Is Competitive Surfing’s Qualification System Broken?

To be dramatic, here’s a quote from Thomas Paine’s seminal pamphlet Common Sense:

“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom,” Paine writes. “But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.”

October’s Comment of the Month is a philosophical statement as much as its an incisive critique of the WSL’s Challenger Series program.

To be fair, this is obviously a subjective matter. Some surfers would prefer D. Silva’s prolific backside hook over Mateus’s air onslaught. And no shade to Deivid, from all sources he’s a lovely guy.

But, if we’re speaking candidly, the vast majority of surfers would choose to watch Mateus or Al Cleland at J-Bay in July. Also, Deivid has fallen off tour and requalified three times now, proving his surfing is more geared to the CS than the CT.

Here’s another comment in this same vein from InTheChannelWithStrider, that was considered for this month’s COTM win as well:

Is the Challenger’s insistence on holding competitions in Saquarema-esque surf funneling merely the best “competitors” and not the kind of surfers most surf fans would rather see? Is there a difference between the “best competitors” and the “best surfers”?

We think so. But does everyone? How long until time converts us all and we demand more entertaining surfers on Tour (by means of not watching the comps)?

4%, please send us an email at [email protected] with screenshot proof of your Disqus account — you just won a free year of Stab Premium and you will be entered in the running for the mega-prize for “Comment of the Year” at then end of, you guessed it, the year.

If you remember from this article, 4% will now be one of 12 commenters (one for each month) that will be a candidate for COTY. He’ll be sparring against 11 other Thomas Paines for top honors.

Happy philosophizing.