Just general surfing stuff

[Beerfan]

It is unbelievable the stuff these huge companies convince masses of people to buy. To me they sound ridiculous but sure enough I'm guessing we'll start to see people wearing them.

[Beerfan]

What were they, sea lice? I always wanted some, with their little castles and their happy smiling faces!

Copepods.


anyone know how these payment sunglasses work?\\\

do you just look at something and wink, or is there some other mechanism like thought control?

Better be careful, after a trip to the beach in summer, a couple of boxes of g string bikinis might rock up on your door lol

[Trev]

Jesus christ on a bike, check out this PR from the WSL! Payment enabled sunglasses!
You can't script this.

LOS ANGELES, California/USA (Monday, March 13, 2017) - The World Surf League (WSL) has announced a partnership with Visa as the official payment partner of the Quiksilver and Roxy Pro Gold Coast, the first stop on the 2017 WSL Championship Tour (CT).

The partnership was launched today in Austin, Texas with a live stream from the Gold Coast in Australia featuring WSL Commentator Joe Turpel and CT competitor Sage Erickson on the opening day of the Quiksilver and Roxy Pro Gold Coast.

“We are thrilled to welcome Visa, one of the most iconic brands in the world, to the WSL partner family,” said Mark Noonan, Chief Commercial Officer at WSL. “We look forward to working with them to showcase their innovative payment technologies to our fans at the Quiksilver and Roxy Pro Gold Coast and those watching the live global broadcast.”

In addition to being the official payment partner at this event, Visa will pilot a new and unique wearable product at the Quiksilver and Roxy Pro Gold Coast: payment-enabled sunglasses. The stylish shades feature contactless payment capability, merging function and fashion for surfing fans, and eliminating the need to carry cash or cards on the beach. Visa will also integrate technology and branding at the point-of-sale for fans attending the competition.

To extend the reach of Visa’s activities beyond the beach, WSL will also be producing and distributing a series of vignettes highlighting how Visa can help enable the travel experience which is so fundamental to the surfing culture.

“Visa is excited to make waves in the surfing world with a sponsorship of the Quiksilver & Roxy Pro, the first stop on the 2017 World Surf League Championship Tour,” said Chris Curtin, Chief Brand & Innovation Marketing Officer at Visa. “Surfing culture represents a lifestyle without barriers, and Visa helps fans achieve a life unbound – whether it’s paying with their sunglasses or traveling around the world.”

Are we sure this didn't slip out a couple of weeks early? Should be dated 1st April.

[Cranked]

The takeover by big business has got to be the worst thing that has EVER happened to surfing.

Surfing used to be an escape from the embarrassing and febrile capitalist world of greed and advertising. My disappoint and disillusionment is of monstrous proportions

Well they haven't really taken over surfing at all, they've just got involved with the WSL as a partner, it doesn't have much to do with surfing generally. It just cracked me up because it's so Onion-like. Payment sunglasses! So we can pay for our lifestyles so much easier!! Because we're at the beach!!!

They may not have taken over surfing as yet but they are the major image maker and public face of surfing to the world at large

[Nick Carroll]

anyone know how these payment sunglasses work?\\\

surely it is enough for us to know they exist.

and that soon we will be able to watch vignettes highlighting the travel experience that is at the heart of surfing.

[Nick Carroll]

They may not have taken over surfing as yet but they are the major image maker and public face of surfing to the world at large

Well I doubt that cranked, I think the public face of surfing is...all of us.

That's who people see surfing when they walk down the beach.

We are the real heroes cranked. We must accept this about ourselves. Wear our flexible board shorts and our payment sunglasses proudly in the face of the world. And when people ask us in awestruck tones, "Are you surfers?" we must say, "Yes. Now fcuk off."

[Davros]

Anyone have any problems if BP or BAT saved the WSL?

[Cranked]

^^

[steve shearer]

It's a strange paradox at the heart of surfing that I never tire of grappling with- this fact that competitive or organised surfing engages such a small percentage of the actual bulk of the surfing population, would 10% be too high a figure?, probably- yet constitutes the entirety of the focus of the peak bodies supposedly representing surfing.
Apart from the WSL, Surfing Australia, Surfing QLD, Surfing NSW etc etc. All existing in some form or other on the largesse of the public purse and failing to represent or even actively working against the interests of the majority stakeholders of the activity they claim to represent.

Compare that with fishing which has a similar split between competition/organised forms and the vast bulk of rec fishers who do it for fun but whose peak bodies actively represent their interests.\
Its really a scam of the century......you'd have to think one day it might collapse under the weight of it's own irrelevance.

[Drailed]

Good words Steve...

[steve shearer]

Where is surfing QLD, Surfing Australia on the question of the jet ski debacle on the Goldy?\

They stand for nothing except as conduits to drain taxpayer money into pro surfing endeavours and to increase the participation rate, i.e. increase crowds without increasing the amenity.

It's pretty rank.

[Davros]

The old supporting grass roots vs. professional sports gig.

Sports where grass roots support is key:

NRL - successful product
AFl - successful product
Soccer - successful product

Sports where the focus is on the elite

Australian Rugby Union - dying
WSL - dying

And I suspect like Rugby a few mawkish surfers wouldn't mind a devolution back to something crude and "earthy" which may also be a natural correction.

[Trev]

The old supporting grass roots vs. professional sports gig.

Sports where grass roots support is key:

NRL - successful product
AFl - successful product
Soccer - successful product

Sports where the focus is on the elite

Australian Rugby Union - dying
WSL - dying

And I suspect like Rugby a few mawkish surfers wouldn't mind a devolution back to something crude and "earthy" which may also be a natural correction.

It's happening in motor sport, too. Both circuit racing and rallying.
The Confederation of Australian Motors Sport (C.A.M.S) has been screwing with the sport's growth forever. In the 70's and 80's as a representative of my club on the Qld State Council and also the State Chairman of the C.A.M.S. Rally Panel I got more and more frustrated at the heavy handed overkill by a small number of paid officials running the show from Melbourne. I gave it all away in 1995 and came back to surfing.
But I still have heaps of good friends involved to a greater or lesser extent. Can't think of any who have a good word to say about the governing body.

[offshore1]

Visa sunnies. Another black hole for MBA wankers to throw money into.

[Nick Carroll]

I dunno if you can call the WSL a representative body, it's a pro sports league - it's about partnerships not memberships

The others are definitely membership bodies, I think SA's total membership (including all the State bodies) is around 23,000 which is mostly boardrider's club members who are automatically on board via the club insurance system. Most of them would not be what you'd call active members of SA.

[crabmeat thompson]

anyone know how these payment sunglasses work?\\\

surely it is enough for us to know they exist.

and that soon we will be able to watch vignettes highlighting the travel experience that is at the heart of surfing.

Now, I'm really concerned about my metadata being compromised whilst I fluff around the contest scene in my payment sunglasses.

[S4MS]

Amateur surfers put no money into the bodies, that's the difference.

Footballers, golfers etc pay their annual fees. Fishermen pay their licenses.

[steve shearer]

Yes, if that was in response to my point. \\

i meant: apart from the WSL , as in the WSL is not a peak body representing surfing in the same way that SA and SQLD etc etc are.

But there is a connection between the two. Surfing QLD is the conduit between the permit issued by the QLD government to the WSL to hold the comp at Snapper.
I would like to know more about this somewhat shady arrangement and how it moved between the ASP and the privately owned WSL. What obligations, for instance were on the WSL and what rights (or not) did they have to make ambit claims about what could and could not be done on site as they did.