http://www.boston.com/dailynews/135/world/Surfers_rebellion_forces_Irish:.shtml

Surfers' rebellion forces Irish to withdraw plans to host world games

By Shawn Pogatchnik, Associated Press, 5/15/2001 20:39

DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) Ireland reluctantly withdrew its support Tuesday from plans to host the World Surfing Games after suffering a grass-roots rebellion among the country's reclusive surfer dudes.

World surfing authorities and the Irish Surfing Association had planned to bring the Olympics of international surfing to Ireland's remote northwest coast in 2004. A majority of the local group's dues-paying members approved the idea in an April 27 vote.

But anger among many independent surfers, who disputed the vote's legitimacy and feared having their favorite surfing sites revealed to the wider world, soon threatened to tear the association apart.

''The debate on the bid has split the surfing fraternity down the middle, and the executive believe that it would be extremely damaging to the ISA in the long term to continue with the bid,'' the association's leaders said in a statement.

Leaders now plan to hold a special conference next month to vote on formally withdrawing their plans to host the games, a move they believe will bring many of the rebellious surfers into the organization.

The unexpected reversal came after a stormy meeting of surfers Saturday in the western coastal town of Sligo. The association's president, Brian Britton, resigned after saying he had suffered several days of unacceptable verbal attacks.

''Ownership of the waves does not rest with the surfers of Ireland, it rests with the people of Ireland,'' said Britton, who had spent five years promoting his homeland as a fitting venue for the biennial World Games, which began in 1966.

''A unified structure going forward for surfing in Ireland, with all surfers supporting the Irish Surfing Association, is more important than one issue or one person,'' Britton said in his resignation letter. ''If anything, I was guilty of misjudging the views of the surfers of Ireland, and in that I was wrong.''

But in a phone interview, Britton accused a militant group among the so-called ''lifestyle'' or ''soul'' surfers who oppose any organization or commercialization of the sport of ''imposing their selfish world view on everyone.''

He suggested that the Irish bid might be revived if enough people, particularly community activists outside surfing circles, demanded that it go ahead.

The Irish government's sports ministry and the U.S. brewer Coors had committed themselves to covering much of the projected $1.1 million in organizational costs.

''Clearly such funding can only be made available where an event has the full backing of those engaged in the sport in Ireland. I regret the recent developments which mean that our bid cannot now proceed,'' Tourism and Sports Minister Jim McDaid said after meeting Britton.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2001

Answers

Brookes,

The real reason for the surfers not wanting the championships in Ireland is that they fear the new superfast TI surfboard will be copied.(TI = turf injected)

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2001