Joel Tudor Condemns WSL Over Impure Sponsor

The Corona J-Bay Open was the worst-ever professional surf comp, morality-wise. 

That is since the Smirnoff Pro-Am. Or the Bud Surf Tour. Or the Foster’s ASP Tour. 

All of this according to Joel Tudor, who condemns the surf industry’s history of partnering with a “pure garbage, scum of the earth” alcohol industry. One that kills thousands of people per year, and often markets directly to kids. 

The other day Joel shared his thoughts on Instagram. We found them too interesting to ignore.

“In honor of the alcohol backed j-bay open @wsl & @corona – a partnership catered to the youthful demographic of 14-25 ….huge providers of trash …zero health benefits and probably the biggest gateway drug on earth BOOZE!! Yet y’all refuse to support the weed industry…a industry that benefits the earth …can remove us from fossil fuels & plastic …deforestation….benefits health ….also replenishes ruined top soil from the toxins used by farming ….yet we are the bad guys 🙂 be aware of the Crazy hypocrisy that surrounds us & industry- GO GREEN 2017!!! ….ps …you can also make surfboards from hemp based materials!”

Some bold claims, but he’s probably not wrong. We hit up Joel to hear more about surfing’s apparent conflict of interest.

Stab: Hey Joel, we saw your post the other day and were hoping we could pick your brain about the Corona J-Bay Open.
Joel Tudor: You mean the event right on the heels of the Drug Aware Pro? [laughs] I love the hypocrisy dude, it fucking blows my mind.

What’s your beef with alcohol exactly?
I started doing the ASP at 15, and I watched all the bad stuff unfolding right in front of me. I saw the negative effects of alcohol and hard drugs and partying from such an early age, that I was able to deter myself from that stuff and choose my own course. Yeah, I smoke pot — big deal. Now I’m out eating ice cream while my friends are snorting cocaine and beating people up. And the gateway to that was alcohol.

So you’ve found pot to be a more sustainable course of… inebriation.
Man, it’s not even about getting high. That’s only one part of it. Marijuana has clinically proven health benefits. It has the craziest environmental properties – it can clean up everything, it can stop deforestation, you can make gas from it, surfboards even.  I learned early on, which substances keep you out of the water and which ones don’t.

Like alcohol…
Yup. The devil’s poison. Biggest gateway drug on the planet. Kills tons of people every year. This is what the WSL, and the surfing industry as a whole, have been promoting since forever. Every clip you watch on Stab or Surfer is brought to you by Corona AU. Every surf trip on a boat, guys are chugging beers, you know what I mean? And who do you think they’re marketing to? Kids! Are you fucking kidding me? You’re handing it to them! It’s about time that bullshit switches, and I’m glad I’m the one to say it.

Do you ever drink?
I’ll have a Margarita at a Mexican restaurant, or I’ll have a couple whiskeys on my birthday, but I’ve never been a beer drinker, ever. Never ever ever. I mean, like any kid I’ve gotten super drunk and passed out, but that’s all part of life. But by mainly avoiding alcohol, I still have the same waist size as in high school. My health is fucking good. I see a lot of people my age that are NOT in the same boat, and the common denominator is booze.

So essentially you want the surfing industry, and the WSL in particular, to support weed in lieu of alcohol?
In the next ten years in the U.S. all marijuana is gonna be decriminalized or legal. Anybody who doesn’t see that is out of their mind. As surfers, we should be the first ones — considering the amount of influence we have, how everyone want to be like us — to embrace it. Being involved with Weedmaps, and seeing people in the industry just shut their doors on us – it’s hilarious. I step back and I’m like… are you serious? What are you guys not getting?

Breaking social stigmas is no easy task.
Yeah, it’s like we’re still living in the ‘50s mentality of reefer madness, where our parents think we’re doing heroin, and that’s not the case. The way I see it, getting high isn’t anything compared to getting drunk. What’s the lesser of two evils? Which one is better for our planet, which one is a better look for us as surfers? Kind of a no-branier, know what I mean? And as far as surfers, the WSL, or anyone else in the surf industry taking alcohol money — it’s fucking gross. 

When questioned on the topic, the WSL refused to comment.