Pictured above are the founders of the now WSL alongside current CEO Sophie Goldschmidt and Slater. By WSL/Morris 

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Taking place this weekend in Lemoore, California, 200 kilometers from the nearest ocean, is the first open event in history at Kelly Slater's pool, also known as the Surf Ranch.

It is a tournament for "national" teams - USA, Brazil, Australia, Europe and the rest of the world - and is called the Founders' Cup (the Founders Cup of professional surfing), as explained in a note published on the WSL website, the honorees are: Ian Cairns, Rabbit Bartholomew, Fred Hemmings, Randy Rarick, Mark Richards, Shaun Tomson and Peter Towned.

What do they all have in common? Either they are legendary professionals and/or they are organizers of professional events and circuits; fundamental beings in the creation of the World Surf League as it is known today.

They are not, and never were, devotees of team events (although they have competed or been part of them) such as, for example, those run by the International Surfing Association (which are similar to the Founders' Cup).

Hemmings co-founded the International Professional Surfers (IPS), created the Pipe Masters and the Triple Crown, Rarick was another of the co-founders of the IPS, which later became the ASP that Cairns created and which Bartholomew later chaired during the years when the relationship between the ASP and the ISA was not the most tender.

It is striking that the World Surf League is now attempting to honour its founders with a style of event that they expressly decided to move away from when they began professional surfing.

It's like organizing a party for Mick Jagger and inviting a cumbia band to play music for the night.

It definitely would have made more sense to have 10 surfers gouging each other out for first place and a hefty paycheck rather than a prize shared in camaraderie with teammates.

The tournament seems far-fetched, an excuse to finally use Kelly's pool and try out the "stadium" mode and charge entry fees ranging from $300 to $9500 and practice for whatever the future holds.