JODI WILMOTT is the general manager for the Hawaii/Tahiti region at the World Surf League. The South African native has been immersed in the surfing lifestyle since her early years. She is the daughter of a surfboard shaper and first came to Hawaii in '73. Not only did Wilmott come to the birthplace of surfing at the age of three, she and her parents actually lived with the legendary EDDIE AIKAU and his family. Willmott was appointed to her position in May '15. She has been tasked with expanding WSL's business and community outreach in the region. During a recent visit to the new WSL office on Hawaii's North Shore, Wilmott talked to SBD Global about the sport's takover by ZoSea Media, wave pools and the surfing community.
On ZoSea Media's takeover of the WSL (formerly ASP) in '12 ... Jodi Wilmott: I was skeptical. Well, I don’t think it was so much skepticism. I don’t think you can be skeptical of something you don’t understand. If I were to correct myself, the word would be “reluctant” to think it would work. And then I realized that I would just be putting myself in the same basket as many people I’ve encountered that as human beings we are just naturally resistant to change. Change is scary, and when you’ve known an industry to be of a certain type for nearly 40 years, then yes, it’s fearful for sure. “All these people that know nothing about surfing coming in and turning it into NFL,” that was a pretty common sentiment. It was a great learning time for me. … Unless you are willing to be a player who comes to the table and influences how things change, then all you really are is someone on the outside just trying to dig your heels in, and not change for the sake of not changing.
On why a structural change of pro surfing was needed ... Wilmott: My dad was a surfboard maker and everybody was in the same circle then. All of these people, including my parents, are now retirement age. Everyone that started a major brand -- Billabong, Quicksilver, Rip Curl -- all these brands started and formed that kind of surf industry and pro tour, and they’ve all come to retirement. It’s a natural evolution that was so fortuitously timed with what WSL and the ownership have done. I felt like given my life cycle that it was kind of time to bring this operation full-circle and start again as well. Start again in the sense of going back to your basic founding blocks, which for us in our region of Tahiti and Hawaii is the youth culture and community. That’s why we brought on youth programs, community programs and educational programs. We’ve also increased the number of events a little bit. That’s what makes it so year-round and every day.
On the biggest changes since the takeover ... Wilmott: With it comes all of the accountability and paperwork of doing things at that corporate level. It’s funny because I feel like corporate is such a dirty word, and then the cool thing is we are kind of cool corporate. We’ve got to be corporate to have all the legal and financial layers, but how corporate can you be at the beach? It’s kind of fun. I and my staff spend a lot of time working on making sure all of the contracts are really buttoned-up and working with our legal team in Santa Monica, Calif. And similarly we have three layers of financial controllers and accountants for our region because we’ve got so much business. When you are doing things at such a global scale, between territories and between banking, the financial and legal layers are huge. That’s something that I think was just a lot more casual in the past. ... When you attend the Triple Crown events you won’t notice a whole lot of difference to anything over the last few years. But the massive change is what happens behind the scenes. It just requires so much more accountability.
On the future impact of wave pools ... Wilmott: Of all places where one of Kelly [Slater]’s wave pools would be amazing, actually, would be Oahu. We have such strict event permit laws, we can’t even get all the athletes into events in Hawaii because there’s a limited number of days, hours and venues, and there’s a lot of competition between different sports and different layers of things applying for those limited days and venues. We have events where we turn away over 100 of our own surfers. If we had a wave pool, we’d still want the Pipe Master, the World Cup and all those things, but if we had a wave pool we could give our juniors and entry-level pro so much more opportunity to compete … Another big advantage would be programing and scheduling. We have events with holding periods of around 12-13 days for each of our events because we have swell generated by weather. It takes about two weeks for you to get four competitive days at the top level. You have to schedule these 12-14 day windows, all of that requires having people available, so you have to pay them for a full period. We don’t have an Aloha Stadium to drive into and plug and play, you’ve got to build it, and we have a sport with all of this expense of building, holding a long period, broadcasting, paying people, big vendors for all the equipment and then we can’t sell seats. We are a sport that can’t monetize. Even if we did, we don’t know when you fly in that the Pipe Masters will actually run in the four days that you are here, so how do you sell a ticket anyway?
On what surfing means to the community ... Wilmott: If you are a football enthusiast, sure, you might go book yourself on a trip to so-and-so to a game that’s going on there. But are you renting a house in that community because everyone in that community is going to get out in the afternoon to throw a ball around together? Because that’s what you are doing if you are surfing. Are you wearing football clothes every day? There are multiple stores offering surf and beach wear, but I don’t see many football, tennis or golf shops, and we’ve got tons of golf courses and football is huge here … I really believe surfing is very unique. My family’s closest friends around the world, the places I’ve lived around the world, the school projects I’ve done throughout school and college, everything I’ve done is through surfing.
