New study: Surf tourists rob, drug and sex!

Also, Jordy Smith punts a massive one after getting barreled!

Oxfam is a fantastic organization that seeks to put an end to global inequality and poverty. It operates in almost every country, bringing food, education, medicine and help to the most needy. Today one of their interns, Ben Fortun, wrote a piece on how the surf industry is, for the most part, shit.

Ben, apparently, used to be a pro longboarder but got hurt and then got thinking. “I remembered the farmers in Cardon, Mexico forced off their land to build resorts…” he wrote on Oxfam’s blog “…leaving them with the choice to either become resort workers or turn to illicit activities. I remembered the gangs in Costa Rica that have grown out of the massive inequality there. I remembered the sweatshops in China and elsewhere that produce surfing products, from board shorts to surfboards, by the thousands with little to no safety regulations to protect their workers. I have seen the dark side of the surfing community, that existed then and persists to this day, but is rarely seen or talked about.”

Bummer. But it gets worse!

He cites an Argentinian study that found “Costa Rica experienced a 700 percent increase in robberies and a 280 percent increase in drug related crimes between 1990 and 2006. Similarly, Indonesia’s Tourism Department recorded more than 13,703 child victims of sexual exploitation between 1972 and 2008. Coincidentally or not, these trends parallel the emergence of surf tourism in each locale.”

Bummer. Are there any bright spots?

I don’t think but BeachGrit still believes, above all, that surfing is anti-depressive so watch Jordy launch! (don’t worry about the privacy business just click and watch on Vimeo!) (Rob, drug, sex)