Commercialism of Surfing part 3. What's Good about it?

Report - small 1 - 1.5 ft on open beaches. NW offshore winds. Low Tide 8.50 am

Old photo today, there are already enough photos of no surf in previous posts. This is one of a good day in winter last year.

The commercialisation of surfing has done a number of good things for the sport.

The main benefit being ongoing development. If people weren't making money out of it, then there wouldn't be funds to research and develop things like shortboards, thrusters, epoxy, new fins, those hydrofoil things in the movie Step Into Liquid and dare I say it bodyboards.

A case in point. If Simon Anderson was stuck working behind a desk at the local council instead of making a living as a pro surfer and shaping boards, would we ever have been blessed with the the thruster. Maybe some one else would have come up with the idea, but now 30 or so years down the track, we are still using them and even though there have been refinements and adjustments, they haven't changed dramatically since.

I have tried single fin boards, whilst it great for novelty I won't be going down to my local shaper and getting him to make me one up.

And thanks to all those shapers that continue to tweek designs try to get just a little bit better performance out of each board they make.

By directly leading to greater participation, commercialism has further helped development. ie more people=more ideas. With the exception of bodyboards most of the bad ones have disappeared over the years as they either didn't work or were just dumb to start with. There aren't too many people jumping onto the finless board or surfing goggles bandwagons.

The next great benefit is exploration. Whether driven by a desire to escape crowds, the need to camp overnight or fodder for a new magazine article, by having the time and money those making a buck out of surfing have gone in search of new waves in locations all over the world. It wasn't that long ago that Bali was an exotic destination. Now with the aid of various websites and travel companies you can plan a whole surfing trip months in advance and have a reasonable expectation of getting some swell. Its never guaranteed though.

How about the guy who thinks that his local break is getting crowded so decides to hit the road, or these days google earth and search out new locations that might work, possibly even better than where he lives and finds a break that no one has ever surfed before. Nowadays its very unlikely you will do this in California or the east coast Australia, but move to Africa or Siberia and you may have chance. At least you will likely find some spot that you haven't previously surfed yourself.

Sitting nicely alongside exploration is pushing the boundaries. Most recently this is in the form of big wave, tow in surfing. It seems that every month a magazine comes out with the biggest waves ever ridden. Without commercial funding how are these guys going to afford the plane/helicopter/boat ride to access these offshore reefs. then they need jet skis to tow them in on. 10 years ago no one was thinking about heading 20km offshore to surf some 50ft wave. It just couldn't be done.

Commercialism has brought surfing to a wider audience at the same time increasing the amount of participants. This has brought convenience. If you live near the beach in a well populated area, you won't have to drive more than 10 minutes (depending on traffic) to find a fully stocked surf shop containing everything and more that you might want for a trip to the beach.

An overseas surf trip to Indo used to mean major expedition. Now we can book a flight to Bali, jump on a plane be there in less than 6 hours and find accommodation on arrival. You could probably get straight onto a 10 day, all inclusive cruise of the islands as well. Thats convenience. There are hordes of motorcyclists all just itching to take you to Uluwatu for (even though you may be getting ripped off at local rates) what is really a very low price.

Does the good outweigh the bad effects?

Yes. If you want to skip on the crowds, have had enough of glossy magazines ramming photos of young up and coming next world champs down your throat then it can all be avoided.

Take a drive.

No one is forcing you to wear Rip Curl clothes, or even wetsuits- there are plenty of alternatives.

Don't buy a magazine, read the newspaper.