It’s been a big week in Southern California. Lots of tantrums, people losing their shit online, professional surfers whining like babies and half of Brazil calling for Richie Porta’s head. Aside from the beef with the judges, Jordy Smith wound up victorious and the surfing community lost one of their own.
I need not bore you with the timeline of the judging drama – it’s been covered at length on every surf media site, comment feed and Instagram accounts around the world. Hell, the hashtag #corruptwsljudges started trending on social media.
It ramped up when Strider Wasilewski was criticised for back ducking from his comments about Medina’s final score he saw – and called – live from the channel. Raspberry believed Gabby deserved the score. But later rolled out a typically vanilla sounding summation of the heat on Instagram, siding with the judges who gave the local boy the nod. Vitriol spewed from anonymous keyboard warriors and poo emojis ruled.
What the fans really wanted was an explanation. So why, oh, why, didn’t the WSL explain the scoring of the heat? Presumably, they figured it would be savvier to keep it quiet, even while all the rumour-mongering and conspiracy theories started flying around that they were trying manufacture a world title for John John. Maybe they could script this?
With the judging panel on mute the WSL wheeled out their most intelligent surfer on tour. Who better to put things into perspective after Julian Wilson and Matt Wilko had sullied the reputation of their employer than Surfers’ Rep, Adrian ‘Ace’ Buchan?
“We’re not always going to agree with all the scores the judges give but there’s five guys up there and I think there’s a lot of healthy respect between the surfers and the judges,” said the current world number seven. “I think so long as there’s healthy debate it’s good for the sport and it shows the surfers care and the fans care.”
Ace dismissed the populist opinion that revealed itself on comment feeds that sport’s governing body would influence results. “It’s disappointing sometimes to see when that [debate] disintegrates into talk of conspiracy and stuff like that because for me that’s so far from the truth and off the mark…it’s a little bit high school and a bit ridiculous,” said Ace. “I think that once it all settles down it’s going to be really exciting for the sport in Europe.”
WSL’s history (post ZoSea acquisition) has been one of unrelenting scrutiny, some of it completely warranted (the failed Red Bull naming rights deal, hiding viewership numbers, Paul Speaker’s lack of engagement with core surf media) and some it off the wall (conspiracy theories about manufacturing world titles for Gabe and now John).
However it continues to endure despite the public humiliations of its shortcomings. Maybe the judging criteria needs a review, maybe it’s fine. But the takeaway from Trestles is that the WSL definitely needs a judging spokesperson – especially when fans are left scratching their heads trying to make sense of the controversial calls.
