World Stonewall League.
Our surf world is a li’l backwater, let’s be honest, only interesting to the broader culture in cursory ways. It comes as little surprise, then, that the World Surf League’s announcement that it had suspended a Championship Tour surfer after receiving “allegations of a deeply serious nature” only made proverbial waves in the space. The incident, which took place in Tahiti after the Teahupo’o contest had wrapped, is believed to be an alleged sexual assault on a 16-year-old Australian surfer, had, apparently, been known of by many in the surf industry. Al Cleland Jr., though not named by the World Surf League, was subsequently dropped by his sponsors Quiksilver, Monster and Timmy Patterson surfboards.
Three others were said to be involved, photographers Domenic Mosqueira, Ryan “Chachi” Craig and an Australian surfer.
The whispers of what went down are vile, reflecting a larger rot in professional surfing, and, two weeks on, the mainstream press is showing some interest with USA Today reporting on it yesterday.
The journalists on the story confirmed that an investigation is, indeed, under way in Tahiti. Jacques Louvier, advocate general of the court of appeals in Papeete, Tahiti, shared that “it involves a Mexican national. They also noted Cleland Jr. is the only Mexican national on the Championship Tour.
The World Surf League, though, has refused to release a name and, according to USA Today, “has not responded to repeated requests for information.”
But imagine, for one moment, that someone from the NFL, NBA, MLB had been suspended following “allegations of a deeply serious nature” yet the governing body steadfastly refused to acknowledge the already-widely reported name, release any further statement or even answer the dang phone. It would be castigated, mocked and regarded as entirely unserious.
The World Surf League, though, is apparently above all other sports, offering a product so compelling that fans will flock even while being treated with open disdain.
The stonewalling is, frankly, obscene and I truly wish nothing but the worst for the “global home of surfing.”
USA Today, anyhow, continued to report that there had been some confusion about whether Australia or Tahiti will be handling the case, it now appears that the French Polynesian Ministry of Justice is on it.
More as the story develops.
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Other very freaky allegations have been levied on social media against household name pro surfers the past few days. One allegation against an unnamed pro at a well-known location was particularly heinous. Seems nobody want to touch that stuff.
Also I’m assuming N. Klapp has since thought twice about her plans to dump a bunch of claims made by exes ‘n such of pro surfers. Smart decision if so.
The only question that still remains is if BeachGrit will scrap plans to print the secret interviews they’ve been doing with the ex-girlfiends/wives of various regulars here. I would imagine it to be a glorious affair with glowing tales of saintly, venerable, even-keeled gentleman.
As always I am happy to admit I may have been wrong about this and jumped the gun. To be honest I was just really shocked and saddened by the allegations his ex made about him. As you say we still have no evidence and its just a case of he said she said at moment so will stay quiet until charges are made and so on.
Absolutely mental if this is proven false with what he has lost and the shadow that will follow him for life, but at the moment nobody still has a clear version of what occurred that evening
Believe all honest women!!
You can’t script this.
You can no script it though
When the pendulum swings to the Democrats I vote Tusli Gabbard head of the DOJ to investigate WSL.
And flags in front yards !!
Flags can fuck off.
Exactly
🏳️🌈
Anyone have any idea why the WSL refuses to at least name the surfer?
Like, what legal reason?
Ask a qualified French lawyer, as Tahiti is under French law, but it is standard practice not to name anyone who has not been charged with a crime –
In France, the legal framework strongly protects the anonymity and dignity of suspects before they are convicted, heavily prioritizing the “presumption of innocence” (présomption d’innocence).
While there isn’t a blanket, absolute ban on ever naming an uncharged suspect, French law enforces some of the strictest media constraints in the world regarding how suspects are handled in news reports
I’m gunna block you if no mention of the book in your next post. Lift your game !!
I thought it said blow at first
Heehee.
Despite thousands of social media posts with people proclaiming with certainty the names of perps, the ages of the victim, etc there have been ZERO details regarding whatever incident took place.
To me that is rather mindboggling considering the amount of blabbermouths out there.
So maybe because whatever happened is apparently still a mystery. Rumor mill stuff with no police investigation until recently. In that case the WSL is smart to tread lightly.
Yeah, but to not name the guy they have suspended?
that just seems perverse and weird.
I can’t find a logical reason for that.
There were 3 photographers there ! Surely there’re some photos kicking around .
“Release the photo files!”
And everyone carries a phone.
Allegedly they smashed the girls boyfriends phone when they locked him up in a cupboard
He’d have a burner…release the burner files !!
Chas, taking a shot at the WSL when you aren’t naming the other Oz surfer allegedly involved seems a bit hypocritical??
I think now it’s getting traction in the MSM, the WSL will have to address it. Hopefully they dig into the Elo case too.
