It is deeply annoying when things happen in the WSL that lack the seriousness that any elite sport should have in its management. When one sees that this institution is managed like, what can I say: North Korea? Venezuela? China? Or all three countries together.

There are issues that the World Surf League apparently cannot be asked about, or rather, it can be, but the answers never come, or they come without content: Anti-doping in tournaments, gender equality, black points on the criteria for qualifying for the Olympics, Jordy Smith expressly letting himself lose in a QS 10.000, stages that are cancelled and a long etcetera…

I often, very often, wonder when I write to Dave Prodan, WSL's Senior Vice President of Global Identity (or press officer in common terms), why he never answers, or answers vaguely when I ask him about these issues...  It is different from what happens when you write to any other press officer on the planet. Why? How can it be that it is easier to contact the International Olympic Committee than the WSL? Why doesn't it do its job of dealing with the press and taking care of “the global identity”?

The answer to all this is very simple; it is quite obvious: The WSL is a business. It is a company that wants to make money first and foremost and puts sporting interests second.

Yes, chocolate for the news, but it is a topic that needs to be addressed.

It is not to blame them for wanting to make money, of course not! Without this point, no institution can stand. But I also understand that when the care of sport and everything that this implies should come into the equation, money does not fit well as the only objective; to give just one example, the WSL oversees about 100 youth events annually. How does it feel to have as a boss someone who has not shown that he puts sport before everything else?

Perhaps more relevant, and another of the questions we at DUKE have asked the WSL, is the issue of anti-doping. Not only because we are on the verge of surfing becoming an Olympic sport, perhaps not even for that reason, but simply because it is the right thing to do. It is so “right” that Andy Irons, one of the greatest heroes of our sport, won titles completely drugged and died as a victim of his addiction.

A few weeks ago, The American site The Inertia wrote about this, especially on whether the WSL has changed its anti-doping policy after what happened with Andy, based on what is shown in the film Kissed By God, which tells in no uncertain terms that Irons consumed “along with many other professionals” during events.

Journalist JP Currie consulted Prodan and once again the answer was vague and inconclusive: “Unfortunately we are not going to comment on this directly.” He indicated that anti-doping was instituted in 2011, that previously (40 years of professional sport) the ASP tried but did not have the resources, that the death of Irons led to the implementation of testing and that since the WSL was bought in 2012 the company that owns it has been committed to doing tests and finally that the tests are private and confidential. According to the article, he also tried to contact the CEO, Sophie Goldschmidt, who refused to answer on the subject.

In the absence of concrete answers, the journalist went to ask the surfers how the tests were conducted, and found everything: Surfers who were never tested and surfers who were tested five times. Something that seems very unserious and that follows the line of what we have been describing (any serious organization sets out in advance what the rules are for choosing the people who are tested for doping).

It is clear that the WSL does not take anti-doping seriously, nor the insistent questions that journalists ask them about other issues that are difficult for them (which are made more difficult especially because they do not answer them), and it is clear that they take this license because they are a private company and they do not have to answer to anyone, only to their wallets and to the fans, of course, who are directly related to their wallets (see the repeated apologies they have made for the Facebook scandal).

Of course it serves him well to maintain his integrity, but as long as that balance remains tilted in his favor, the answers and seriousness will continue to be present.

And it is a sad thing that damages the sport, it damages its fans and especially it damages the image of the WSL, but they seem not to realize it.