Rumor: Quiksilver To Pull Out Of Snapper Event

Yesterday, we ripped off a wonderful story from Stu Nettle of Swellnet, who’d done all the necessary research to prove that G-Land was, more or less officially, back on the Championship Tour in 2020. 

Thanks Stu!

Today, Stab learned that Quiksilver might be pulling its sponsorship from the 2020 Snapper event and allocating those funds toward G-Land.

Quiksilver has sponsored the Snapper event for nearly 20 years, so one might be wondering, legacy-wise, why would they want to abandon such a storied event? The first of the year, etc. 

When the WSL’s 2019 season was first revealed, Quiksilver was not listed as the Snapper event sponsor. The mountain and wave were ultimately convinced to renew their subscription, however, they did pull their Roxy endorsement from the women’s side of the draw, which got picked up by Boost Mobile.

Italo, waaaaay behind the rock.

Then, in early April 2019, we had the Snapper event that wasn’t. You know, the one that was actually held at the adjacent-but-in-another-state break of Duranbah? 

Rumor has it, that due to the slight migration Quik lost a good amount of $$$ in merch sales (the event store was set up at Snapper, meaning D-bah spectators never came into contact with it) that they badgered the WSL to bring the comp back to the Queensland side of the border. This nearly worked, until a giant hole behind the rock left the WSL unable to run any heats there, which in turn forced the surfers to miss the best day of the event window at Dbah. 

Sour grapes spilled all over the Superbank and, presumably, Quiksilver promised never to return.

We’ve recently been informed that Quik might not be walking away from the table, but rather pushing their chips from red to black. Remember the G-Land comp that we (AKA Stu) reported on yesterday? Apparently, Quik is backing it… again.

Scenes from 1995.

If true, this is an interesting move for Quik from a marketing and sales perspective. If you consider the notion that their lack of sales on the Gold Coast contributed to their decision to leave, then moving the event to G-Land, where there will likely be no fans whatsoever to purchase their goods, is less than a lateral move. 

However, in a time when surfing so desperately needs to increase its soul over sales, it would be an impactful brand move to sponsor the G-Land event, which might, in time, reinvigorate sales in a round-about way. 

We, for one, hope it’s true. 

(Feel free to copy/paste, Stu! Equity etc.)