“This watch was on your father’s wrist when his plane was shot down over Hanoi. He was captured and placed in a Vietnamese prison camp…”
At the beginning of last year, although it seems like an eternity, The World Surf League enthusiastically touted the Apple Watch as “the official wearable of the WSL.” Championship Tour surfers strapped glowing mini-computers to their wrists and used them to track who had priority in a given heat instead of looking back toward that pesky shoreline.
“The unique capabilities, ease of use and incredible water resistance of Apple Watch make it the ideal solution to support our surfers competing in the extreme conditions of our World Tour,” said the now Disgraced WSL CEO Erik Logan said at the time“Surfers need critical information during competition, and the WSL Surfer app we developed for Apple Watch provides real-time data that will facilitate communication between the WSL scoring system and competitors in the water. We are excited to roll out this app and allow our Championship Tour athletes to focus on their performance and improve their competitiveness throughout the 2023 season.”
It’s unclear what happened to that partnership. Like Jeep, Barefoot Wine, and Box to Box Films, it disappeared, I think, for no reason, but those early, heady days were full of seedsCaio Ibelli almost missed his call because his Apple Watch “didn’t tell the time.”
Italian hunk Leonardo Fioravanti even said in an interview after the series: “I just want to say that our damn watches weren’t working and it’s pretty heavy. My watch wasn’t working. And I have no complaints about Apple or the WSL. I mean, what they’re doing is great, they’re trying to bring technology into our world. But if my watch isn’t working from start to finish and I have to ask for the time, I’m used to having the time on me at all times during the series. And we’re fighting for our careers, so I hope they find a solution because my watch wasn’t working from start to finish. So it’s pretty heavy.”
It’s quite a big deal indeed, with the tech giant’s reputation being greatly tarnished in the surfing world.
Although surfers, like most, love redemption stories and here we have it because a few days ago the stained Apple Watch saved a surfer’s life. The New York Post Australian Rick Shearman, 49, was out in the surf when he suddenly felt unwell near Byron Bay. The currents were being sucked in and Shearman… oh, he was bodysurfing, so I guess he wasn’t really surfing, but then he remembered he was wearing an Apple Watch and that’s where the story begins.
“At that point I was way out at sea, being buffeted by wind and big waves, it was actually quite difficult to use [the watch]. I had to hold it to my ear to hear what was happening and talk to the respondent.
It worked!
Rescuers arrived and pulled him to shore, and bottles of Barefoot wine were opened in celebration. “If I didn’t have this service on my watch, I’d probably be sailing somewhere in international waters right now,” Shearman said.
Leonardo Fioravanti has not yet responded to comments.