Farewell Elo, We Barely Knew You*
I realise I'm very late to the punch here.
I was deep in the heart of Far North Queensland, on a second mid-morning rum in honour of my dearly departed Grandad, when the text came through that Elo had been brutally stabbed and dumped mid-event without so much as a “thanks for coming”. Surprisingly, the first impression was of pity for the man who seemed to embody every late-learner who yearns to be accepted into the surfing tribe.
For Elo, the more we knew him, the more we rejected him. Still, to be publicly executed like that on the job site in front of your entire team is a terrible humiliation for any human being. We can infer with a high degree of confidence that Elo did not see this coming. He showed up in the booth on Day One at Saquarema and chirruped away like a 7-year old hopped up on red cordial and no-one, not even the fruitiest spiv, does that if they know the axe is about to fall. Just for the record, I claim first dibs on prophesying Elo's downfall. In July 2020, six months into his tenure, I claimed he would not make Thanksgiving (4th Thursday in November).
Fundamentally, Erik Logan was an old school smoke and mirrors guy, and with every over-promised and under-delivered season and 'innovation' we liked him less. Still, he deserves to have his achievements listed in a sober fashion. Even if only for future historians.
Elo announced his retirement from the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) in October 2018, commencing Jan 2019 at the WSL in the role of President of Content, Media and Studios. It was the chief play in the WSL's pivot from sports league body to entertainment company. The pivot under Logan was a massive failure. The now shuttered media studio at Santa Monica produced a series of bland and immediately forgettable content such as Sound Waves (saved only by the surreal episode featuring Slater and his healer at the Surf Ranch), Brilliant Corners, Unboxing Things with Koa Smith, and Surf Breaks. All of them now buried in the dusty WSL archives.
The death knell to the WSL pivot to content was Ultimate Surfer, the Logan-inspired rip-off of the UFC's highly successful reality show Ultimate Fighter. The show sank without trace after appallingly low viewership numbers.
Surfing contests only run for a fraction of the year, so to keep fans entertained...sorry, 'stoked', Elo produced the above body of work
Logan then pivoted from in-house content to a partnership with UK based Box to Box productions, again seeking to emulate success from outside surfing. In this case, Box to Box's successful reality drama F1 show Drive to Survive, now in it's eighth season. The Box to Box docu-drama on surfing, Make or Break, managed two seasons on Apple TV before being shelved.
In reality, the second series of Make or Break contains the high point of Elo's 43-month reign as CEO of the WSL. I'm talking about Episode 1 which covers Kelly Slater's 2022 victory at a beesdick shy of fifty in perfect ten-foot Pipe. It was the opening stanza of the revamped Championship Tour - which was not Elo's idea, it was mooted under Sophie Goldschmidt's reign - and it could not have kicked off any better. Multiple day of days at flawless, heavy Pipe and the GOAT producing a performance for the ages to take out Seth Moniz in the Finals.
The Make or Break episode doesn't do it justice. It was everything that makes pro surfing worth watching, and for that short period of time it really felt like this revamped tour would be a glorious success and Elo may actually finally crack the uncrackable nut and get some traction in Middle America. Who could resist the sight of Kelly hanging on by a tail rail as he dropped into huge backlit caverns with palm trees swaying on the beach?
Unfortunately for Elo, things went south from that incredible high point and never returned anywhere near the benchmark set by the Slater victory.
The post-cut Championship Tour lacked drama, as those with no chance of making the Top 5 went into cruise control mode, safe in their place on next year's tour.
Trestles delivered a lacklustre day of surf for the Finals surf-off, saved by a backfield run from Steph Gilmore.
This year has been a disaster. Crappy surf has dogged the tour. Understandably, Elo invested massive amounts of narrative capital in Kelly Slater but the GOAT became increasingly uncompetitive, which led to a rule change allowing Slater to circumvent previous rules and accrue points after being granted a Season Wildcard. The process started to look increasingly nepotistic and tinpot. Rules made up on the spot to achieve what were considered desired outcomes by Elo but which sapped confidence from fans in the league's integrity.
Rightly or wrongly these festering discontentments boiled over as the Surf Ranch devolved into a nightmare of incomprehensible judging and Brazilian death threats.
