A recent article on ESPN’s website really got under my skin, so I apologize now to all the non-kooks who enjoy ESPN (Disney) coverage of their sporting events… hum not really.

The kook author, Jake Howard, ESPN blogger and senior writer for Surfer Magazine, makes arrogant remarks and furthers the misconceptions by saying, “most surfers can hardly add let alone figure out Kelly Slater’s career win/loss ratio.” This remark seems surprising coming from a guy who writes for surfing culture magazines and internet blogs. (Well, I guess this is one reason surfing mag went bankrupt, poor choices.)

The “journalist” Jake Howard notes that there is no “database” to search surfer data and, admittedly, their is not an official “database” although their are countless records, if you know where to look.  Despite the many shortcomings of the article, Howard unknowingly unearths some interesting questions about surfing.

Should surfing become another stat filled commercially covered game like baseball? I question the good databases would do for the surfing community and I defiantly have my reservations. But as more and more $money$ comes pouring into the “cool” sport of surfing, is it inevitable? YES.

Stats and coverage will drive sales and boost bottom lines of both companies and the pro surfers, but what is the affect on the line up? I think we can all admit we don’t need any more kooks out there. I think we are all aware of over crowding in every line up around the world.

One of the central problems with stats and surfing is the subjectivity of the sport and what is considered a 10.0 ride. We all know what good surfing looks like, but there are often variations in style and form that are often subjectively viewed as good and bad. Ultimately, stats raise the question of how to really judge surfing contests and how the events should be formatted.

Surfing as a pure sport with stats and live coverage is in its infancy and we are only just figuring these things out. Go back to the begining of any sport, including baseball and you’ll find only weak stats available.

Well, I look forward to comments…