Nov 12 2008
World Longboard Championships at San Onofre??
In case you missed the big news (and I think it’s safe to say that you did), the Oxbow World Longboard Tour Championships were held this past weekend at San Onofre State Beach. That’s right, the World Championships. So why is it that no one knows this except for the handful of “pro” longboarders involved? Why do Surfline and the other surf media outlets seem more interested in reporting local NSSA results than covering this ASP-sanctioned event? And more importantly, why doesn’t the average longboarder care? Blame it on poor publicity, poor venue choice; however, the underlying issue behind the WLT’s failure to garner interest is its promotion of a dated system of judging and a type of maneuver or “trick” based longboarding that is rarely seen outside of competition.
In an era when few are making money from longboarding and even the sport’s top names are forced to supplement their incomes through other ventures such as art or music or clothing lines, the idea of a “professional” longboarder is becoming harder and harder to define. However, it is clear that the 40-odd “pros” competing in this year’s World Longboard “Tour” (it’s hard to call a two-leg championship series a “word tour”) no longer represent the best or the most progressive of today’s longboard community. Sure, these guys all have a full bag of tricks, including chop-hop airs, radical off-the-tops, and slo-mo carving 360’s; however, none of it is really progressive. It’s formulaic, its point-grovelling, and it was all done by shortboarders over 20 years ago. The real innovators of the sport–guys like Alex Knost, C.J. Nelson, Joel Tudor, and Dane Peterson, guys that are pushing longboarding from the tip as well as the tail–have wisely opted out of this farce of a professional tour. A telling moment in this weekend’s event came in Round 3, when 17 year old trialist and San O’ local Joe Aaron took down reigning world champ Phil Rajzman–and on a single fin, no less. Contest specialists like Rajzman, Josh Constable, Harley Ingleby (sorry, Harley)–guys that are highly touted by Oxbow and the surf press–are not the best in the world; in fact, they wouldn’t even garner a second look at your average California point break. They have merely exploited a system that has long been out of touch with modern longboard surfing.
On a final note, congratulations to Bonga Perkins, winner of this year’s WLT San Onofre and newly-crowned world champion. This angry diatribe is in no way meant to take away from your tremendous achievement and years of service to the longboard community. World title number two has been a long time coming–you deserve it!
