What happened at the Quiksilver Ceremonial, Punta De Lobos?

Words by Elliot Struck

The Quiksilver Ceremonial Big Wave Tour event was just run at Punta De Lobos in Chile. Current Big Wave Champ Makua Rothman won it. Grant ’Twiggy’ Baker was in the final too, and Chileans Ramon Navarro and Cristian Merello, as well as American Nic Lamb and Australian Mark Mathews. The wave is a big, cold left that breaks in front of intimidating rocks. Makua pulled into a huge barrel in front of those rocks. But, you didn’t see any of that go down in real time, because there was no WSL webcast.

There were small bites of low-def action dealt out over Facebook as the day went on. But, no branded live feed with alternate camera angles, no desk of aloha shirts breaking down the rides, and certainly no Pete Mel with waterproof microphone (perhaps most saddening).

Obviously, Big Wave Tour events are even more at the mercy of weather conditions and swell than regular World Tour Events, with the former’s version of ‘contestable’ meaning at least another 20 feet than the Dream Tour’s. The locations are often less accommodating and given the huge waiting periods (three and a half months), setting up a temporary contest infrastructure (with proper broadcasting capabilities) presents its problems. But still they run, because the god here, is big waves.

Questions arise when there’s video updates landing intermittently, but no live-stream. How come if the event’s being filmed, it isn’t being broadcast in real time? There’s speculation that all usual media coverage was in place at Punta De Lobos, but, clearly, it didn’t live online. This is problem number one currently echoing around the world’s surfing media websites. Here’s the WSL’s reasoning:

“The goal of the 2015/2016 WSL Big Wave Tour is to run as many events as possible in the biggest waves possible,” the WSL’s Dave Prodan tells Stab. “Prior to this season, organizers looked at the schedule and decided that to accomplish this, they would commit to live webcasting Puerto Escondido and Jaws and providing comprehensive video and photo highlights for Punta Galea, Todos Santos, Pico Alto, Lincoln City and Punta de Lobos. Primary reason being logistical – getting the live broadcast equipment in early enough for most locations presents a liability to actually greenlighting events. When faced with the choice of broadcasting fewer events or running as many events as possible, the Commissioner’s Office voted for the latter.”

Makua, en route to another win. Photo: WSL/@PabloJimenez photo

Again, the god here is big waves. But. If the WSL BWT doesn’t make providing a better live experience for all BWT events a priority, then it’s hard to foresee a happy (or long) future. This is a sentiment everyone can agree on, and one that led to a local Chilean media house called Via De Escape TV setting up their own webcast. Which is where we find surf media problem number two. Allegedly, the WSL shut them down via local authorities.

The following message (translated) comes from VDE TV: “We regret to inform that the WSL has decided to ban the continuation of our transmission from the ceremonial. We made a tremendous effort to bring to you this tremendous event, however, by decision of the organization we need to stop. We will attempt to reverse this situation, but it’s very difficult … we invite you to stay tuned to for our news.”

Not live broadcasting your big event isn’t a clever biz model. But let’s keep it real: A worse one is letting a small local media outlet do it without your approval, with no pre-communication, zero quality control, and that local media house selling ads on the feed of your event… to companies that compete with sponsors of your event (without which, there’d be no event).

But, again, when the WSL fails to provide a channel for surf fans to tune in, their job is incomplete.

“The remote nature of the venue and the passion with which the big wave community pursues, follows and supports the athletes were high learning points for the Punta de Lobos event,” continues Dave Prodan. “The WSL is constantly evolving and looking to deliver the best surfing on the planet to the most people possible. A huge congratulations to Makuakai Rothman on another BWT win. It’s a fitting validation for his world title and indicative of his prowess in all types of big wave conditions.”

Yes, biggest of props to Makua. But we want our webcast, and we want it now.

Ramon Navarro, godfather of Chilean big wave surfing. Photo: WSL/@PabloJimenez photo