The WSL Big Wave Tour is back, apparently, for the 2023/24 season, with waiting period dates silently revealed for Nazaré and Jaws, per their website.
But the surfers don’t know that. At least, not Nate Florence, Koa Rothman, nor Eli Olson.
And so, in the latest episode of the Nate and Koa Podcast (featuring Olson), they talk about the WSL Big Wave Tour, not knowing that dates were announced, and criticized the WSL’s handling of it – mainly, where’s the money? Why isn’t this prioritized? If the Big Wave Tour is so popular, then why aren’t the surfers paid accordingly?
Koa kicks off the discussion:
“Honestly, if I was in charge of making decisions in the surf world, as far as the competitive side at least, I would bring back the Big Wave Tour over anything. At the end of the day, the WSL is trying to make money. And if they wanna make money, they need views. They need to sell shit. Why would they cancel these events? And they were canceled because surfers were super underpaid. Like, when we did Jaws, first place was like $25 grand. And if you lose first heat in one of the CT events, you get like $17 grand or something.
“The Big Wave Tour, the funding just wasn’t there. So, surfers were like, ‘why am I going to go risk my life for this brand that’s putting this on to make money off of me, when I don’t make any money?’”
Nate added:
“We had the least events, the least prize money, the most risk, and the most views. You do the math on that. We were basically getting screwed. But it was also so sick to have a Tour! It was fun to have the big-wave guys all show up at an event and send it.”
Koa finished:
“If the WSL wants to make money, that’s the best way to do it.”
So, will there be any changes to this season’s Big Wave Tour? Or more of the same?
Stay tuned for a press release most likely incoming soon.
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