Twenty-Nine CT Surfers Sign Petition Asking WSL To Ditch The Mid-Year Cut And Discuss Boycotting The WA Event

The WSL has a WhatsApp group chat with all the Championship Tour surfers and key personnel. They use it to communicate lay days, call times, whether they’re starting with Men or Women, etc. 

Over the last few days, according to rumors emanating from the stairs at Bells Beach and the walkways at Winkipop, the chat has turned into the de facto complaints department for CT surfers, questioning Jessi Miley-Dyer’s green lighting competition in sub-par conditions. Especially ahead of the dreaded (for some) mid-year cut. 

Anyone paying attention can hear frustrations seeping into post-heat interviews. 

“It felt kinda unnecessary to run this really important round of the mid-year cut in waves like this…” Conner Coffin said after his equal 33rd finish. “It’s a bummer… It sucks.” Conner went into Bells tied for 18th place with four other surfers. 

Another layer to the story are the rumblings that, over the past couple of days, surfers have started chatting amongst themselves expressing their frustrations with the mid-year cut. Jordy Smith’s post-heat interview, following his loss to Jackson Baker, all but confirmed it. 

Laura Enever asked him, “Picking yourself up to head to Margarets, how will you attack that event?”

“I’m not sure yet…uhhh…” Jordy replied, taking a deep breath before continuing. “There’s a lot of chatting between the surfers’ groups about what’s going on at the moment with the cut and everything, so I’ll just wait to see what comes of that…but yeah, I’ll probably just get there early and try and practice as much as I can with the boards that I have.”

This comment made the Stab Slack channels buzz with speculation. What could Jordy be waiting for? Could the surfers actually be thinking about not going to the Margaret River comp, the fifth event of the CT season and the final chance to put themselves above the mid-year cut? 

We reached out to a few people on the ground who confirmed that yes, this prospect of a boycott was indeed on the table. We also got our hands a petition being signed by 29 CT surfers, which asks the WSL to eliminate the mid-year cut.

It begins, “This is an official petition, on behalf of the Championship Tour Surfers, asking for the mid-year cut-off format to be reconsidered and disregarded, following up on an in-depth discussion, which took place at the WPS Meeting on April 11th, 2022.”

From there, it lays out their reasoning. The first concern is financial, as getting booted after 5 events and then having to chase the CS all year won’t be cheap. Yes, this problem won’t effect the superstars — but neither will the mid-year cut in general. When you look at the average income of a Tour surfer these days, it’s a fair point. Surfing 5 CT events straight into 8 CS events isn’t cheap, especially considering the relatively low prize purses on the CS. 

Beyond that, the term “event congestion” is used. Many competitors will surf through injuries if it ups their chances at re-qualifying. And theres’s a note about wildcards, and how the mid-year cut complicates that already-complicated process. It also talks about “cut drama” on the broadcast. The mid-year cut is in-part designed to create storylines for fans to buy into (mission accomplished). Which sounds nice, just not to the people who might have their careers ended in real-time on a webcast. 

The closer: “The mid-year cut has made being a CT surfer much harder from a mental health and financial standpoint and we do not see it as a sustainable path forward.” 

Read Elo’s response to the petition here.

Many of the surfers who signed are currently sitting comfortably in the Top 5. Competitors have a union called WPS, which deals with this kind of stuff and was likely integral in putting together the petition. They allegedly have a meeting with WSL president Erik Logan tomorrow afternoon. 

We spoke to WPS Chief Operations Officer Christian Beserra for an article in October of last year, in which he said, “Whenever the WSL wants to implement a policy change or format change, it comes through us. We discuss it as a group, try to agree, and come to a consensus with the WSL. Before COVID, we had official board meetings at Bells and Hossegor every year with all surfers. That’s where we’d discuss surfers changes, needs, and other matters.”

All up, it seems like a convenient time to start complaining. The WA boycott is not mentioned in the petition, but what would the WSL do if it actually happened? They need surfers to run their events. We reached out and asked. 

They said that they can’t confirm the rumor, but that the mid-year cut is locked in per surfers’ contracts and event contracts. When asked if there was the possibility of adjusting the mid-year cut, they said, “zero chance,” and that they have a long list of backup surfers that would love to compete if current surfers don’t show. 

Stab’s resident WSL expert Mikey Ciaramella is already working on a deep dive on the mid-year cut, so we’ll share more on this as we get more details. But you’ve gotta think that the only surfers likely to boycott are those already on the chopping block, and it’d look pretty bad to boycott something you previously agreed to, just because you don’t like where you’re situated.  

More to come. 

(Click here to read the WSL’s response to the surfers’ petition.)