March 21, 2009, 11:10 am : ASP Pro Tour Journalism

Followers of professional surfing and the ASP World Tour became familiar with Lewis Samuels last year. His Power Rankings column runs on Surfline following each contest, and provides insightful, smart and often inflammatory commentary on each Tour surfer. Like him, love him or hate him, there’s no shortage of people reading and opining on his remarks, including the Tour surfers themselves. Not since Derek Hynd has somebody been able to prick a needle into this group and be noticed by a widespread audience. Why not? All other major sports have a media following that does its best to tell it like it is.

And shouldn’t it be that way? Detractors of Samuels’ pieces say that he should lay off writing scathing, tongue-in-cheek remarks that may cross the line into inappropriateness. He pokes fun at Brazilians, he pokes fun at Hawaiians, he pokes fun at the Californians (he is one himself), and he pokes fun just about anywhere else he can; but in the end his assessments provide lots of honesty about past performances and accuracy in forecasting future results.

Let’s face it, The Tour wasn’t implemented to be the bro-brah guitar strumming, traveling feel-good party it became through the 90′s and into the 2000′s. Every other professional sport on Earth delivers certain characteristics that were, and to some extent still are, lacking on The Tour.  Sure, traveling the globe chasing points can be grueling, exhausting, etc. True, not all pro surfers are making the kind of money to make them financially secure for the rest of their lives. But it’s the profession they have chosen, and performing in public,  comes with expectations and accountability. Good on Samuels for doing his part to keep these guy’s egos in check and doing his part to tell it like it is.

Another aspect of Tour coverage that has basically never existed is firsthand accounts from Tour surfers themselves. Woe be it for me to suggest the reason for this is because most of them have the writing abiity of a shaved ape, but there, I said it. That’s why Adrian “Ace” Buchan’s Gold Coast wrap up was a real surprise. Eloquent  and honest writing, informative enough without sounding contrived from an inside standpoint, Buchan gives The Tour what it needs: first person perspective deeper than the 30 second post heat interview. Keep up the solid coverage Ace.