What the hell happened at Bells? Why did it just blow over like a dandelion? Was this all plotted by the Whistle to make headlines and draw intrigue into Make Or Break season 2? Shout out to my friend J. Patrick Stublen for introducing me to this theory..
Here’s a collection of thoughts, featuring some numbers, on what was by far one of the weirdest, most curious situations in professional surfing since the ASP became the WSL.
WHAT HAPPENED FIRST
On the day of the Elimination round during the Bells contest, the WPS (World Professional Surfers) had a meeting discussing the mid-year cut. They held a vote, and by majority decision (29 of 51) decided to ask the Wizzle to get rid of the planned cut. They drafted up a petition of sorts, signed it, and sent it off to Erik Logan and co. In sum, the surfers wanted the cut “disregarded” due to:
- Reduced income from
- New format impacting sponsorships – less chance of staying on tour.
- The prize money on the Challenger Series is less than what was expected when originally agreeing on the cut. 3.
- They include a sentence mentioning the “large costs incurred, relative to individual income” that surfers deal with.
- Event congestion
- They were told the CS and CT schedule would have no conflict.
- Competing in back-to-back CT & CS events can hinder preparation and performance in the CT events.
- Injuries
- Some surfers who were injured during or before Pipe won’t have a chance to surf in any events before being booted.
- Many surfers are surfing injured to requalify, even with concussions.
- Mental health is the forefront concern.
- It is unhealthy to compete in too many events in a short period. Surfers are mentally exhausted.
- They have previously conformed to the Wizzle’s wishes, while getting no favors in return.
- Tried to help the system – proposed ideas to save money and run events quicker by: overlapping heats, changing the format to what it is now (??), and “surfing rounds 1 & 2 in poor conditions at most events so that the event can finish sooner, or on the day the WSL decides”.
- Sacrificed prize money twice in the past 5 years.
- Accepted the Finals concept to support the League.
- Closing with Mental Health and Financial concerns.
- Not sustainable moving forward.
THOUGHTS
If I had to bet, I’d throw the house down that Conner Coffin wrote a large majority of this. Seems so fitting right? The guy who complained about the conditions after his loss, the surfers rep, and the many holes in this piece. Had to be him. Anyways, here are my thoughts.
First and foremost, I recently read two very interesting posts from a certain surf media outlet in which I am going to steal some numbers from. This does not come close to wrapping up these write-ups, so I will tag them here and here if you’d like to read them in full, though the first is for paid viewers only. Now I’ll address this thing one point at a time.
- Reduced Income
- Yes, it makes sense that a sponsors’ initiative to give a surfer money is reduced due to the looming idea of not being on the CT for the back half. With that being said, Noa Deane (freesurfer) has a $300K per year deal with Volcom through 2023. Or we can talk about JOB. Or Ben Gravy. The point being, the WSL is not your brand, nor your business. The surfers are merely employees.
- Prize money on Challenger Series is less than expected. This point, I can back the surfers. The next number I will bring to light is this rumored $55K it costs, just this year to compete in all CS events. This includes travel & lodging, entry fees, the whole ordeal. So we have 8 challenger series contests. To break even, just based on results, you would need to make 3 finals (at least 2nd place) and 5 semi’s (equal 3rd) to get to $55k. That’s pretty tough. What I will mention is that CT surfers – the very ones who signed this petition and are complaining about prize money – have already surfed in 5 CT events, which include a much more handsome sum of prize money. For example, after the cut, the lowest paid surfer from the CT was Ryan Callinan at about $40K on the year in prize money. Now, of course some spending has happened to compete in those CT events. Nonetheless, the top tier surfers should not be complaining about prize money when they are about to go face off against a bunch of hungry guys who are likely in a much more desperate position than them.
- Read above ^ about relative costs incurred. Another side note though, some surfers are allocated a travel budget in their sponsor deals, so I would definitely agree that the costs are relative.
