Why the fuck is the WSL in the UAE? And why is no one talking about it?

Surfing joins the sportwashing big leagues!

“Isn’t it time we talked about the ethics of surfing in Abu Dhabi, cause no one else is?”

That was a pitch to a number of the major surf publications I did a month ago. 

“I’m there right now, so let’s leave it alone, ha, ha!” was one Editor’s response. 

My pitch was largely interested in surfing being the latest sport to cash in on the UAE’s billion-dollar sportswashing program. The WSL has announced a three-year deal for a CT event at Surf Abu Dhabi. It joined the ranks of football (soccer), boxing, basketball, golf, and cycling, to name just a few of the sports. It seemed surprising, and alarming, that no one seemed to want to talk about it.

Then this week, there has been some backlash. Not for the first time Keala Kennelly is the only surfer to register a protest at the WSL’s more to Abu Dhabi. 

"Let’s put poor Tyler Wright’s potential execution aside for a moment,” she started a recent social media post. KK wasn’t registering her disapproval of how non-democratic regimes or large corporations use investment in world-renowned athletes, sports clubs, and sports events to detract from illiberal, non-democratic, and or exploitative practices in their home countries or businesses. More homosexuality is illegal in the UAE. 

The Wright clan, following KK’s lead, piled in. Tyler's brother Mikey Wright posted, “You have no business putting on an event at a location where my sister can be sentenced by law with the death penalty. So much for equality and equal rights, only when it’s convenient to WSL. You have supported the LGBTQ flag on her shoulder but now you want to strip it and be hush hush to get her to a location that she’s at risk of this punishment.”

Strong stuff. And when the relatively unreconstructed mulleted Mikey is becoming the standard bearer for gay rights, you know the world has moved on. Homosexuality is illegal in the United Arab Emirates and consensual same-sex sexual activity is punishable by imprisonment. There is no maximum penalty listed, hence the “theoretical” outcome for a (married) person is the death penalty. However the threat of “execution” doesn't really exist. 

Now, I don’t think Mikey trawled through the law statutes, but his point remains valid. To further her chance of a World Title, Tyler would have to travel to a country where a fundamental essence of her being is invalid. Or as her wife Lilli put it, "Tyler's queerness should not have to be a burden or an obstacle in her workplace."

So far the WSL and Kelly Slater haven’t responded. There was no talk of the issue at the recent WSL Longboard Event held there in September. Or, funnily enough, in the official press release. The longboarders seemed to be over the moon to be there. The camels! The sand dunes! The head gear! There wasn’t mention of a fossil fuel-based regime, human rights abuses or imprisonment for scissoring. Yet, as ever, it shouldn’t be the surfers that are forced to raise objections. 

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That event was sponsored by Modon, who aren’t a plant-based milk or new craft beer, but the UAE’s state-owned real estate and development company. The chairman is His Excellency Jassem Mohammed Buatabh Al Zaabi, who was previously the Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Finance Department. Modon recently posted a gross profit of $US250 million, in the last six months. Oh, and they also own the pool. 

I haven’t dug too deep, but I’d imagine they have a little more cash than Bioglan, the vitamin company that sponsored the Bells Longboard event. But of course, it isn't about the money. The WSL’s main reason for the move was outlined in their press release. “The collaboration with Kelly Slater Wave Company and Surf Abu Dhabi allows us to build a destination ready to welcome surfers from all levels and communities and nurture a new generation of surfers in the region.” 

And I get it. The WSL needs cash to survive. The events aren’t cheap, the sponsorship deals a constant, never-ending battle. I, for one, think they have done mostly a pretty good job, under tough circumstances, and never get any real credit.  

But a move to Abu Dhabi to an artificial pool (even one they are at pains to mention is salt-watered) is a hypocritical step too far. It won’t nurture a new generation of surfers in the region unless those surfers are banker's kids enjoying the tax-free living and use of rights-free indentured labour.

All it does is allow autocrats, whose wealth comes from the sale of oil that is driving climate change, to use surfing to carve out yet another soft power niche. And that’s before we get to the fact that some of the competitors, and WSL employees, face imprisonment for being gay if they go there. It all just seems so goddamn grubby and unnecessary.

So why the fuck is surfing in the UAE? And why is no one talking about it?