Petr Yan. What a beast.
Volk even moreso
What a show!!
Like I said 2 weeks ago… according to friend of Fam…AC was not involved. He is Lawyered up ready to hit back.
Again…just sayin’ we don’t know yet.
Really? That seems a stretch given what has happened with his sponsors and management. It’s one thing for nervous sponsors to dump and run but I can’t recall management dumping an any sportsman in the past for bad behaviour.
I was surprised with the T.Patterson dump and my initial thought is it lent validity to something totally horrific happening, but TBH I think most of these companies do not want the attention of social media mobs (evn companies as small as TP).
Also TBH Al Cleland Jr is a bit of a yawner so no major loss to these companies that dumped him. Hanging on until an investigation was completed would have cost them far more damage.
lawyer is taking a long time to make a public statement if that’s true. anyone worth his or her salt would have already put a counter narrative out there.
And why would a lawyer make a public statement to charges that have not been made formal?
If anything the sudden grip of silence and the liability tip-toe dance from everyone including this site would seem to suggest that reminders of consequences are being made behind the scenes.
Or not?
You know what since you won’t respond as usual I’ll spell it out.
No formal charges, yet as a result of that, someone has literally lost everything not just due to as yet unproven allegations, but also an as yet unproven character assasination from a jilted ex who was clearly waiting for her moment to throw the accused under the bus.
Hard reality check, after awhile it becomes consent, refer to the judge proceeding over the Diddy trials if you need context.
Maybe people should fucking think about the gravity of that.
If you are going to go that far there better damn well be formal charges and proof to back it up, otherwise it is nothing more than slander on a level that carries serious liability, no matter how compelling the story.
Josie Smollet made a pretty compelling story until it was ripped to shreds in a court of law.
I am not even taking sides here, just trying to hammer some points into your dumb asses.
Excellant post Jack
If proven false it makes for a hell of a defamation case.
reputational damage control
Is that even a thing nowdays with social media mobs?
Nothing you say can change their minds. Patrick Clancy is a great example.
… and I should’ve added the longer this takes it could turn into a “He said She said” with further gravitational clearance supporting the “He Said” and a possible defamation suit slapped toward his spewing Sarah Brady type XGfriend.
I think you’re right and if y’weren’t there tis only speculation.
Two things about this:
First off there is a “buck stops” in the WSL, and it’s the Ziffs. They own it and fund it. Maybe they’re shitty people and won’t, but they absolutely have the power to clean out the organization of all of the sex creeps, which for sure there are plenty.
Second, it’s disappointing that the way the surfing world appears to be splitting on this issue is surfers who are dad’s of daughter, and then everybody else. Dads of daughters are outraged and calling for pro surfing to have its #metoo pogrom against every known sleaze bag. Outside of that lot of faint agreement or silence. Shows the lack of empathy that sadly might be our biggest social problem nowadays: it doesn’t impact me so I don’t care.
I’m a father, a brother and a friend of all women and I always pay and tip my whores. SC, all class when it comes to other men’s daughters.
What it would be better if I did a runner without paying?
No, you will never cum again
Thats what I thought Mindy and why I don’t understand the comment above. I would never not pay for services received cuz I have been brought up far better than that
And why is that rude man above trying to demean you by calling you a whore when in fact you’re a legal sex worker providing a much needed service to the local community? Very strange
Have you got Mini lined up for work experience there? Or let me guess, it’s a career for other mens daughters.
Hahahaha fuck you come out with some woke nonsense. What am I responsible for everyone else’s daughters now too?
Some ladies choose to become high class escorts cuz of the money. Others choose to make a living on sites like sugar daddy.com again due to the large of money they can earn. An increasing number of young ladies are opening Only Fans accounts and making a fortune from performing sex acts and so on. Are you saying I’m responsible for all of them too?
Get off ya moral high horse ya woke, smug cunt
You can’t have it both ways S.C.
Thats what she said
Heehee
Hey Mindy why don’t ya open up an Only Fans site cuz then the self righteous morality police on here would stop calling you a whore and consider you a strong, modern lady who is bravely expressing her sexuality and needs? Plus you’d make a fucking fortune with how far you can fire a ping pong ball from down there xx
Too busy, maybe daughter will do when she 18
Some men think, care and look out for all Daughters not just their own.
Sad that you view that attitude on this topic as some woke/moral high horse bullshit.
Luckily I got your daughters back even if you don’t have my daughters.
Ahhhh thats lovely oh enlightened one and makes me feel soooo much better about the fucked up state of the world. If only every man on the planet was as perfect as you then we could live in a perfect Utopia where nothing bad ever happened and we all walked naked and enjoyed life together in complete peace and harmony. You are so perfect it makes my sing xx
I feel that this is insanely out of line.
