Member-only story
Reality TV Set To Kill Surfing
This summer’s media onslaught is going to SUCK!
Get ready America… Over the next few months the beautiful sport and laidback lifestyle of surfing is going to be marketed hard to your flabby bodies. Starting with surfing’s Olympic debut in this summer’s Tokyo Games to ABC’s Reality TV competition series, The Ultimate Surfer, set to piggy-back off the games this August.
This summer is going to be an epic party-wave… and I can honestly say — as a lifelong surfer — this summer’s media onslaught is going to SUCK!
Seriously, nothing makes me cringe harder than surfing becoming more popular and crowded or the thought of surfing being “Jersey Shore’d” on today’s idiot box.
Now, ask me… Do I believe surfing should be in the Olympics? YES! Most definitely!
Most of us understand the importance of surfing to the ancient Polynesian and Hawaiian cultures; heck, archaeologists have even uncovered Pre-Inca wave riding vessels in Perú that pre-date the island wave riders of the Pacific by thousands of years. So yes, if merriments like Badminton and Synchronized Swimming can compete for gold, then Surfing — the Sport of Kings — is most definitely Olympic.
But what I am not hip on is surfing being masticated by the greasy, hungry lens of Reality TV. A genre of television programming known for highlighting all of society’s lowlights.
But what is truly shocking to me as a surfer is the participation of the ultimate surfer himself, Kelly Slater. The GOAT of competitive surfing, Slater is a lead consultant to the series and will also serve as a special correspondent on the show. What!?! Yes! And the 11 time world champion is throwing this entire shindig at his man-made wave palace in Lemoore, CA (a dusty 115 miles away from the ocean). So, this monstrosity of a reality surf show seems to be Slater’s baby.
Not since Slater’s Baywatch days has he paddle this far outside the surf zone. Days that the surf world seemed to have forgiven him for and chalked up to the influence of Pam Anderson’s skin tight red swimsuit.