Take the twelve-month COVID hiatus out of the equation and Elo's 43-month reign almost exactly matches Sophie's 30-month tenure - which may have been a condition of employment. The terse presser suggests a stronger transgression had been committed but the publicity averse billionaire ownership infers we will never know what led to Elo's sacking.
To be fair, Elo maintained the momentum of the Women's Tour which, again, was initiated by Sophie. His stewardship of the new three-tiered tour - CT, CS, and QS - did deliver a desired dividend in terms of ushering in global talent with Indonesia and Morocco qualifying Championship Tour debutants for the first time. Rio Waida has had a successful rookie season with an injury to Ramzi Boukhiam preventing the goofyfooter from making a start. The success of the three-tiered system will be determined in five years but it's unlikely to be sustained in its current format with the Challenger Series already suffering shrinkage and reverting to QS locations.
Elo also presided over the sport for its 2021 Olympic debut - a venture Fernando Aguerre began 27 years earlier - yet the often-promised flood of money into unsponsored surfers is yet to appear.
Now that he's gone, we should be wary of what we wish for. If my premise is correct and Elo is symptom and not cause, if the billionaire ownership is more desirous of the WSL being a vehicle for status, a flag-ship for demonstrating progressive corporate/enviro/social justice credentials, then the next CEO could be an even bigger kook.
We assume the next CEO will be a course correction towards the league's stated goals of 'world's best surfers in the world's best waves'. We could easily go the other way and take Elo's greenwashing and corpo-babble to a whole new level. No legitimate surfer revolt is on the horizon as an alternative.
In the meantime, the Oklahoma kid with the perma-tan and great teeth will go lick his wounds and find a new gig. In the North Queensland canefields they call them bullshit artists: they always find a new story to pitch and someone to believe it.
// STEVE SHEARER
*We knew you too well.
Comments
Ziff may accept this as a second best substitute for the ever elusive profit:
"billionaire ownership is more desirous of the WSL being a vehicle for status, a flag-ship for demonstrating progressive corporate/enviro/social justice credentials,"
But with fickle surf, persistent heckling from the core audience pointing out every misstep and the scope for ridicule being rather large, "Should I stay or should I go" must be on repeat for the poor billionaire:
Oddly, the next song on youtube autoplay was prophetically the classic:
Haha you called him a bullshit artist but still the article came off as surprisingly balanced. Never actually watched Make or Break, anyone reckon its worth watching?
Fuck make or break, I can't believe I missed unboxing things with Koa Smith!
“I realise I'm very late to the punch here. “
Well worth the wait Steve. Brilliant evisceration.
Erik gave us a parting gift, being executive producer (alongside Reese Witherspoon) for a new TV series on Prime called "Surf Girls Hawai'i".
Ironically, the trailer was released the day before Elo went MIA.
"Prime Video is about to showcase some cool chicks riding rad barrels.
Premiering July 18, Surf Girls Hawaii follows the next generation of Native Hawaiian female surfers as they compete to earn a coveted spot on the professional surfing World Tour.
It’s a coming-of-age story on the ocean, featuring the most beautiful beaches in the world during endless summer."
https://deadline.com/2023/06/surf-girls-hawaii-prime-video-trailer-premi...
Ironically, corporate america and its elected plutarchs screwed Hawaii.
"It's about heart",,,,hmmm, I think the opening shot tells us what it's really about. Photographer - "could you wear that and stand like this?"
While most people want a new wave for respect for women in surfing, has ELO still found a way to make a film about chicks in bikinis? Or is it actually empowerment? Treading a fine line. I guess there's no Surf Girls {insert cold water country]. Anyway, well done to the women for tackling those waves.
I get the feeling Ziff's been waiting for your article to get some direction on what to do next FR.
Good wrapup!
haha!
Great write up thanks....
Enjoy the Bundy ...
Ziff’s wealth is apparently increasing and he’s always got Augusta to fall back if worst comes to worst so there’s no drama for the WSL as long as Ziff stays involved.
Hopefully he actually does some serious due diligence and gets a new structure to the whole organisation with a an ex surfer running the surfing operations inc locations and formats.
