How many surf sessions?

Earlier I posted on how many surfers there are in the US. This is a follow up about how often they surf. The same 2001 marine recreational survey used in that previous post also estimated how many visits to the beach surfers made in a year.

As the graphic above illustrates, there were a total of about 76.5 million surf visits in the US in 2000.

This means that surfers averaged about 22 surf sessions per year.

The top states for annual surf sessions were Hawaii, California, Florida, and North Carolina. The number of days of participation (visits) for the top five states could not be estimated because there was an insufficient sample size per state after the top 4.

At Trestles (a top quality wave with a avid local surf population), survey respondents reported an average annual visitation of 109 visits/year.

A study on surfer illness in Oregon found that surfers averaged 77 surf visits per year.

If I had to guess, I would say that you'd find that the average number of annual surf sessions is bimodal - there is a large number of surfers who average 5-15 days per year and then there are more avid groups along the coasts that average closer to 70-150 visits a year. More information on the behavior of surfers is needed to figure this out. Hopefully, the Surf First surfer survey will help us start to answer this question and others.

How many surfers?

I have been asked repeatedly, "How many surfers are there in [name a state or country]".

This is a surprisingly difficult question to answer. There is only one study that I know of that counts surfers for the US - a 2000 NOAA recreational survey.

Without getting into the debate about what constitutes a surfer, here are some stats for the U.S. from that study:

There are about 3.3 million people who surfed in 2000.

The top 6 states are illustrated above: California, Hawaii, Florida, North Carolina, New Jersey and Texas.

Here's a table of all states that they found surfers:



All of this info is based on a report called the "Current Participation Patterns in Marine Recreation". It was published in 2001 - see reference below. The stats are generated based on a phone survey of 50,000 homes in the US. This is the only published report on recreational surfing participation that I am aware of.

Surfing has boomed boomed since 2000 so it will be interesting to see what we find upon publication of the next marine recreation report.

This tells us how many surfers there are. A more interesting question, one that is critical to understanding the economics of surfing, is, "How many times did they surf?". Stay tuned for that answer.

You can read the whole report here:

Leeworthy, V. R. and P. C. Wiley (2001). Current Participation Patterns in Marine Recreation, U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Ocean Service, Special Projects. National Survey on Recreation and the Environment 2000: 53.

Intercepting Surfers

This is a graphical representation of typical surfing and beach going attendance patterns over a day for many places in the world. Surfers tend to visit the beach in the mornings and evening - when conditions are best and they are not at work. On the other hand beachgoing tends to happen mostly in the middle of the day. Surfers also tend to visit the beach throughout the week or when conditions are good, where as beach going more typically occurs on the weekends.

Understanding this pattern is very important when considering the economics of beach going.

Many studies on the economics of beach going rely on intercept surveys to collect their data. Intercept surveys that take place in person at a site and interview visitors while they are at the beach. It is also during this time that many attendance counts are conducted to estimate how many visitors use the beach in a given day or year.

These surveys are often conducted in the middle of the day when beach going is at its maximum. In these cases a large portion of the surf visitation may be missed. This will lead to an underestimate of the overall use of the beach and also disproportionately miss surfer visits.

This could have many implications about the value of the beach and its management.

When calculating the lost value associated with the American Trader oil spill, Chapman and Hanemann avoided this pitfall by surveying beach visitors from 6 AM to 6 PM and found that at some Orange County beaches surfers made up 10-20% of the beach visits. This is one of the only studies on beach economics that specifically made an effort to survey early and late to capture surfers.

We found a similar patter at Trestles.

Value of Local Shops to the Surf Industry

Surfline Launches Local Surf Shop Series Focusing on the Value of Local Shops to the Surf Industry
January 16, 2009
PRESS RELEASE

Today Surfline launches a new editorial series that focuses on the core value of local surf shops to the industry and the culture they provide. This editorial series will focus on surf shops and their vast knowledge of both products and surf culture as well as their understanding of what a surfer needs in terms of equipment and knowledge, all the while providing a strong community in the local marketplace. Local surf shops allow surfers a place to congregate around core industry products and provide a community and culture that has escaped the main stream surf industry. Surfline is focused on bringing this culture and community to light and show the importance to surfers and the industry in all local markets.

Surfline's VP of Editorial Dave Gilovich says, "We believe surf shops are good for surfing. Surf shops provide a place where wave riders can find the core products they need to pursue their life's passion - boards, leashes, wax, wetsuits, boardshorts. Equally important, most shops have personnel on the floor who can offer information about these products, with a degree of knowledge and understanding that can be found nowhere else. But the best surf shops are more than just retail stores. The special ones, the ones that have served their communities for years and, in some cases, decades, offer a place for surfers to gather, connect and communicate, to share the stoke of surfing and to celebrate its lifestyle and culture. These businesses have become shrines to our sport, and, as such, are important to surfers everywhere."

