Jordy Smith, who is a World Surf League competitor recently won The Hurley Pro Trestles event that took place in Southern California. After winning an event it is customary to wear your main sponsor’s hat on the podium while receiving your trophy in front of the crowd so everyone can see who is supporting you. Jordy Smith’s main sponsor is Red Bull, but the main energy drink sponsor of the World Surf League is Monster Energy. This means that any branding seen at the contest site, especially on the podium has to feature the Monster Energy logo. Monster and Red Bull are rivals within the energy drink industry. En route to the stage to accept his trophy Jordy was approached by a WSL executive who stated, that Jordy would receive a major fine if he wore his Red Bull hat on stage, or something along those lines. Jordy went up on stage wearing his Red Bull hat anyway and proudly celebrated his win. The fine was issued, but almost immediately withdrawn. Did this threat come as a result of the bad blood between the WSL and Red Bull? 
Was this fine due to a branding conflict between companies? If so, how can this issue be resolved? Many of the competitors on tour have conflicting sponsors with the WSL. This is a major issue the WSL needs to resolve if it wants to attract and keep major sponsors, but also have the best surfers in the world competing at their events.
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