Monster Wave in Super Slo-Mo

High-definition cameras shooting 600 frames reveal the inner dynamics of Monster Waves in the new BBC series South Pacific: Oceans of Islands premiered May 10 on BBC Two. The trailer above shows the first images of underwater spiralling vortices created by the wave’s action, off the coast of Pohnpei in the Caroline Islands, part of the Federated State of Micronesia. Read more about monster waves and super slo-motion techniques here at BBC Earth News.

Who's Surfing Lowers?

Surfline just posted a little photo expose on "Who's Surfing Lowers". I mapped where they came from here:


View Who's Surfing Lowers in a larger map

Although far from a random sample, I thought it was interesting that it looks somewhat familar to this map that is the result of about 1000 responses to an Internet-based survey:





Surfers are clearly willing to "go the extra mile" to surf Trestles.

Total Economic Value

Economists often try to measure the value of things. In my case I am interested in using economics to help understand the value of surfing. A common criticism of this approach, beyond the philosophical question about the need to use money to value everything, is that the value of surfing for a day doesn't really capture the entire value of the experience. That is true.

The common techniques used to capture the non-market value of surfing (or other activities) capture a lower bound. The techniques attempt to measure the value of the direct use of the resource.

To try and put that value in context the Total Economic Value framework was established. The other components require non-market valuation techniques.

The illustration above shows the Total Economic Value framework, with examples for surfing.

Read more here and here.

Nias: The Golden Pig

The Golden Pig

Documentary about the island of Nias. Provided to us by Australian film director Joel Peterson. The film showcases the dangers of modern surf colonialism, focusing on the impacts it can have on native populations.

The waves at Lagundri Bay on the Indonesian island of Nias are what dreams are made of. The Golden Pig highlights incredible early footage from surf explorer Kevin Peterson along with "first contact" interviews with locals of Nias.

The current state of Nias, surfer paradise or culture destroyed by surfing, remains debated. There is no question that surfing had a profound influence on this community.

The Surf Economics of Brevard County, Florida

Brevard County, Florida is arguably the epicenter of surfing in Florida. This region boats numerous surf spots from CoCoa Beach to Sebastian Inlet and spawned the Hobgoods and Slater.

Last week, Mike Slotkin of Florida Institute of Technology presented some stats on surfers who visit Brevard County from an internet-based survey of 240 surfers who lived outside Brevard County but visit to surf.



As you can see, surfers from throughout the state come to Brevard County to surf.











These surfers represent a full range of ages - over 40% of them are over 36 years old.













They are also well educated and earn high wages. For comparison, the median household income in Florida is a little over $46,000 and about 25% of Floridians have a college degree. These surfers are wealthy and well educated.









When they visit the county to surf they spend money in local businesses.







When you begin to add up those expenditures over a year they start to add up. As is common, the hardest number to find is the annual number of surfer visits. Here they estimated 9500 a year.






This profile of Florida surfers who visit Brevard County is similar to the demongraphics of surfers who visit Trestles. Mike shows this comparison in his presentation. You can see all the slides here (5 MB .pdf)

Thanks to Dr. Mike Slotkin and Dr. Alex Vamosi for sharing their presentation and kudos to Brian Kelly for conducting the survey.

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.