Luke Egan, despite the Novocastrian drawl would be my pick.
Certainly have a business guy as CEO, an intermediary of sorts between the operating officer (Egan) and Ziff.
They need someone with personal connections to secure the locations, I don’t think Stark or JMD have those connections.
Hmmm. Hard for Luke to fit the greenwashing profile required by the WSL CEO, with he and his partners consistent efforts to concrete Coolangatta...
I know this was just before Elo took the reins, but let us never forget that the WSL also created this:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/1055760237911271/828427817536691/
It’s been nearly a week and still no further information on what finally finished ELO.
I think if it had been misconduct, it would’ve leaked by now.
I reckon it was a purely opportunistic and spineless move by the wozzle, they just wanted to do the dirty work while he was out of the office. Fits right in with their character, or lack thereof.
Interesting to listen to a few of the surf podcasts like ATS and lipped in the lead up to Brazil and even the WSL’s normally biggest cheerleaders like Vaughn Blakey and Jimmy Lees were bagging the fuck out of the tour and what it’s become.
That showed just how far ELO had lead the tour down the wrong path.
In ELO’s defence, at least he tried to do something different with the mid year cut and final 5. The cut was a total failure, but if he only could’ve got the final 5 held in proper waves, it could’ve worked.
The next guy has gotta just go back to the simple winning formula, best surfers in best waves. If that means only 6 events a year and a paywall, so be it.
I’d pay $100 for a season pass for a tour consisting of Snapper, Keramas, G land, Fiji, J bay and Chopes all day long.
Totally agree MTP. I'd pay for that no doubt. I think we all know he must have been punted though, the Wozzle would have been all over the "legacy, great contribution, part of the family" corpo speak had it been an amicable spilt. This was the presser when Backward Fins Sophie departed; "During her tenure, she led the institution of equal prize money across men's and women's surfing, negotiated a historic 10-year surfer agreement, secured the first-of-its-kind Facebook partnership and unprecedented levels of linear and digital distribution," the press release notes. "She also delivered the first-ever competitive events at Surf Ranch (the WSL's wave technology facility), relaunched the organization's ocean health advocacy program WSL PURE, significantly raised the WSL's profile globally and built a dynamic new leadership team." As I've said before, on Elo it's still crickets...
And pipeline of course! Make that a 7 event tour haha
Just have a subscription channel that has all the WSL events of every level and variety. Plug any gaps with Make or Break episodes and other WSL filler, like classic heats from previous eras. Buy the bodyboarding tour for more content, would cost about three dollars.
I was thinking about this too. It would never happen, not least because there really isn't a proper bodyboarding world tour anymore. But the events they do have are all held in epic waves. Arica, Fronton, Pipe, etc. As far as quality of waves goes this year, the boog events have shat all over the WSL.
Add the Rip Curl search event again. New location every year
Egan could make that tour happen.
Snapper/Kirra March, then Bells, Margaret’s, Keramas, Uluwatu or G Land, J Bay, Fiji, Tahiti, France, Portugal and Pipe in that order.
Nothing particularly innovative but a no lose option and a nice mix of rights and lefts.
Of the retired pro surfers Egan probably has the best business pedigree and is a fraction older than Fanning. Food for thought
Great locations sequence, I like it.
Controversial, but I think it’s time to ditch Bells, Margs and Portugal from the tour and make them Challenger series events. I’ve had a gut full of fat rights and close out beachies. Keep the tour A grade performance waves and heaving pits only.
There aren't that many A grade waves the WSL can get access to, people don't want them. I think Bells is a keeper however Margs has to surf the Box if it is on.
Have you cancelled yourself memla? Agree - keep Bells. Historically significant - the wave is genuine too, anyone might disagree, but I'd argue you'd have probably never surfed it good....and it gets good. Often.
No chance , those 3 events in particular are fully sponsored and paid for by tourism (WA, Vic and Portugal govs). Until wsl can drum up some other suckers to pay for everything we will be stuck with those events for a while yet.
