendly organisation, has long battled accusations it doesn’t practise what it so loudly preaches from its various pulpits.

One year ago, Chas Smith wrote:

The World Surf League, self-billed “global home of surfing,” is not shy when it comes to burnishing its environmental bonafides. Talking points sent down from twin chiefs Erik Logan and Jessi Miley-Dyer include referring to the ocean as “office, home and playground” thereby necessitating preservation. Action items involve coordinating planting a bush in Western Australia. But behind the scenes, deals are struck with landfill-ready, carbon spewing Chinese SUVs and any other company willing to open a chequebook in order to be covered by a green wave.

And you’ll remember the furore when The World Surf League attempted, and failed, to build a billion-dollar development, which included a Slater wave pool, atop precious wetlands on Australia’s Sunshine Coast.

As Longtom reported at the time,

What, as they say, could go wrong?

I put boots on the ground at the site. I know this country very well. It’s in my blood. My people come from the Queensland cane swamps. They are Danes, Swedes, Sicilians.

Practical people.

They would understand the necessity of bulldozing the bush to make way for jobs. But I do not. The developer’s eye eludes me. I see trees and bush. Birds, insects, frogs. I feel sad that surfers will be the ones behind the bull-dozers, erasing this wildlife, this bush from history.

From what I can see though, although there is ambivalence, distrust and even hostility to the Coolum wave pool development, that is unlikely to stop the bulldozers.

Next level.

But I wonder, when Kelly thinks about what is being done in his name and looks in the mirror, does he still see an environmentalist looking back at him?