WSL is riding high on the biggest wave in the history of surfing

surfers in the world.

You may know me as the guy who pretty much owns the sport of surfing. South African surfers might know me as the guy who owns the World Surf League (WSL), and you’d be forgiven for thinking I am not a real person. My name does sound kind of weird, I guess, almost like a cartoon character, like Spaceman Spiff or something. In fact, I believe it rhymes with quite a few South African words you use in jest like miff and kiff.

But let me correct that. No, I don’t own surfing. That’s a sweeping generalisation. But with my fellow American partners in ZoSea Media Holdings, we bought the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) a few years ago and we turned it from a teetering, disparate mess into a global commercial success that rivals or betters some of the biggest sports in the US.

By 2015, after much work behind the scenes, we had totally dismantled the archaic structures of the ASP and launched WSL, an all-inone digital content and broadcasting platform managing more than 2 000 athletes in various aspects of surfing, including the Big Wave Tour and junior surfing.

In a few days, I will take over from current chief executive and fellow co-owner Paul Speaker, who recently stepped down as interim chief executive until we can find a replacement. Before I do, however, you might like to look back with me at our achievements in surfing.

It’s been quite a ride. We knew the global appeal of surfing was potentially huge, but we needed to centralise our organisation into one entity to tap into the estimated US$13-billion surf industry, and much more in big money corporates who wanted to tap into our aspirant culture and lifestyle.

But the delivery mechanism had to transcend the old fashioned print and broadcast media, so we invented our own delivery mechanism. Within three years, we built a centralised global media network – a league of athletes so to speak – that could attract mainstream audiences through digital means, mostly via the web and mobile.

The WSL has grown into a content-generating machine that has nailed social media and the power of its reach, if I say so myself. Our Facebook page at 5.2 million fans is bigger than established sports such as NASCAR, the NHL, the ATP and way ahead of the PGA Tour, at a puny 1 million.

Our metrics tell us that there are 120 million global fans of the sport and 35 million surfers worldwide. Never has surfing been better poised for success and growth. We’ve been accepted into theTokyo Olympic Games in 2020, and serendipity arrived in our quest for non-surfing eyeballs in the form of Kelly Slater’s Wave Company, where wave pool technology will take surfing to the inland masses.

And, while I’m blowing my own trumpet, guess what sport Americans most aspire to? You guessed it, surfing (Source: Repucom, 2014: for people aged 13-25.)

If there is anything that plugs into the culture of youth, it’s surfing.

As we like to say at board meetings (the kind held in a room with a table, since several of us don’t surf) we’re a millennial magnet.

And South Africa is very much in our sights, so watch this space. See ya at the beach. Gravel and Grape Yesterday a group of keen MTB riders, including Western Cape Minister of Economic Opportunities Alan Winde, and journalists from bicycle media tested out a 20km section of the three- day Gravel and Grape MTB race which runs from May 5-7. Organisers treated us to some amazing mountain biking with breathtaking vistas of the Slanghoek valley. Chairman of the organising committe Peter Carstens said that the three-day race had been renamed the Extreme, to ensure entrants know it’s proper mountain biking, while the shorter route was called the Adventure. Weather Tip Today, a bit of leftover 5’ swell in moderate going fresh to strong SSE, which means it’s mushy onshore in False Bay. Tomorrow, the surf has dropped further, to around 3-4’ and winds are similar, moderate going fresh SSE.