What is J-O-B?

(Note: if you don't surf, this will bore you.)

Lately there's been a stir in the world of professional competitive surfing. The last couple of years have seen mediocre surf conditions at borderline above-average waves, rumors of breakaway tours to compete with the Association of Surfing Professionals' World Tour, and complicated rule changes that weren't easily understood at first. But the ASP, ripe with curious timing, just announced that it would be adding a twelfth event. In Fiji, next season, where it had an event for several years, the last in 2008.

Two weeks ago, a major swell hit Fiji and a sqaud of upper echelon talent trekked across the South Pacific to ride it. The group included Mark Healey, Bruce Irons, Kohl Christenson, Dane Gudauskas, and so on. And Kelly Slater, the only of the group competing on the World Tour. The swell's arrival conflicted with the early days of the ASP's Jeffreys Bay contest in South Africa. Slater chose to surf Fiji. He wasn't the only one to no-show; Bobby Martinez and Dane Reynolds stayed home too.

An outbreak of debate ensued, including whether surfers should be able to skip events, and how competitive surfing is suffering its dying throes, and thank god it is, etc. But what I found most interesting was a discussion on professionalism. To that end, a fellow writer I know named Tet Endo wrote a post for TheInertia.com that cuts to the "pro" in surfing: the absence of professionalism. Endo asks, somewhat rhetorically, if a surfer has lost the competitive drive, "should he be allowed to simply show up when he chooses when there are hundreds of guys fighting tooth and nail for a spot on the World Tour?" Endo's answer, and mine too? No. But while I agree with some points of his case, not so with Endo's assertion that "the very nature of surfing is antithetical to professionalism."

Yes, the history of surfing stems from an outsider culture--composed of pariahs uninterested in mainstream society. But that's not so much true anymore. Look out my Times Square office window onto the Quiksilver store with videos of Slater, Reynolds, and ASP veteran Jeremy Flores ripping Mexican pointbreaks on a bigscreen. The days of surfers living in VW buses, surviving on loose change, are long gone. (That's not so say there aren't those guys--just watch the clip of the kneeboarder at Tourmaline in Cy Sutton's and Ryan Burch's flick "Stoked & Broke.") Today it's big money. Enough money that some make it their job--at which point they become professionals. That's the definition. And at that point, they should behave like it's their job. Which both Endo and I agree hasn't happened in regards to the Jeffreys Bay event.

Trains of thought on this tend to fall less on the predictable competitive vs. soul surfing side of the tracks. Surfer is popular now and the divergent opinions to it aren't concrete. I'm a clear example of that. I genuinely love surfing. I'm dedicated to it; its one of three things my life revolves around (family, job, surfing--in a variety of orders). I surf (mostly) year-round where I live. Crowded lineups suck. But people interested in surfing means money in my pocket as a journalist who covers it. Conflicted? Something like that... But when a company builds its business model around you, you're a professional.

Endo knows that. "Reynolds and Slater don’t need to show up in South Africa," he wrote. "They are already heroes, and more importantly, they know who their real organ grinders are. As long as they dance for Quiksilver, they are the best surfers in the world."

And as long as Quiksilver takes them to the dance, they are professionals. Acting like it wouldn't hurt.

That said, who really gives a shit? Go surfing.