He was just a boy with a wetsuit of armor and a dream.
I was standing on the dusty set of a horror film, deep in the Sierra Pelona mountains just north of Los Angeles, when Derek Rielly texted “Elo sacked!” A nasty bug was biting my ankle. My young daughter was in a cabin nearby, lit by a special effects fire, wearing a bonnet and eating a pork chop that was supposed to be the flesh of a human soldier.
“Well there we have it,” I thought quietly.
My heart didn’t race, like I might have expected it to, nor my mind explode with self-congratulatory fireworks. I have felt this was in the cards for a minute now, publicly stated multiple times in the past few weeks, and now the moment was here.
The question that pinged, though, was “why?”
Why was he culled so brutally, so openly, and right at this moment?
The statement, itself, was shockingly terse.
Today, the World Surf League (WSL) announced that CEO Erik Logan has departed the company, effective immediately. As the WSL begins the process of identifying a new CEO, Emily Hofer, WSL’s Chief People and Purpose Officer, and Bob Kane, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Legal Officer, will jointly lead the company and continue to drive the WSL’s mission to showcase the world’s best surfers on the world’s best waves as the global home of competitive surfing.
That it happened in the middle of an event Logan was, himself, attending, stunning.
That Chief of People and Purpose plus Chief of Legal taking the reins, jointly, telling.
Erik Logan did something, or as the great Jen See surmised, “Someone from legal and someone from HR? Feels like some heavy custody. Like, cleanup aisle 5 vibes.”
Now, with complete lack of communication from the World Surf League, itself, i.e. no mention on today’s broadcast, surf fans will be left to speculate wildly.
Did he commit murder?
Rob a bordello?
Wear the skin of a professional surfer and dance seductively to the strains of a gorgeously melodic tune?
Goodbye horses.
But let us stop, for a moment, and consider the real villain.
Professional surfing’s owner Dirk Ziff.
Ziff hired Logan in the first place, an Oklahoman SUP enthusiast by way of Oprah Winfrey. Ziff then promoted Logan after he massively failed at his first job and even though signs of erratic behavior were extremely clear. Ziff then humiliated Logan by axing him whilst on the job in Brazil, a place he should have never been in the first place after publishing an ill-advised missive enraging that community, making Filipe Toledo take his shirt off, being an overall weirdo.
Dear Erik Logan was a symptom, yes, but he was not the disease. Just a boy with a wetsuit of armor and a dream.
Today’s silence from the booth regarding the matter is Dirk Ziff continuing to treat his only audience like a pack of dolts. Imagine the NFL’s Roger Goodell or FIFA’s Gianni Infantino getting the boot mid-season, right before a game. General reasons would be given, commentators would speculate, some form of honesty would prevail.
In professional surfing, though, a seething hatred of its fanbase by a billionaire is what we have.
Well, we’ve got three scalps on our belts now. Paul Speaker, Backward Fin Beth and sweet Erik Logan.
Dirk Ziff, yours is next.
And now back to your regularly scheduled programing.
