“Maybe the WSL cares more about IP violations than human rights violations?!?”
A little light entertainment yesterday before the gruelling all-day, all-night three-day slog of running a grand slam event in the new Kelly Slater pool in Abu Dhabi, when a surf fan created a t-shirt satirising the contest and the UAE’s ordinary record on human rights, which he made available on Reddit.
Darth_Voter designed the t-shirt which features the slogan, “WSL Boycott…No Blood Money for your bullshit Abu Dhabi slavepool” and which were sold for twenty-five bucks on his website.
Shortly after the story appeared on BeachGrit, however, the WSL’s legal team contacted Printify, a print-on-demand service available online to anyone who wants to get low-volume whatever out there, and had the tees cancelled.
“This thing keeps
growing in so many funny ways,” Darth, maybe not his real name,
told me in an email earlier. “They made me take down the first
version for IP violations so the link in your article no longer
works. BUT I made a new logo (Worst Surf League) and
then reposted them. Can you please redirect readers
here?”
The new tees have a WSL logo that features a giant shark fin.
“Since they sent their sharks after me, it seemed appropriate that the new Worst Surf League logo should be a big shark fin,” wrote Darth. “After all, if there’s blood on their hands, there’ll be sharks in the water. Maybe the WSL cares more about IP violations than human rights violations?!?”
Aside from pirate tees on Reddit, the WSL has been hit with unprecedented negative feedback on their own channels about the Abu Dhabi tank contest.
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Even the commentators are lacking enthusiasm and energy. That excitement when a good set comes and the anticipation of who’s going to get the wave is simply lost here. It’s like watching a televised funeral.
Wsl are embarrassing the surf public. This is seriously ridiculous
This is somehow worse than Lemoore
This step is so boring… wsl does everything for money
So many great surf spots around the world. WSL could bring the tour to some impoverished areas and help them out. Instead, they sell out to the oil sheiks.
You’re taking the concept of “boring” to uncharted territories
And so on.
