Why is it so crowded in the line up: Do The Math

If you take the coast of California between San Francisco to the Mexican border, which is roughly 500 miles, and grossly estimate that there is one class “A” surf break every 50-miles, that would total 10. Then, say there is one class “B” break very 5-miles which adds 100 breaks to the total. Once again, let’s assume that there is yet another class “C” break every 5-miles to add another 100 breaks, making a grand total of 250, with, in truth, most of the surfers being drawn to the better third.

250 Surf spots

Now, let’s say that there are 500,000 active surfers in California, and that on any sunny weekend day with a 4-foot swell running, that 10% will hit the surf. Now, let’s consider that at least 1/3rd of those 250 breaks will be completely off-duty due to swell direction. That makes for 50,000 surfers sharing 250-less 83 breaks=50,000/167 which means that on average, there will be 299 surfers for each working surf break along the coast between San Francisco and the Mexican border.

299 Surfers per spot

Now let’s be real, the population is probably 2/3s in the south and 1/3 north, so the distribution at breaks would be weighted to the south. Therefore, let’s say 66% X 50,000 surfers=33,000 surfers for the working breaks in the south, and 17,000 for the working break in the north.

2/3 of those surfers live in Southern California

Of course, quantifying “the better break attracting more than their share” theory means that, let’s say, 35,000 surfers surfing the top third working breaks (56) or about 625 for each of those which leaves only 15,000 for the other 111, or 155 per.

625 surfers per spot in the South

155 surfers per spot in the North

In the real world, what actually happens is that over 500 surf Trestles during a day in roughly five shifts from dawn to dusk-the same at Malibu, and Huntington Pier and San Onofre, while most other breaks get way less.

500 surfers a day at Trestles, Malibu, Huntington & San Onofre on a good day

But any way you cut it the total mass of surfers and approximate number of surf breaks is undeniable.

This is, of course, completely theoretical and statically askew, but the numbers don’t lie. We have outgrown our supply.

From The Surfers Journal blog

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.