You mentioned 2 of the 3 plus Al in the above sharticle.
When I did the same in my comment an hour ago, and asking if they’ve been seen in their hometowns, it got deleted.
How come ?
And seeing as you’ve mentioned those 3 names, are you going to name the “Australian surfer” ?
“The Editors” have the moderator word filter set to AL and any other key words attached to the case. That puts the comment into a comment needs moderation box.
The Philippines has been widely surfed for decades yet it still retains a bit of that off piste vibe. So it will be an interesting real time study in how much the WSL can fuck a place by properly exposing it to the masses.
Barra Cruz in Mexico was their last momentous exploitation and that was before social media.
In some ways I’m hoping the Philippines pumps and draws many of the flies currently hanging around Indo. Whilst global surf crowds are on an exponential trend upwards and eventually there will be no respite , in the short term there’s got to be a zero sum benefit if all the Euros and Russians think that Cloud 9:, or elsewhere is the new Uluwatu.
As it stands and with my limited knowledge, the place holds little appeal to myself. It’s definitely no Indo as far as wave quality and consistency goes ( consistently being a fundamental tenet of quality) , the culture seems a bit raggged. More a methed-out skitzo pathology and heavily armed, which is definitely not a plus. And it seems to mostly attract a more sleezy, rock-spider breed of expats. The food has little appeal.
Anyway, it’ll be interesting to watch the wheels of systemic Insta- influencer destruction kick into gear and I can imagine the Philippines becoming flavour of the month if the WSL score. Fingers crossed it pumps!
BTW….the relevant question is to ask JSC about how many tubes he’s gotten at the waves he’s “discovered”. I think you’ll find he’s likely a shore-jockey. If he was there in 96 that’s 30 years ago….can you even imagine being a mid-thirties surfer and not surfing empty tropical reef waves? I think that excludes you from referring to yourself as a surfer at all. Did he ever take a board? Does he ever on his travels? What’s the point of him?
Joints been a QS event for quite some time and the Euro kooks are well and truely getting pushed in already on the daily.
I don’t think the QS have anywhere near the impact of a CT as far as exposure goes. They probably contribute quite heavily but a pumping CT will blow the doors down.
The Euro kooks have flooded all of Asia. It’s only the depth of the shit that varies.
Doors open already. But fuck as you know it’s inconsistent.
Finding that the “newer” euro or wellness surfers have zero interest in CT events or the pro surfing in general.
Exactly, they want warm water, cafes, user friendly waves and yoga studios.
Which is what Siargao has turned into.
Same as Indo, which has zero CT events.
They colonise, gentrify and create little kook kingdoms.
Much too hot for yoga. Gin and tonic and being fanned by local with palm frond the only thing the Westerner is able to do in that damned hell hole
no air con when I was there.
Israelis love the heat though.
No electricity when I first went to Siargao – a warm Coke or San Miguel was as good as it got.
No caffes, no yoga and no scooters.
A big Catholic church and local fish market, that was it.
No one surfing at all, on the entire island.
I spent the majority of my time in the Philippines with no running water, no electricity, no infrastructure at all and no white people.
You got drinking water from a well about a mile down the road.
That’s how most rural Filipinos live, in the provinces.
So you would understand how the development on Siargao is regarded as something of a miracle by local residents and Filipinos in general, in that in just 30 some years, huge improvements in infrastructure and living standards have taken place on Siargao, thanks to the massive increase in visitors to the island and their money.
This is a level of progress and prosperity that would have been considered a wild fantasy in the early 1990’s when many people on the island left Siargao to try to find a paying job, any job – now, they are recruiting from Surigao City and Dinagat to fill positions in the visitor industry as there are not enough people on the island!
Indonesia has no Championship Tour events because of the difficultly of staging such events in Indonesia.
Taylor Swift played 6 shows in Singapore for The Eras Tour at the National Stadium.
She played ZERO shows in Indonesia on the same tour, with thousands of Indonesians paying for flights and hotels to come to Singapore instead.
The Singapore government paid Taylor NOT to play anywhere else in the ASEAN group, her shows were a Singapore exclusive but many sports bodies and entertainers skip Indonesia entirely, despite Indonesia being the fourth most populous country in the world.
Indonesian officials acknowledge that Indonesia’s complex permit processes, cumbersome licensing systems, and red tape made it difficult to compete or lock in major global acts, meaning the process is so corrupt and expensive, major players skip Indonesia entirely, as does the WSL.
Not worth all the problems, minimal profit and maximum hassles, better to invest elsewhere.
Yet we know it can be done because it has been done, multiple times.
10 events held in modern times from G-land in 95, to multiple Keramas events to the last G-land event in 2022.
