The WSL’s Got A New Logo

Here’s a little-late-to-the-party announcement (as the change happened before last weekend):

The World Surf League has a new logo.

It’s black and white. It’s minimal. It’s pretty sleek.

An inside source at the WSL’s Santa Monica HQ, tells us, “We slightly evolved the previous logo to simplify it and hopefully have it associated with some of the great things we’ve been doing as well as where we want to take the company. We’re happy with the logo, it’s important but it’s only as important as what it represents substantively. You like?”

We like.

And we should’ve seen this coming when designer David Carson pumped his Instagram with World Surf League logos that never had a prayer. Flip through his gallery below and ask yourself: should the WSL have gone abstract with Mr. Carson, or left it with their internal creative team who worked closely with Los Angeles design co., Group Effort (known for their work with Slater Designs, the Surf Ranch, and Outerknown)?

(Compare and contrast!)

Is the WSL on a mission toward their most revolutionary rebranding since the Association of Surfing Professionals? Maybe!

2019 is upon us, and our only source of competitive professional surfing action is making changes, and we’re backing most of them. They’ve got a new commish – Dana Point’s most indefatigable spirit, Patty O! – with a new, albeit slightly-long title (SVP, Tours and Head of Competition).

Big Wave Tour commissioner, Mike “Snips” Parsons is rumored to be leaving his role at the end of the 2018/2019 season, opening the door for, presumably, a new Tours and Head of Competition for the BWT.

They’ve brought on Devon Howard, former Editor of Longboarder Magazine and cross-stepping extraordinaire whose surfing graced such alt-left classics as Sprout, The Seedling, One California Day and more as the Longboard Tour commish – a job that our Editor in Chief, Sir Ashton Goggans, was in contention for, funnily enough.

And now, after only three years under the WSL moniker, they’ve changed their logo, further establishing the World Surf League’s existence from the dawn of organized competitive surfing in 1976 – the birth of the International Professional Surfers World Circuit (IPS). The IPS changed to the ASP in 1983. In 2013 ZoSea media acquired the ASP, two years later in 2015, the Association rebranded as the WSL. The rest is history.

So in the last year of Kelly Slater, will we see a change in competitive surfing geared towards the future? The Olympics? Progression? The coastal core? The inland empire? 

Whatever the future, we’re excited.