Californian surfer Bobby Martinez, a former member of the CT, reappeared a few days ago in an interview, where he strongly criticized surfing in the Olympics and wave pools. “I don’t even know where to start to say that surfing should not be in the Olympics. It’s the worst, it’s worse than wave pools, and those things are pretty bad,” said the always controversial Californian of Latin descent in an interview with Stab.

“If you put surfing in the Olympics, make it an Olympic sport and tune in to it on the broadcasts of everyone in the world, they’re going to see it as the worst fucking sport, the most boring thing in the Olympics. It’s not going to do surfing any good,” he added. “I don’t understand how people who have never seen the sport are going to be excited to watch a shitty competition with two feet and onshore. I hope a guy wins who nobody would have ever expected, not Medina or John John, some random guy.”

Regarding the popularization of the sport, Martinez said: “Surfing is a high-class sport, the boards are expensive and the leashes are expensive. Now, if you are going to pay for a wave, that is going to be expensive. The other sports have people who come from nowhere. Basketball, soccer, boxing, for those sports you only need a $5 ball, or you can borrow one and you can play at the schools for free.

“It will never work. They want to turn surfing into something it is not, surfing is unique, it is what it is and it is already big enough,” he added.