There goes the neighborhood.
First we have Natural Selection, then the Wave Pool Surf Tour, and now this; Surfing Super League.
If you’d like to try and decipher exactly what’s going on with this new league, the format, and what to expect from the first season – have a look here for yourself. I started to type up a description of everything I could gather from the site, but to be honest, there’s a lot happening. It’s being dubbed as ‘Australia’s First Professional Surfing League’. Basically, it’s a team format surfing series that sounds very similar to a Boardriders event. Tag team, timed contests with Power (Whammy) Surfers. Not a Super original idea (see what I did there?).
The one thing I will say might be cool is that the ‘players’ or surfers in this League are set to get paid. There are 8 teams representing different regions along the East Coast of Australia. Each team will carry 6 surfers (4 men and 2 women), and each surfer is said to make an equal $89K over an 8 week season. I’m all about surfers getting more money in their bank accounts.
Other than that, the entire website looks like a sales pitch to me.
“Engineered for live television”
“Built for broadcast, not built for waiting”
“It’s official. Surfing has a home on live tv”
“Zero dead air”
I know Australia is a bit of a different culture, and I really appreciate their passion and history for surfing, so maybe I am misunderstanding this. Maybe this is going to do really well over there. Maybe even globally. But it just feels like they are reaching for partnerships and brand deals, still trying to get this thing rolling. It just has the looks of a work in progress, though I could be completely mistaken. It does say that ‘it’s official’ and it’ll be on TV, with the official broadcast partner being announced soon. Could be something huge. Did someone say Bonsoy?
90 minute ‘games’ – each with two 40 minute halves. 10 minute half time.
4 teams in each ‘game’.
Highest Team Total wins.
15 games in the season, with 4 teams qualifying for a Grand Final.
I believe that is the basics of it. The ‘players’ are separated into tiers for some reason (?), and there is supposed to be a draft of sorts to find out which team and region they will surf for. Owen Wright is the only officially confirmed surfer in the league for now, but the others that are listed on the site are Sophie McCulloch, Jacob Wilcox and Soli Bailey. I’ve also seen social media posts about Bede Durbidge, Laura Enever, Sheldon Simkus, and India Robinson. Under the ‘elite’ tier of surfers it says ‘the country’s best WSL/ISA-ranked competitors’, so I’ll be interested to know who else is going to be in this League, and how the WSL is going to feel about it.
There have also been newer developments being posted via their Instagram, like a pathway to the league for Juniors, as well as a high school feeder system to each professional team/club. I can’t knock that.
Oh yeah, did I mention this thing isn’t set to jump until 2028? That’s the scheduled start date. So I’m not 100% sure, but I am pretty dang sure that this thing is still a work in progress. No word on scoring criteria, judging panel, priority, rules, that kind of stuff is all missing – the fine print. The content and the media and the marketing and the promotion, none of that is running short. Everyone in the surfing world is talking about this thing. I’ll check it out. Like I said, I always appreciate the passion those Australians have for surfing. Every boardriders event I hear about over there looks like a hoot.
You see, I do hope this thing goes well. You know me; I love competitive surfing. The more opportunities, the better. But I do have personal experience with a failed surf league, so I do have a right to be a little gunshy. I don’t know if we’ve ever talked about that. Not that it was my league that I created and started or anything, but I was a part of a few events of the US Pro Tour run by Jerry Lehman, which just recently cancelled its last ever scheduled event. Done and dusted. That’s a story for another time.
You let me know what you think though. I can understand and imagine that some people will be not only just uninterested, but maybe even a little frustrated with a lot of these new startup surf leagues and tours. Some people hate the jersey. What do you say?
Cheers,
hwilsin
Drew Stanfield