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!

The New Localism

What is the new localism?

a wave rider in the White House

A new twist on the surfer stereotype...



Not only is Obama the first African American to become the President of the United States, he's also the first President who can legitimately body surf!

Next time someone disparages a surfer, you can remind them of this.

Beach Closed

I woke up early this morning (thanks in part to the time change) to check the surf at my local beach. I was hoping that is swell would be showing:



Sadly, when I got down to the overlook, I was reminded that Laguna just experienced a massive 480,000 gallon sewage spill and the beaches were still closed.

That got me to thinking about all the surfers in town who wouldn't be surfing in Laguna this weekend. These surfers would either skip their surf session (like me) or would have to travel out of town to other surfing areas. In economic speak - they would either have lost the value of a surf session or would incur a higher travel cost to go somewhere else, which will reduce their consumer surplus (stoke) assuming all other things being equal (surf quality, etc.).

In February of 1990, the American Trader, dumped over 400,000 gallons of oil in the waters off of Huntington Beach. The spill closed 14 miles of beach for 34 days. Eight years and a ten week trial later a jury awarded the State of California $18 million. To arrive at that figure economists on both sides of the issue used the Travel Cost Method to estimate the non-market value of lost beach and surf recreation. (Click here for an surf-centric explanation).

Here are some numbers from the calculations:

Surfing Trips Lost: 28,290
Value of those trips: $18.75
Total consumer surplus lost: $530,438

Surf trips diverted to substitute site: 28,148
Extra cost associated with going to other site: $12.00
Total consumer surplus lost: $337,776

Back to the sewer spill, I wonder how much lost value did surfers in Laguna suffer from due to the beach closure?

Detailed information on the American Trader spill can be found in the following paper:

Chapman, D. J. and W. M. Hanneman (2001). Environmental Damages In Court: The American Trader Case. The Law and Economics of the Environment. A. Heyes: 319-367.

STW releases Mundaka surf economics study

Mundaka is a town whose economy relies heavily on surf tourism, and in 2005 the wave was temporarily lost due to river dredging for a large ship-building project.

“This study provides evidence of not just the environmental value of a Mundaka, but of the economic value as well, reinforcing the notion that it and other spots like it need to be protected.”

The study was conducted by graduate student Melissa Murphy of the University of Oregon’s College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, with the help of Maria Bernal from Autonoma University Madrid, and was commissioned by Save The Waves Coalition.

Summary of Key Findings:

1) At higher visitation levels, surfing and the wave at Mundaka has an estimated positive economic impact of up to $4.5 million per year to the local economy – in a town of approximately 1,900 people.1

2) Surfing at Mundaka adds up to $1.5 million in annual personal income to the local population, and supports up to 95 jobs.1

3) A majority of survey respondents claimed they would no longer visit Mundaka if the wave there were significantly degraded.

4) Local businesses estimated that up to 40% of their customers are surfers or surf spectators, and that the loss of business due to the degradation of the wave and the cancellation of the Billabong Pro contest could be as high as 50%.2

You can check out Melissa's presentation on this research here.

$300 to fly with your surfboard!

After a decade of booming and relatively cheap surf travel, prices are quickly rising. While good for reducing the overall carbon footprint of traveling surfers, increased prices may have dramatic affects on the surfer-based economies of many "towns that surfing built".

This just in from Wired Magazine: Delta jacks their surfboard price up to $300 per board for travel!


Surfers feel singled out because golf bags, skis and other equipment still flies for free.

Check out a petition on the issue here.