8 million fans (and counting) can’t be wrong!
The United States of America and Australia both met the same fate at yesterday’s World Cup of Soccer proceedings, namely knocked right out. The once-every-four-years extravaganza, hosted in this time in the migrant workers’ paradise of Qatar, has featured some dominant performances from traditional powerhouses Brazil, France, Portugal, a shock early exit by traditional powerhouse Germany and the US plus Australian teams making it out of group play.
While national media attempted to cover the various matches, citizens didn’t really care and only went along with the “hype” due pressure.
Now that the teams have been relegated to where they belong, i.e. not playing soccer, those aforementioned citizens can mercifully turn their full attentions to the upcoming World Surf League season.
As you know, there has been an explosion of surf fans making the WSL one of the most watched sports on earth, bigger than basketball, tennis and hugely bigger than soccer. Over 8 million, and counting, tuning into finals day with lots more vectors for growth according to CEO Erik Logan.
As you also know, the Haleiwa Challenger, just-wrapped, has introduced ten exciting new male surfers and five exciting new female surfers onto the 2023 Championship Tour.
Men: Leonardo Fioravanti, Ryan Callinan, Rio Waida, Ramzi Boukhaim, Ian Gentil, Ezekiel Lau, Michael Rodrigues, Liam O’Brien, Joao Chianca, Maxime Huscenot.
Women: Macy Callaghan, Molly Picklum, Caitlin Simmers, Bettylou Sakura Johnson, Sophie McCulloch.
It will be wonderful to see them all paddle out at Pipeline though very sad to see them all pack their bags after Margaret River to go home, or at least all of the men.
Who will you be most sad to see go?
Me too.