Downgrade them to Challenger series events / tourism adverts and put keep the tour A grade and behind a pay wall
Bells will always be there - original and longest running comp- saying that though, we here in Torquay couldn't actually care less if it wasn't held here - unless you're a starfucker, we all hibernate and hide from the circus
Make the mid season cut off extinct ! tylerdurden totally agree with your tour of breaks.
I once had the good fortune of setting up the German territory business for a global publisher. When we appointed the search firm I was very promptly told "in Germany we appoint the CEO as a customer-facing person and the CFO/COO to run the business; they operate as a team, they are known as joint managing directors, within your English management structure context". It was a highly successful strategy too, because as we all know Germans are very precise with how they measure success.
Strategically, I think that's what the WSL needs to be; an ex-pro surfer at the front end, with a business person as their joint MD, with the hope they can make the WSL tour, which is the "core business" commercially viable. 'Coz from inception, the tour's never been commercially viable and I can't see another 50 years of smokes & mirrors measurement systems satisfying even the most complacent billionaire.
Agree 100%. WSL needs a core surfer (not necessarily ex-pro, either) to be the public face of the biz; the team beneath needs the corporate skills and contacts to make things viable.
As such, the future success (or otherwise) of the WSL doesn't necessarily rest on who might replace Elo, but who is current employed at an Exec level. Perhaps the whole leadership team needs an overhaul.
Are you and Stu offering, Ben? The SSL! Swellnet Surfing League!
I'm afraid I don't have any contacts in crypto, cosmetics or consumables, so I'd be no good in the current position.
May the whole thing collapse so someone can start over. Pretty simple. Best surfers in the best waves. As in, not where the best waves break sometimes. But the best waves. If it's shit then wait or move on.
Is there more to Elo's sacking than just CEO Performance?
It was very, VERY, sudden. Did he grope some sheila behind the contest booth ?
(not alledging anything here - just pondering)
"We can infer with a high degree of confidence that Elo did not see this coming. He showed up in the booth on Day One at Saquarema and chirruped away like a 7-year old hopped up on red cordial and no-one, not even the fruitiest spiv, does that if they know the axe is about to fall" ???
Same thoughts.
Yeah me too. Having trouble buying the knifing by the board thing, although I do concede it's quite possible.
But if he was terminated for some major discretion in Brazil or elsewhere that means the WSL hasn't let him go for performance issues, i.e they had/have no intention of changing their direction,, which is a bit of a worry.
Good point.
I didn’t see it but apparently in the GOAT pool he directed Fil to “take off your shirt” whilst wearing a tshirt with a print of Fils torso on it. Odd, queer and inappropriate behaviour from a CEO to their employee. Then there was that dictator like letter posted on the WSL website.
Surely those two acts broke the camels back. The best comps this year have been the Eddie and the “other” pipe contests.
It was the Brazilian death threats news that did it I think. Most surfers know that Brazilian surf fans on social media only have two modes - Like and Death Threat - but when this news penetrated Ziff's billionaire bubble it would have seemed pretty alarming.
Complacent billionaire or very generous billionaire, the latter I think. Either way without Ziff there is no tour and it doesn't seem anyone else wants it or can afford it in its current format.
Bring back Keiren Perrow and immediately give him a pay rise!
KP has put the contest on hold and will be surfing until he thinks it's time to be back on.
Coincidence that it happened at end of financial year?
US financial year runs Oct-Sep
Thanks for that, didn’t know
US financial year ends on Sept 30th. Could be why they want the tour to end mid Sept at Trestles
Great write up and I think you got the balance right.
If they could 'disappear' Pottz who nobody has seen or heard from in years then ELO was a no brainer.
At least they thanked Sophie.
He is still floating around down here on the golf course and in the water.
The Ultimate Kook
“Even if only for future historians”,that made me nearly spit out my coffee it’s that funny.
Worth listing some of the additional Big Screen content created in WSL studios (not listed above).
Specifically, that which was announced on 19th August 2019: "Newly-formed World Surf League Studios unveiled its debut slate of programming".
https://www.worldsurfleague.com/posts/411984/world-surf-league-studios-announces-debut-slate-of-programming
Looks like there were a few other projects that were announced, but didn't see the light of day due to the shuttering of WSL Studios:
https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/world-surf-league-studios-slate-michael-phelps-casey-neistat-1234998480/
And just to rewind... how important were the WSL Studios to Elo?
