Is There a Future in Surfing?

WSL commentator Joe Turpel talks about his insanely busy year on and off tour. He goes into detail on the redesigned Championship Tour schedule for next season (especially Trestles and G-Land), gives his thoughts on the midseason cut, gets stoked on the Challenger Series slate, and looks at how this schedule will impact the return of Kelly Slater. He shares stories of working as the primetime announcer for Olympic surfing and calling the action from Connecticut, and then reviews which country’s teams he thought performed best. He also talks about his experience as the commentator on the new ABC show “The Ultimate Surfer,” from shooting the show during the pandemic to recording the new podcast with Cassie Randolph. Joe also tells his backstory, from growing up in Hawaii and Orange County, announcing NSSA events, being on the same UCSB surf team as Dave, passing up jobs that wouldn’t allow him to announce surfing, and committing to the craft of commentating.

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