Now that the wave pool is over, I want to share some thoughts.
As you may recall, I recently informed you of a little movement going on in our corner of the play room – a boycott of the WSL’s Abu Dhabi wave pool party event. I just wanted to ask if those same boycotters are also blacklisting FireWire surfboards and HaydenShapes for having boards built over in Thailand? They must have all stopped wearing wetsuits too!
See, if you want to boycott the WSL because, well, they suck – be my guest! I actually encourage you too! I did the same thing a couple of years ago. What was the result, you ask? Well, I won’t take full credit, but Erik Logan got fired.
So, yes please do boycott the WSL because they suck. What you should not do is boycott the WSL and try to blame it on “blood money” and the “slave pool”. Really? We’re going to bring some kind of Human Rights activism to this? So tell me, are you still wearing neoprene made wetsuits from China? Or you must have cleared out your house of any Nike products?
You pretending to give a fuck about Human Rights, and using that as your excuse to boycott the WSL is a lot like the WSL showing up to World Class Waves, exploiting the location, the locals, and their culture, only to plant a few trees on the way out and act as if they did that part of the world a big favor. It’s laughable. As is that stupid boycott.
I recently had to take my older son to a little play date with a classmate of his. Having never met the parents of the other kid, this first interaction was filled with a lot of small talk. A painful sacrifice. Anyway, amidst this conversation, my line of work was revealed. This other parent was pretty clueless when it came to any topics related to surfing, but the one thing she did say was “Aren’t surfboards really bad for the environment? It’s funny that surfers always like to make a big fuss about the ecosystem.”
It is funny; She was completely correct. And I think this entire ‘community’ of reddit surfers is absolutely hilarious. It’s as if you could round up all of the uneducated, shit talking parking lot trolls who don’t actually surf, and put them in a playpen. Each one acknowledging each other’s (uncharismatic) wit in a never ending circle jerk.
I’m sure that it has to do with anonymity. You can say whatever kind of off-hand bullshit you’d like with no repercussions. So if I decide to boycott the WSL at the next event in Portugal, because well, Portugal feeds the event staff only sardines for a week straight, that could be enough to fire up a whole movement on Reddit if I decided to post it there.
At the end of the day I guess all I can say is to think for yourself. Form your own matters of opinion. Just because some idiot put a logo on a shirt and you think it’s funny, you should send them money and support it. Was that shirt made in America? Was it D2G printed here? Or how do I know those shirts weren’t made with “Slave Labor”? Do not be a hypocrite. Educate yourself. Look at things through a different perspective. And stop bringing foolishness like that into surfing.
-hwilsin
-Drew Stanfield