WSL Tells Competitors: ‘We Want Your Wrists!’

The WSL claimed it had 8.3 million viewers for Final’s Day this year courtesy of the new format and policy changes. A 22% increase on the season prior, where the mid-year cut and ‘superbowl playoffs’ were unveiled for the first time. 

Big figure, one that had more scrupulous surf nerds’ heads scratching. In fact, it boggled Stab EIC Brendan Buckley so much that he continued to pester the WSL about how they arrived at that number. Recently, they wrote back with the following: 

“Confirming the 8.3M figure is just views of the live broadcast (live as live), and does not include any incremental viewership that may have occurred on our live feeds after the Rip Curl WSL Finals (i.e. the youtube live feed, which has increased since being published).”

Sticking to their guns!

In a recent email sent to competitors, the WSL outlined their proposed changes for the forthcoming 2023 season. Notable changes include: 

1. A mandate for competitors to use ‘wearable technology’ that can be used to capture biometrics and send live updates on priority, wave scores, score requirements and time remaining. – subject to final review
2. Waiving the requirement for CT surfers to surf in CS events – agreed
3. Wildcards will no longer be allowed to receive rankings points (i.e., an event wildcard will no longer be able to (i) qualify for the CT through wildcards and (ii) compete for the World Title) – agreed
4. In the first heat of the WSL Finals, the 4th seeded surfer would start the heat with priority over the 5th seeded surfer – agreed
5. No wearing hats and holding bottle/cans with brands that are not sponsors of the WSL on the award podium – agreed
6. No holding boards in post-heat interviews or on the podium – agreed
7. Seeding – the WSL will implement the system that was in place in 2019 that rewards the round 1 winner – agreed

Wonderful. 

But what does it all mean?

At a glance, most of the agreed changes are straightforward solutions to problems that arose in the course of this year. For example, many CT surfers dragged their heels to surf CS events citing their time and money costliness. It also sucked for CS surfers having CT heavies in their heats squashing them in the early rounds. So good riddance to the ‘double-dipping’ requirement.

Similarly, having wildcards qualify for the tour without having to surf heats on the CS (e.g. Barron Mamiya) is slightly insulting for the 150 or so surfers having to slog out 4-man heats across seven events just to make the cutline. 

And until now, there has been precisely zero upside for qualifying in fourth place as opposed to fifth. Giving #4 priority at the beginning of the heat is just a good little carrot. 

The mandating of wearables is interesting in that it services WSL storytelling and competitor information — we get it. On Monday, we’re publishing a story breaking down data from over 750,000 sessions which were tracked via the Dawn Patrol Apple Watch app.

I am just hopeful it doesn’t normalize taking calls from Apple Watches in the surf, which would be a surf sin punishable by permanent lineup expulsion. I am also quite interested in seeing rival competitors’ heart rates drop in real time when Gabby takes off on a closeout with less than a minute remaining.

The last constraint (no hats/drinks of non-event-sponsors on the podium) suggest the WSL is donning their commercial caps (pun intended). They don’t want award ceremonies to be free marketing moments for companies who don’t contribute to event budgets. Is How Surfers Get Paid responsible for this move? Maybe. Did the value of head-ware contracts just nosedive? So long as Red Bull owns the athletes zone they’re in the clear. 

What do you think of the proposed changes? Wicked cool or mega lame?

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