During the last decade, as surfing has moved into the mainstream among outdoor enthusiasts, the pressures on the nation’s surfing breaks has skyrocketed. Several national sports participation studies have evidenced that the number of surfers has grown over 30% between 2004-2005 and over 90% during the last decade. In the last eight years, the total number of surfers in the United States has expanded from less than 1.5 million to in excess of 2.6 million, and world wide there are estimated to be in excess of 30 million participants. Of the United States surfing population, it is estimated that up to 37% are now female, making surfing one of the fastest growing sports among women. Given the extremely limited access, or complete inaccessibility, of quality surfing breaks to the majority of the US population, these numbers represent astronomical localized participation rates within only a few select sub-markets. This is diametrically opposed to the significant contractions of the traditional team sports of baseball, basketball, and football. By many estimates, baseball participation over the last 16 years has nosedived in excess of 40%, basketball by over 22%, and football by over 29%.
The demand on the nation’s coastal resources is also remarkably visual. Improved surf forecasting has had the unavoidable consequence of drastically increasing the number of surfers in the water. Long gone are the days of checking the surf every few hours in hopes that you might unexpectedly score empty waves. Several companies will now forward the current surf conditions and long range forecasts directly to your Blackberry. Web cams and detailed swell, wind, and tide charts take the guess work out of knowing where to be and when.
The cumulative result of all this is that large crowds constantly overpower quality breaks creating hazardous conditions and hostile beginner’s environments. For experienced surfers, the average number of waves per session has fallen dramatically. By nearly all estimates, average surfers catch less than ten waves per session with a ride length of as little as five seconds, and beginner’s substantially less. During informal studies conducted by LEAP, it was not uncommon to see beginning surfers in Southern California waiting in excess of 40 minutes between waves.
The immense growth of the surfing population and lifestyle affiliation has also had incredible economic consequences. Surf retailers have created a multi-billion dollar soft goods industry, while numerous multi-national corporations are employing brand transfer and affiliation campaigns, to tap into the unexpected wealth of the demographic. In an independent study performed by Economic Research Associates on behalf of LEAP, surfing was found to have the highest income among its participants of any of the major sports; higher than golf, skiing, or kayaking.
This counter-intuitive conclusion can primarily be explained through a geographic summary of where surfing occurs. Coastal communities such as San Diego, Del Mar, Newport Beach, Santa Barbara, Malibu, Long Island, Cape Hatteras, Cocoa Beach, and West Palm Beach, to name just a few, have quality waves, but extremely high costs of living. Surfing Participation by Income Chart
Surfing camps and schools have also appreciably increased the accessibility of the sport. These educational programs eliminate the grab, go, and imitate method of learning that veteran surfers had to navigate. Instead personalized instruction, like Surf Diva’s all female surfing camps, caters to the uninitiated in hopes of leaving a lasting “teacher retailer” brand impression.
Estimating latent surfing demand is always difficult, however surfing and wave riding facilities becoming a meaningful part of the national recreation scene is all but inevitable in many people’s minds. Already, organizational bodies are being discussed and several significant establishments are either under construction or in the planning stages. (www.waveyard.com)This progression is similar to the natural evolution that numerous other lifestyle sports have already withstood or are currently weathering; climbing mountains to climbing gyms, kayaking rivers to courses and diversions, street skating to skate parks, mountain biking to mountain bike parks, and snowboarding slopes to terrain parks.
