So, the allure of Olympic Gold seems to be persuading a lot of people to jump ship on their homelands, particularly at the elite end – looking at you WSL surfers – to surf under flags of convenience.
But are they surfing for the nations of their heart, or seeking easy routes into the Japan games and taking away the chances from born and bred surfers?
On a recent Carve Twitter poll 73% were against this happening. But it is a widespread practice in all other sports.
It’s not as easy as that in surfing I know. Lots of surfers these days are second generation water babies and fortunate that their globe trotting parents moved to wave soaked paradises. Also thrown in is the fact that most surfers don’t judge others on skin colour, or other racist undertones, so if you lived and surfed in say Costa Rica, or Hawaii all your life your nationality in surfing terms tends to be classified on this rather than origins gene pools or passports.
But… with cash strapped Surfing NGO’s now looking for ringers to gain funds (UK and various countries sporting bodies attribute grant funding on medal chances) and ‘athletes’ looking for the golden goose, a lot of surfers are changing thier nationalities. And we are going to see more.
Tati West who lives in Hawaii and has surfed under the Hawaian flag is now surfing for Brazil because her mother was born there and “her heart is in Brazil”. Her Dad is English so she could have easily surfed for Team GB. But it appears Brazil threw out some big cash, or the promise of. On top of that Hawaii is considered part of the USA so with Carissa Moore, Lakey Peterson and Caroline Marks all in the running, Brazil (or UK) is her best shot at inclusion in the games… Actually the UK would have been better, but we have no money… Or sunshine…warm water…
“Brazil has always been an important part of who I am and, recently, I was approached by the Brazilian Olympic Committee with an opportunity to represent the country in a major way.’ she says ‘ It’s always been a dream of mine to compete in the Olympics and when surfing was announced as an official Olympic sport, I knew that my dream had a chance of becoming a reality.”
Kanoa Ingarashi is surfing for Japan. His mum and dad made a huge move to California ‘with the singular goal of giving Kanoa a shot at his dad’s dream’ before he was born. So he is born and bred US, but holds dual passports. WSL state “He’s already a household name there (in Japan), having starred in a reality TV show since the age of 11. Japanese TV have been following him while on Tour, and he’s gaining fame in China, Taiwan and Korea.”
Tia Blanco who captained USA at the ISA worlds in 2016 is now surfing for Puerto Rico…
What do you think?