“WSL Studios is one of the principal reasons why I left OWN after ten years to come here,” he reveals. “As an active surfer myself, and a storyteller working for Oprah and others, I thought, ‘wow, what an amazing opportunity to take storytelling in the sport to a new level’.
https://smartseries.sportspromedia.com/features/world-surf-league-studios-hbo-documentary-kelly-slater-streaming-service
Wtf is/was Lawn Patrol hahaha.
A part repeat of my other post on the other thread but thought it a standout nomination worth repeating:
Eddie "The Predator" Blackwell for a new WSL CEO?
ESG greenwashing and various other newspeakeries are so yesterday - time for some futuristic mongrel in the boardroom and the surf ....
Eddie would be all for some heavy reefs, tough judging calls and colourful commentary.
Who cares about administrative skills when you've got a bottom turn like this:
Great fit for a CEO
https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/2419858/barred-thug-edward-bla...
Blackwell doesnt go "the grower" last shallow section, so he might be smart enough to last a season.
Wan't he in jail?
Yes, but he had his fins in the correct way around, so we are getting somewhere. Be patient.
I'm glad new formats have been trialed, if only so we know the old format of the best surfers on the best waves and most points for the season wins should be reserected.
A tour run by surfers targeted at surfers seeing as generally we are the only people interested in following the tour.
Hopefully if this format returns one day we will watch it for what it is, quit complaining online and be happy with the flaws that accompany it seeing the alternatives have been far worse.
The Hollywood business model does not work in surfing.
Drowning in glorified content, starving for authenticity.
Hollywood movies, at their best; have a great director, script, screenwriter, choreographer, lighting specialist, experienced camera director, operators, actors; with a years preproduction & often years production work, sound, digital & film production & post-processing, etc ( hence big $M budgets).
WSL focus on sponsors to co-fund their show, in their perceived calendar of favourable airtime; consistently doesnt coincide with good waves. WSL then have a product that tries to sell a dream, being choppy & slow, competing on the lowest shelf in a big marketplace.
Another great write up Steve. Thanks for the insights.
If ELO was booted for something suss, surely 2018's Waterman of the Year can't keep that under wraps forever, however deep his pockets are? Middle of a contest, witnesses or no witnesses, the whispers would have been loud and any journo would be itching to be the first to find and reveal what happened. Particularly as it couldn't have happened to a better CEO.
If he was booted for something suss then I suspect any type of transgression probably occurred in an 'in-house' situation, which would make sweeping it under the carpet much easier to manage.
"End on a positive, cheerful note..... Last impressions are just as important as first ones. Whether you’re being fired, getting laid off, or resigning, keeping an upbeat attitude throughout your last day of work is key..."
Reference: Readers Digest May 17, 2023 https://www.rd.com/list/things-to-do-on-your-last-day-of-work/
I wonder whether we see another plot twist. Something like the Dirk wanted him to half the men’s CT or oversee the termination of the women’s CT to sell it off to the Saudis. And Erik walked out in protest.
Erik the good guy. Likely, probably not, but life writes the best stories.
Broken record here:
Cut men’s tour to 28. (12 men trial invites. 3 man trials heats, 4 trials heat winners move to main contest.) Eliminate non-elimination rounds. Two man heats from start of contest. 35 mens’ heat total for contest. Two days of surfing to finish contest. Problem then, is running womens contest concurrently with mens.
The chief advantage of surf ranch contest is it can be advertised as 8am Saturday start, 5pm Sunday finish. This is pro surfing’s disadvantage: 10 day swell window, The casual viewer has no interest in checking to see if contest is running. Perhaps it should go back to Wide World of Sports days and just air the entire contest on set dates after it has finished
sounds more like the corporate world doing what it does worst. whenever there is a corporate board overseeing and having input driven by the great dollar people like ELO never were going to make surfing great for grass root surfers.Im wondering what the date was on his contract if it ended on a financial year calendar.
I would assume that's why he was terminated before the new financial year started.