- Event Congestion
- First of all I would like to say that this was a giant pussy move by the surfers. Next, I will say that it makes absolutely no sense. The original requirement by the Wozzle was that all CT surfers had to enter into 2 Challenger Series events. 2 out of 8. It is really 2 of 7 because Haleiwa supposedly doesn’t count due to a reduced field. May I now acknowledge that the Finals at Lowers will be held in September. There are 3 CS contests that will be taking place between the end of the Finals at Lowers, and the start of Haleiwa, including: Ericeira, Hossegor & Saquarema. Surfers literally didn’t have to surf an event until the whole CT year was over, if they chose to do so.
- Since then, the WSL has even dropped the mandatory 2 CS showings down to 1 for the softies. At least they won 1 battle.
- Injuries
- To be honest, I’m not exactly sure how to speak to this. These are professional athletes. Of course injuries happen across all sports. There is really no avoiding that. There are freak accidents and injuries all the time. Best thing the surfers can do is take preventative measures whenever possible. The injuries are not the Whistle’s fault. I do think that surfers who were unable to surf in any events due to injury should be able to get a wild card the FOLLOWING season. I don’t believe they should get the wild card into the back half of the year. Why should an injured surfer get to skip over the tough to surf waves – Bells, Sunset, Margies – and get to surf the premier waves of G-Land, J-Bay & Chopes? (UNLESS you won a World Title or two, ie. Gabby).
- Again, tough task to try and go back and forth over injuries. But, at the end of the day, surfing with any part of your body (including mental) not being at 100% comes down to a decision one has to make themselves. Regardless of where you’re at on the rankings, these things happen, and I will point directly at Kolohe during Margs (pulling out due to sickness) for a prime example.
- Okay here’s where we get to some fucking comedy. Not really, because mental health is nothing to joke about, but this particular point isn’t directed there. What IS actually funny is the petition literally saying “Most of them are mentally exhausted and mental health has always been our major concern.” This is listed at about the midway point through the 4th paragraph of the petition. And, as you can see above, was not addressed until just about every other concern they had was already on the table. Yet this, THIS is your major concern. I’m not sure if this is just a terrible composition, or what the hell is going on, but I had a nice chuckle.
- Back to the ole Event Congestion ploy. At this point in the petition, it seems the surfers are TIRED.
- Conforming
- Another laugher here. Straight from the horse’s mouth, they agreed to surf the early rounds in worse condition. However regretful, a deal is a deal. For Coffin (surfers rep) to be all frustrated on camera about losing in not ideal conditions was, in my eyes, a bit lowly. I am also of strong opinion that overlapping heats are better for all involved, specifically the spectator.
- These last few points are a bit confusing for myself. The surfers felt strong enough to include in this petition that they sacrificed prize money in 2018 by keeping the losers round, and also last year to avoid the cut. I really won’t comment on this much because I would need to do some homework on the financial side of the whole Whistle. Which, to date, I have not taken part in.
- Accepting the WSL finals must have been so crushing for some of these guys. Of course once on tour, everyone thinks they have a shot to give it a run and win a world title. However, now that we are a year in, I think a lot of people are realizing how few title threats there truly are. How many years will we see Gabby & Filipe on the final day, against whoever else scrapes their way up through the year?
- Mental Health
- “The mid-year cut has made being a CT surfer much harder from a mental health and financial standpoint and we do not see it as a sustainable path forward.” My response to this would be, Good Luck with your day job.
All in all, my reaction to this fucking sorry piece of work should be clear enough through those paragraphs above. And if you didn’t pick up on my pique, I think the surfers showed tremendous weakness with this. Maybe if some of them completely boycotted and didn’t show up to Margarets, a little action behind the talk. But, no. Looking back in a few years, I would be hard pressed to imagine that surfers will be proud of this petition they sent in. It reads as a very futile attempt to overtake the Alpha position of the relationship with those who pay them. Yet! The Wizzle of course had to reply. And E-Lo, I am coming for your feeble response next. Stay tuned (soon.)
-hwilsin