The WSL has decided that after a successful season, even during a pandemic, of the World Longboard Tour to cancel it and turn it into a one stop event. This was decided upon after not only crowning two amazing champions but after claiming that there was not enough "online engagement" (which is so far from the truth.

There are many reasons why this is disappointing. The first in my mind, is that while the WSL has made huge progress in equal prize money and equal events for men and women on the WCT, the women’s CT still has only 18 surfers so equal opportunity has not yet been addressed. Meanwhile, the Longboard World Tour has provided a home for women long boarders with women have huge ownership over the longboard tour and women longboarders widely being considered the premier division of the tour.

With the reduction of the LCT to just a single event, women surfers are given even less opportunity under the banner of an organization that prides itself on leading the way in gender equality in sport.  

Secondly, reducing the tour to just one event is quite frankly a waste of money. With no build up, no story and no opportunity bring viewers along via social media, the single event is unlikely to have worthwhile engagement. This is a missed commercial opportunity. The Australian longboard publication Pacific Longboarder is estimated to have more subscribers than Tracks and Surfing World combined. People want to see longboarding if it is shown to them in the right way. While the broadcast of the longboard tour events may not have numbers consistently within reach of the shortboard world tour, this is not the only metric available to establish commercial viability. As Joel Tudor pointed out in his post on Instagram that you have probably seen already, the WSL’s Instagram posts of women longboarders have far higher engagement than some of the posts of the highest profile women shortboarders. The biggest surf brands regularly use longboarders in their ad campaigns as longboarding is seen an aspirational lifestyle. This should be capitalised on, not killed.

Finally, there are many longboarders who make their livelihood from the exposure they get from competing on the longboard world tour. If this exposure is significantly reduced, the advertising value of these surfers is also reduced meaning less opportunities and therefore reduced performance level. This prospect is particularly damaging for women as this would be a reversal of the gains women surfers have made over the last forty years.

By signing this petition we are showing the WSL, Erik Logan, and Jessi Miley-Dyer that this tour is not only important for longboard culture but for equality in surf culture as a whole.