Anyway surfing has become all about money and you can see it at every junior competition when every parent wants to live thru little Johnny and Jessy and be a pro surfer thinking there is a big pay day for competition sports ( doesn't happen sorry its like all sports ) But go back to the old formats less surfers and world class waves the average surfer cant surf.
The WSL is owned by an billionaire from NY... hardly a 'world' Surf League. Forgive my naivete but I never realised this up until reading this article. Now I know why Hawaii was shafted for the end of season... Now I know why the finals day was dreamed up... Now I know why Carissa was robbed... Now I know why the commentary is insipidly US based... Now I know why we're getting the US shoved down our throat as the home of surfing... Now I know why we are rewarding tricks more than major manoeuvres... Now I know why we don't see Pottz or Barton any more... A true World Surf League would be jointly 'owned' by the major surfing nations. I can now see that it all got turned into a money making media circus. Thanks for enlightening me. What a really sad situation. Signed, naive Garden Gnome.
nGN: it's where Penfolds got the idea for their slogan.
'America - all you need to know about the world'
I'm glad new formats have been trialed, if only so we know the old format of the best surfers on the best waves and most points for the season wins should be reserected.
A tour run by surfers targeted at surfers seeing as generally we are the only people interested in following the tour.
Hopefully if this format returns one day we will watch it for what it is, quit complaining online and be happy with the flaws that accompany it seeing the alternatives have been far worse.
Late to the punch maybe!
But slipper still sunk!
Wow the heave how for help
Quite abruptly I may add.
No to know when its coming.
That's brutal.
" just chuck him on the scrap heap".
Capitalism at its finest.
I guess Eli didn't make the cut either.
Wonder if he will keep surfing ?
I figured it was his piss poor handling of the Brazzo judging tantrums at the pool event.
He should have been handing out fines / penalties to the brazzillian princes rather than lip service , even his non surfing boss must have been able to see that behaviour as unacceptable .
* the heave hoe for elo......
"The Hoff" for WSL CEO
Yes I am waiting for my new Pic who will it be? Can't be as good as this it was a pearla.
My message to whoever takes over, Welcome to hell m*&#a f+$&a!!! Your life is about to suck! AHahahahahaa…
interesting times
huey seems to have had an aversion toward elo
….can’t help but feel he has been scapegoated for what has undoubtedly been boardroom decision making
- whoever takes over hopefully won’t attract the endless bitchin and complainin that elo copped
…seems like there is no shortage of experts around here that could run it better
Have we heard what happened to him yet?
Was he sacked?
Or did he tell them to “stick it up there arse dude , I told you we shoulda gone to G land and then finish at pipe but yas wouldnt listen. Caarrnts”
Last seen hogtied in the boot of a Mercedes in downtown Rio...
haha Someone made him an offer he couldn't refuse.
What's the chance Elo promised a raft of deliverables for his tenure to Ziff, has not produced zero that are of success, all the recent dramas and the relentless online backlash, Ziff has just called/email Elo and said "pack your bags, you're done"?
I'm wondering whether Elo told Ziff during Rio's waiting period that he actually had staged the scoring during the pools Italo vs Griff final for the purpose of creating drama.
And Ziffs response was calling Elo a dumb caaarnt cause the increased cost of security far outweighed the minimal income gained. Ending heated 'meeting' with..."fuck off Elo, your done!"
ELO's WSL sucked, but it's not like he had a chance. the core surf audience who actually care for competitive surfing is not big enough to sustain a global sporting competition. even if he got every weekend warrior and adult learner under the sun to engage with the tour it would not be enough to sustain the sport. his desperate attempts to try and win the hearts of the social media fans who might like a few WSL social posts and watch a couple of reels was completely misguided, alienated the core audience and still achieved nothing to forward the sport.
for everyone calling for a dream tour, it's never worked in the past because it just commercially doesn't work. even if you go to Cloudbreak and Indo, you have to grease a million palms and even they can still be ambushed by Huey, long waiting periods, too many surfers, too big of a commentary booth and athletes area. commercially they're stuck going to fine locations that are paid for by government tourism departments as someone has to pay for it.
when you're solution is having some kazillionaire reach deeper into his pockets to make a dream tour perfectly catered to a tiny niche audience of people who want to give nothing back, and only really watch if the timezones suit or if people they like are left in the draw, you're in a pretty hopeless spot.