Plus the 2 OP Pro boat trip events held in the Mentawai’s early 2000’s.
Plus the 3 events held at Uluwatu (OM Bali Pro) under the IPS governing body in the early 80’s.
Plus numerous Junior and QS events- ranging from Sumatra to far eastern Indonesia.
That’s quite a track record for a country where it’s too difficult to stage events.
The Oakley people were “one and done” for their Bali event at Keramas – perhaps you can interview some of the people involved in the organisation and production of that event as to why they didn’t want to come back.
They can likely give you an earful of reasons, most of them involving money.
Quiksilver supposedly lost $150k of G-Land contest equipment and supplies when their Jakarta warehouse was looted and then set on fire in the riots of 1998 – that will convince anyone a surfing event in Indonesia is not worth the hassle.
Oakley sponsored a Keramas/Canggu event for 6 consecutive years- 5 times as a world junior championship then one as a Ct event.
6 years seems a long time to sponsor an event if the corruption was so oppressive.
Perhaps you can interview some of the people involved in the organisation and production of that Oakley Championship Tour event at Keramas as to why they didn’t want to come back – and why no one else took up the opening in the calendar.
Indonesia is the greatest surfing country in the world – in a comprehensive listing of the “Fifty Best Surfing Locations in the World”, at least 20 of them would be within the boundaries of the Republic of Indonesia.
You would think EVERY sponsor would want to stage a Championship Tour event there, yet no one does.
There must be a good reason for that –
yeah, it costs them money and the govt won’t pay for it.
Unlike Phillipines, which is underwriting this CT event.
Same reason Fiji and J-Bay keep dropping off Tour.
The Western Australian government has supported and paid to stage the Margaret River Championship Tour surfing event for 28 years (since 1999).
They would not renew their contract with the ASP and now the WSL multiple times if staging a Championship Tour event were not good for business.
I didn’t make an argument against the business case for tourism bodies, although it’s highly contingent.
I made the reverse argument about why the WSL does not consistently invest in holding contests at the best locations in the world.
Because govts will not pay them.
Yet tourism seems to be doing just fine, in say, Indonesia, Fiji and other locations.
Do you know the metric by which Tourism WA measures the success of the CT investment?
Some governments regard a partnership with the WSL and the ISA as very desirable – like El Salvador.
That’s why we see so many international events in El Salvador, which is certainly very good for local businesses like transportation, accommodation and food and beverage.
Competitors like the venue also as it is rarely flat and usually produces highly contestable waves and conditions.
If Indonesia, Japan, Fiji and South Africa had like-minded officials similar those now in power in El Salvador, we would see events at those locations as well –
I don’t know the metric used by the West Australian government to evaluate if their surfing budget is producing the desired results – it is not likely to be public information, even if public money is being spent but they would not renew the contract multiple times if they were unhappy with the results.
JSC might as well just let a bot write his posts with the amount of AI he’s using.
What AI?
Have you forgotten I actually WROTE A BOOK all by myself, 60 000 words with no AI assistance whatsoever?
Looking things up BEFORE you post is how you avoid posting bullshit and false information – like so many anonymous posters here with their silly and juvenile pseudonyms, as they know they post under a false name.
I don’t, therefore I do.
You mad bro?
Post up your global ranking for fantasy. I’ll consider being mad if you’re beating me at that. Only reason people I know are playing the bracket challenge is to help pick their fantasy team.
*Barra de la Cruz
why don’t you contact someone at one of his ex-sponsors? You know… do some journalism.
Hi it’s Chas Smith from Beachgr. click…………………
Pretty soon it’ll be
“Hi it’s Chas Smith from in & out. Can I take your order?”
Be interested to know the where about of these fellows and extradition laws that may or may not be in affect..
Sex crimes are already tough because of the nature of evidence and generally happening in private spaces where consent was revoked (because he said she said). Add to that of French Protectorate and people from different countries all over the world and prosecution is difficult.
It would be nice if it happened if there are guilty parties, that’s for sure, but probably won’t.
Shocker .
So brave to proclaim your disdain and ill wishes for the global home of pro surfing, yet so timid and worried about legal repercussions that certain trigger words are now taboo and sent to the moderator approval penalty box should you try and use them.
Such a performative act, much like ballet one must learn to dance on your tippy toes while waving your arms around like a swan.
Don’t be a daft cunt. Websites 1000 times the size of BG have been taken down because of things they’ve published. e.g. Gawker taken down by Peter Thiel solely because they outed him as a homosexual.
go to twitter if you want unmoderated messages. Oh, they moderate too. I guess you’re shit out of luck.
Websites 1000 times the size of BG don’t cry about stonewalling while simultaneously covering their asses by stonewalling comments via moderation.
I was going to add some color to this comment but you aren’t worth it.