“Pro surfing is dead. So sad,” says Pottz
Two significant movements in the surf world this morn with Lisa Andersen being exited from Roxy after thirty years and reclusive former WSL commentator and ’89 world champ Martin Potter breaking his five-year silence to rip into the company.
Lisa Andersen, the almost fifty-five year old who became the face of Roxy in 1993 one year before her four-pack of world titles, posted a video where we see her peeling a Roxy sticker off her board. The caption reads, “All is good.”
Well, all ain’t good.
In a long piece to camera Kelia gave hell to Roxy.
“After years of fighting for fair pay and equality there was no was I was signing that deal, especially knowing I wasn’t the only athlete that this was happening to. I’m not about to be strong-armed by some corporation that knows nothing about the sport and doesn’t give a shit about it. If you’re wondering why I’m leaving, it’s not because I don’t love what I do… I’m leaving because if I sign this deal I’d be setting the industry standards for the girls who look like me and surf like me and I simply want nothing to do with that. The surf industry has been consolidated by two large corporations who don’t care that there has been a dismantling of the monetary value of a whole generation and I refuse to be part of it because it looks pretty on a spreadsheet.”
Chas Smith subsequently said Quiksilver, Billabong, RVCA and Hurley should be studiously avoided, if not burned to the ground, as surfers pivot to surfer-owned brands like Florence Marine X, TCSS etc.
And, anyone wearing Quiksilver, Billabong etc, says Chas, should be “publicly shamed.”
Anyway, much the same sentiment from Martin Potter, the world champ turned grouchy WSL commentator, whom you’ll recall simply disappeared from our screens a few years ago without acknowledgment from his masters.
Among a roll call of surfing greats on Lisa Andersen’s post, Pottz stood out with the forthrightness that made him a beloved member of the WSL broadcast roster.
“I saw this coming years ago, why do you think I disappeared from something we helped build. Surfing or should I say pro surfing is dead. So sad.”
Between 1996 and 2006, Lisa Andersen’s golden years, Roxy grew from 20 mill to 650 mill in sales.
Some takeaways, as they’re called, here.
Is the exiting of Lisa Andersen from Roxy indeed proof the surf industry, as we all know it, is dead or a rational and logical shift away from paying absurdist salaries to surfers?
Should Lisa, you think, and like Mark Occhilupo, been given a lifelong stipend given it was Lisa Andersen who popularised the Boardshorts that Roxy built its brand upon?
And, long term, with their back stories erased, will Quiksilver, Billabong, RVCA, Hurley turn wild profits for a few years before disappearing into the sunset like Op, Golden Breed and Hang Ten?