Too true gm but what is the solution?
If every possible permutation is a loss making venture then what do you do?
It would seem to me that Fiji, Cloudbreak, G-Land, Keramas and Uluwatu would be overall cheaper to run because the massive land infrastructure that is required at Snapper, Bells, Margarets, J-Bay etc is not required.
But otherwise agree with your points. If Ziff withdraws funding then yes the tour will be bankrupt pretty soon
i wish i knew the solution.
hate to use the buzzwords, but they need a smaller more agile tour. the events are too big and can't fit into one swell, we waste days getting through meaningless first two rounds, go straight elimination in the mans (change 36 surfers to 32).
get rid of the massive WSL structure and let Joe and the guys commentate off TV from Santa Monica with only 1-2 "courtside commentators" at the wave itself. that way the comp site can move slightly further up and down the coast rather than being bound to "main break" and the guys sitting on the lounge in their hawaiian shirts with the wave in the background..
surely having events with less infrastructure, that run quicker and are able to match swells will be more cost effective and allow "strike missions" to Fiji / Indo etc to work, which brings up the quality of the WSL across the board (therefore inviting more sponsors etc)
Yeh
I think the yanks will never understand Ozzie’s depreciating banter which is probably why SN won’t be given a press pass anytime soon.
But at the same time , surfers arnt “entitled” to a pro tour and Elos move will probably be first move of major changes.
Possibly even the end of it.
Who knows.
Kelly to take over I reckon.
WKSL
could be epic...
It seems to me that if your business model was to sell surfers' eyeballs to advertisers it would be better to start a media company and simply buy the rights to all waveriding sports content and then sell it as some sort of amalgamated product, like a red bull channel.
On its own, I suspect the audience for competitive surfing is simply not big enough to sustain the ambitions of recent corporate overlords and never will be. Attempts to do so are doomed to alienate the core audience while still falling short. Less than a dozen events a year with no guarantee of good waves does not a media empire make.
But I think I would regularly flick on a channel that showed top-notch content on surfing, body boarding, skim boarding, big wave riding, longboarding and related doco's as well as every contest live. When a famous surf spot like Nazare or The Wedge is pumping, run a live feed. Almost NO production cost, but I'd tune in to see what might be happening.
Each sport would have to reconcile itself to the idea that it's not guaranteed to be massively successful on its own, but knowing it has a buyer for its content may allow each to focus on its core values and quality of event. Having other voices on the channel also offers a diversity of views which may help balance the alienating hype of the desperate WSL corporate machine.
Highly speculative, I have no industry knowledge, etc. etc, but interested in people's thoughts.
Was there one time they had a big wave comp at Jaws and just let the cameras roll into the afternoon, after the heats stopped? If I recall, that was epic and had not much commentary or slick edit, just Kai Lenny going mental and Albee Layer paddling an 8 footer on the inside peak which was mad.
Balance, diversity, reconciled to not being No 1?
Free access to mooched shots from public spaces of private efforts....
Communism I tell you , its godless communism!
Have to remember the financial focus isn't just on the surf league/comps. The KS wave pool tech and IP is also a big part of the business. And although it hasn't been the golden goose gamechanger they were hoping for - who knows what future plans are being laid for the wave pool side of things. When Abu Dhabi gets up and running later in the year we'll have a better idea of their business direction with the pool tech I guess.
Well then, I’ll put my hand up for the gig!
They need to cut the run time for events down. More elimination heats. 14 day waiting periods. Just to give them a chance to get optimal waves.
Safi Morroco Stop 1 late Feb 20 - Mar 7
Snapper March 14 - 28
Rip Curl Search April
Keramas May
Jbay June
Fiji July
Chopes August
South America event Sep (Rotate between Peru, Chile, Brazil etc)
Trestles USA late Sep
Europe event Oct rotate annually between maybe Thurso Scotland, Canaries, France, Spain, Portugal etc)
Honolua Bay late Nov - Early Dec
Pipe Dec 8 - 22
*Rotated events in South America & Europe can be challengers on the years it’s not in the CT schedule
*4 grand slam events where there’s extra points allocated - Chopes etc
ie 12500 for a win
(Sounds pretty tennis tour but evens the playing field)
Sorry if I'm rehashing the obvious that everyone posting in front of me has already said, but I couldn't be bothered to read through the whole thread before commenting. So, here I go.