Visit the first part of this series today on Surfline where you can read about Harbour Surfboards in Seal Beach which has been around Since 1962.

Study: Surfers ingest 10 times more water than swimmers, divers

A new study has found that surfers may unintentionally ingest 10 times more water than swimmers or divers, putting them at higher risk of contracting gastrointestinal illnesses when surfing in contaminated waters.

The study, which may be the first of its kind, was conducted by scientists at Oregon State University and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. It also suggests that because water quality at Oregon beaches is significantly better than more popular surfing destinations, such as California, Hawaii, or Florida, the risk of GI illness is lower for people surfing the frigid waters of the Oregon coast.

“While the risk for Oregon surfers is not high for GI illness, our findings suggest that surfers who spend longer periods of time in recreational waters, or who surf in more contaminated locations, are likely to be at higher risk of contracting GI illnesses,” said David Stone, an assistant professor in the OSU Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology.

The study, funded by Oregon Sea Grant, used a Web-based survey to collect voluntary responses from 520 of the estimated 12,000 surfers in Oregon. Participants estimated the amount of water they ingest during a typical recreational day, and the researchers used historic water quality data collected at six popular surfing beaches to calculate the risk of infection from fecal bacteria using enterococci as an indicator organism.

Read more...

Protecting surf spots

World Wave Sites team: Ryan Seelbach, Will Henry, Greg Benoit, Chris LaFranchi, Ben Finney, Jim Moriarty, Fernando Aguerre, Rodney A. Woodstock, Sky, Miles Walsh, Lindsey Davis, Dean LaTourrette, Kara Allen, Christoph Tito Huber, Joao De Macedo, Drew Kampion, Steve Hawk, Brad Farmer, Josh Berry, Wallace J. Nichols, Chad Nelsen, Mark Massara, Len Materman

Last Friday, Save the Waves brought together an interesting mix of surfing eco-activists, industry leaders and deep thinkers to discuss proactively protecting surfing areas by establishing surfing "reserves".

Topics discussed included the importance of surfing heritage and cultural values, protecting the ocean environment, economics and the waves themselves.

Brad Farmer, of the Australian National Surfing Reserves, described the process of establishing surfing reserves in Australia like the one at Lennox, and lessons that might be applied elsewhere.

While establishing protected surfing areas is an ambitious and aspirational goal and there are many important decisions and details to be worked out, I think it is safe to say the group universally agreed that the world's special surfing areas deserve the same types of protection that our land-based recreational havens like Yosemite have.

Stay tuned for more on protecting surfing areas...

From http:/www.surf-first.org....

WOULD YOU SPEND 15 MINUTES, IF IT MEANT SURFING THE REST OF YOUR LIFE?

We thought you would. And the good news is you can. All across the country, surfers are facing access and environmental fights that fail to consider their needs and enormous impact. While fishermen and other recreational ocean users flex big muscle in courthouses and town halls, surfers get pushed aside a 'segment group.' A minor hobby for punk kids - instead of healthy lifestyle for whole families. That's because we let them.

Despite being a 1000-year-old sport with a $7 billion industry, surfing has failed to produce the demographic and economic studies to show who we are, where we live, and what we spend. So while other interest groups bolster their arguments with impressive numbers to prove their positions, all-too often, surfers get blindsided and bowled over, unable to offer a single hard number to support their cases or save their breaks.

Not anymore. With your help, we can start to paint a true picture of who surfers are and how we behave. And every surfer who answers provides another stroke of necessary detail. All you need to do is take 15 minutes to fill out the survey. Here's some quick rules:
Answer honestly. An accurate study is our best weapon.
When in doubt, leave an answer blank. We'd rather have less info than bad info.
Pass it along to your friends.
All information is anonymous. We promise not to share the individual details for commercial purposes, but we will share the bulk data - national, state by state, and as a whole. Right here. That way, surfers, in any fight, in any coastal town - from the most precious, world-class pointbreak to the shittiest, shiftiest sandbar - can proudly walk into any town hall or business office and prove with concrete numbers that surfing is a pursuit as crucial to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in their beach town as any other ocean activity. That enjoying the ocean is much a god-given American right as protecting your beach home investment.

Maybe if we're just as selfish, aggressive and determined as we are in the water, we'll never lose another wave. And if we do, it's because we looked hard, considered it carefully and let it go for a greater good - not because someone snaked it from us.

NOW: TAKE THE SURVEY!