Surf punters battle for seven thousand dollars and a fleet of three PANDA surfboards in Surfival League…
It has been six years since a Berlin-based cycling enthusiast Shane Starling aka Zmonde won the WSL’s Fantasy Surf league, an event that went unremarked and unacknowledged by the owners of the game.
Shane, who picked ten of the eleven event winners that year, describesd lying on his bed, going into a meditative state, “putting on some Captain Beefheart”, and being there on the day of the finals and watching Joe Turpel present the medals on the podium.
He was relatively sanguine about the lack of a prize telling me, “I don’t understand the Wozzle half the time.”
Across the Pacific in San Francisco, a young surfer, Taylor Lobdell, read the story and, as he describes it, a light bulb went off in his head and with a thousand bucks of his own money, he developed a fantasy surf game, called Surfival, based on a NFL fantasy league, and kicked it live.
“I figured, even if I lose a thousand dollars I’m totally ok with it. Me and a couple of buddies will have some fun,” says Taylor, who now lives in San Luis Obispo, surfing that lightly crowded stretch of coast between Morro Bay and Cayucos on either his Shane Stoneman twinny or his Timmy Patterson Al Cleland Jr model.
That year, 300 surf punters signed up and each year the number grows as a pretty dang hard-core group of surfers each kick in twenty-five shekels for a chance at the seven gees and three PANDA surfboards.
Rules are simple.
You pick one surfer to survive past what used to be the round of 32 but is now round 2 of each event.
Just one surfer. If they advance, you stay alive. If they don’t, you’re out.
You only get one shot with each surfer. Pick Jackie Robinson for Bells and you don’t get him for Margs or Teahupoo.
More than the seven gees, maybe, is the ability of the Surfvival League to bring interest to those dull early rounds.
“My WSL interest has really waned over the past ten years,” says Taylor. “But the Surfival League kept me into it and kept me engaged.
“I get people hanging on every heat and emailing or DMing me after the round of 32 with their heartbreak stories. It’s so funny. And the end of a heat there’s a flood of messages…no, no, no, no…so getting that drama and feedback as well as thank you’s for guys who’ve lost early is really nice. It’s a great time.”
If you’re into a little tension, maybe some cash and a fleet of Californian-made surfboards, well, you just click here and join us.
And we’ll see you April 1.
Commented on Disqus? Log out, tap the Disqus button, and your old name and comments come back. The box is ours.
Your comments are still here. Every one of them.
Twelve years of BeachGrit comments came across from Disqus. Connect and we will show you how many are yours. We get your username, nothing else.
Connect Disqus to reveal.
I saw him posting over at stab… it must be torture for the poor cunt, that place is beige vanilla as fuck. As SC would say.
Not giving Tyler anymore of my money. I’m not convinced anyone ever wins and the website sucks.
I won in 2023, got the cash and the boards to prove it.
Photo or it didn’t happen
https://uploads.disquscdn.c… Me and a buddy with the boards he won last year. Def legit.
Nice
large EL Sal
Nothing compared to BeachGritival league–will Negs delete comments or not? Who will make it through to the next “article?” $25 also gets you historically and factually incorrect articles, too. Wait–those are free.
I don’t do fantasy sports, but this format is interesting and definitely made me consider it for a moment.
Anyway, in honour of Eid ul Fitr does anybody have any good stories about a legendary, but unknown, ripper from your local spot? Those of you who grew up around reef breaks and point breaks must have had some mental surfers to look up to. Chas? Who was tearing off tops in Oregon? DR? Who was the prospective pro surfer at wherever you grew up?
If all the anti oil dribblers stood for smthn and stopped buying it then itd be a buck a litre
Bexy, always yapping at the wrong heels:
https://fossilfuelsubsidytracker.org/
Probably more like 35
Is there a fantasy league for Iranian executions?
“Iran has executed three men in connection with nationwide protests that took place in January, including a 19-year-old wrestler whose conviction had drawn criticism from the United States” ~ https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/iran-war-us-israel-trump-03-19-26?post-id=cmmxuwnhu00003b6uulovuenj
what are the odds?
Trump bad….Iran good.
Think it’s pretty clear both are bad. Sadly, it’s a race to the bottom…the bottom of sociopathic humanity.
3200 Venezuelans and political prisoners released from Venezuelan jails is a good thing. would you agree?
Broken clocks right 2x a day, silver linings, etc. At least Leonard Peltier is free.
I haven’t read anything posted by Strayan Cunt that warrants a timeout or ban. Nothing.
Time to let the kid out of jail Negs
Your Masters over at Swellnet and their moderation, make me look like Voltaire.
You’re a plumber for christ sake. Renowned lazy cunts cept when it comes to the bill. The sooner people realise that the better.
nice deflection but c’mon- seppos squabbling over Iran or giving themselves reach arounds over local restuarants is getting tiresome.
put the colour back in.
😆
Wut? How about your fellow aussie Crayfish and his incessant white-knighting for SC? Peak fail… although it ties with whining about Trump/Iran for tedium. certainly.
Not from the start. But earlier than most.
Id still buy it at 10
And charge the client 80 yes !!!
ahem….yesssss !!
My clients are filthy rich leftys, its like an extra 2 bucks to them.
TAB is good enuff
Did you just ask to be banned? I’m an extremely obliging chap.
That pvc glue you use don’t do much for your sense of humour
I’ve never been given a timeout, a ban, nor anything worse than a down vote. Said some rude shit, even earned a Confederate Badge, but other than that, nothing.
Funny thing is I’ve probably been responsible for some here banning themselves.
IMHO, the bar should be ridiculously high to earn a timeout. I’ll keep track from now on where the bar measures, and test it accordingly.
Test
test123
the moderater don’t get paid so don’t want to work too hard on this subject.
and he’s a plumber and has a vagina
Yike!