Elo's a clown, and it shows that Ziff, as much of a billionaire as he is, doesn't understand that you can't do surfing without being a surfer. With all his faults, even Brodie Carr (who I work with on a regular basis) understood that.
Case in point, when I was President of ASP Europe in the mid-00s (sorry, not going back to check exact dates) at the ASP International meeting (around 2005, with input from ASP Europe board members), I proposed the 3-tier system (region, challenger, WCT) that Elo is claiming as an innovation 20-some years later. Fatty Al Hunt was all for it, as were most of those present, but I don't know why the Industry controlled board didn't go through with it.
I also proposed cutting the Super Series (now Challenger) events from 144 to 96 competitors at the same meeting. I was told that wasn't an option because the regions would lose money. Until I pointed out that if we increased entry fees for the six Super Series events per year from $200 to $250, each region would make more money with fewer competitors. Then everyone was OK with the change, especially the rep from Hawai'i, who was the most against the change at the time.
All that to say, until whoever is in charge pulls their head out and listens to the hardcore surfers that actually care and comment on these threads (putting someone like Hippy Mike, Freeride, or Lewis Samuels in charge) with an actual Dream Tour (even if it's only 4-6 events) with a final at Pipe, Tavarua, or on a Ments boat trip, then Pro Surfing will continue to be mediocre, despite its potential. And, I don't know why but Freeride didn't mention Lost Tapes (don't know if Elo was involved or not) in the article, which was the best surfing content on the net definitely in the last five years (and as Kelly will tell you himself, I'm far from his biggest fan). Rant over! Keep rockin', Steve!
Damn, how could I forget Lost Tapes, I reference it so much elsewhere.
Thanks Dave!
Steve, any closer to finding out the real reason behind his departure?
I've talked to multiple people who contract for the WSL, everyone is trying to find out but none of them know anything. They are keeping it very in house. Something major went down.
We're coming up to the two month mark since Elo was ousted from the WSL, and there's been zero noise from Santa Monica since.
Not a whisper on why he was chopped. This is very impressive.
And no news about his successor either, which is kinda strange at first glance - except for the fact that it was almost seven months between Paul Speaker stepping down as CEO (as planned) and Sophie Goldschmidt coming on board.
Are they waiting for the Finals to make an announcement?
Finals done and dusted.
Two more announcements to come from the WSL this year: the 2024 Calendar, and the new CEO.
Alan Joyce and all pools. ;)
It's been almost five and a half months since Erik departed, and the WSL has yet to replace its CEO.
I thought they might have been leaving it until after the Finals - back in September - to allow the dust to settle before making an announcement. Alas, no.
It's now a little under two months until the first WCT event for 2024 kicks off.
I wonder what the new year will bring.
Elongated process.
That's gold Craig
It's crazy how such a high profile fuckwit like Elo has managed to just drop off the radar completely, not to mention the lengths the WSL go to avoid the topic altogether.
Privileged and confidential
There are certain nuances in the offered contract that I and my team are not overly comfortable with before signing, namely the whiteness grade of teeth and spray tan skin colour and not to mention those slip on shoes when I am a died in the wool double plugga type of guy…… even if my bung toe causes most kids to stare and point at it like I am some sort of half reptile… I will add that it has helped me grab the rail in those precarious heaving front side barrels… we are close to a deal. A deal that means “tail blow” is no longer allowed as a descriptive of a sub par top turn… a deal that says any American commentator has their adenoids removed… a deal that says pools are pools .. contest the Olympic freestyle 100m in them not surfing… except if you need to drill holes in an un exploited remote unknown reef in the middle of the South Pacific … I’m open for the discussion with Manoa on that one if he calls me in on a couple
Anyhow.. looking forward to representing and satisfying every single surfer out there
Ps…. First thing …JMD gone