Surfing is exploding in popularity but where do the majority call home?
I am not a mathematician, by nature, not have I ever passed a mathematics class but numbers still fascinate because they never lie. There they stand, cold, stark, naked and true. Honest. Sincere. There are no adjectives in the number language and no adverbs either and so when I stumble upon them in our surfing world I pour over them, attempting to discern real meaning is this sea of fibs.
As you well know, surfers are great liars. We lie about anything and everything but numbers cannot be lied about because they are all verifiable and legitimate and today I saw two numbers in a Forbes magazine article that are extremely interesting and would you like to look at them with me?
Here.
Surfing’s inclusion in the 2020 Olympics is a testament to the sport’s global growth. According to the International Surfing Association (ISA), the world governing body for surfing, more than 35 million people surf. The ISA has also grown from 32 member nations in 1995 to more than 100, including non-traditional surfing markets like Russia, Sierra Leone and Iran.
There are 2.874 million surfing participants in the United States, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association. From 2017-18, the amount of surfing participants in the country increased by 7.3%.
And there we have it. Do you see? There are 35 million surfers, worldwide, and only 2.874 million of them live in the United States of America. Now, I sat for half an hour struggling to work out the percentages but think that 2.874 million of 35 million is less than 10%. Even less than 8%. Is that correct? Am I right?
Fascinating.
So where do these other 32,126,000 live? Australia for sure but the population of that Lucky Country is only 24 million. Even if all of them surfed that still leaves us with 8 million but we know that it is impossible for all Australians to surf. We know, for instance, that Iggy Azalea does not surf.
Brazil is surf mad, just crazy for the Pastime of Kings but has 130 million less people than the United States of America and also a tiny fraction of coastline compared to its northern friend.
Japan now has Kanoa Igarashi but has been declining in population since 2014.
The non-traditional surfing markets Russia, Sierra Leone and Iran excite me very much and likely contribute significantly to overall surfer numbers but I feel I must be missing some grand surfing nation. A place where millions and millions of surfers live in perfect harmony.
Is it Great Britain?
Maybe Peru?
Oman?
Where are you, millions upon millions of surfers, and what language do you speak? We’ll change BeachGrit to reflect your hopes, dreams and native tongue.
Help me help you!
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Ok this is interesting.the book I have in front of me is by ASL.titled”The complete guide to surfing your best”volume 2 by Nick Carroll.so it’s not a normal surfing magazine but more of a book filled with great tips to improve people’s surfing.anyway page 94 gives you some stats and the sources indicate SLSA( surf lifesaving australia)estimated surfboard sales.surfing Australia boardriding club memberships and surf school graduates.
Can’t find the exact publishing date of this book but it was after 2007.
So to get percentages I found out population in Australia for 1980,2000 and 2007.
1980-250000 surfers,14.16 million=1.76%
2000-1.2 M surfers,19.15 M people=6.2%
2007-1.5M surfers,20.83M people=7.2%
So surfing has really increased in popularity over the years but even these stats seem pretty high and unrealistic.
And if they are accurate so many of these people may be the very occasional surfer because even though it does get crowded at times 1.5 million or more in the water is a lot of people and Australia still does have a fairly limited surfing coastline once you get past sunshine coast and also less people surfing in south oz and north WA.
The real question is how many in this pool are taking advantage of a free feel?
Brazzos.
From BG – Nick Carroll wrote a wonderful piece for Australia’s Surfing World two years ago titled Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics wherein he discussed the kicked about numbers. At the time he quoted the International Surfing Association’s claim that there are 23 million surfers in the world, 3.5 million of which live in Australia before quickly poking it with his fork.
You don’t have to think very hard about it to realise that the figure is a fantasy. I mean, just do a flat-line comparison. Three and a half million people is 15% of the entire population of Australia. Extrapolate that to Sydney with its 4-million-odd population and you’re talking about 600,000 surfers in that city alone, or about 15,000 surfers per beach. Yeah, we know Bondi gets crowded, but come on.
So now just a few years later we have a surfing population increasing by 52% (23m to 35m)…….when will it ever stop. I imagine the surf brands are all going gang busters these days and making a fortune. No wonder Rip Qik Bong and so many others are the sharemarket darlings…………surely there is no way Nike would want to part ways with Hurley under this scenario……these growth rates are better than China’s.
There are still tons of surf posers in my area who may even own a board but do not actually surf.
And can you imagine 1% of Americans surfing on a regular basis.no wonder California is so crowded.there is just not enough user friendly coastline in USA.even southern California water is cold which is where most surfers would be and then you have the freezing cold and foggy and uninviting sharky coasts of Oregon Washington States as well as the upper north east Atlantic side.Florida probably nicest water temperature but inconsistent with wave quality.so there you have it.a very high surfer population density compared to Australia.
“When surfing knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool.”
Chinua Achebe
Very hard to estimate but I read in a surfing life book by Nick Carroll years ago that 10% of Australians surf. And then it’s even harder to figure out how often most of these people surf.anywhere from say 3 or 4 days a week to less than once a year.to be really accurate every country would have to ask people about there sporting interests in the census survey which determines entire population counts.
When nick was selling magazines he condoned that kind of puffery.
Now he’s freelance he rips into anyone who does the same.
Hypocrisy is a long game
I’ve never, repeat, never ever talked up surfing numbers, in Australia or worldwide or anywhere. Not in print magazine articles, not online, not anywhere. I haven’t even been that interested in the subject till all these organisations started claiming crazy bs. Shawn Weston in Australia at least there is such a thing, it’s conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics and is based on information gathered both in and out of the Census data, and it reckoned that in 2012 there were 226,000 surfers in Australia and about 3.5 million people who regularly went to the beach each year.
Oh there are other sources of stats too! Surfing Australia has around 20,000 members, they claim this on the basis of head count in every board riding club in Australia (almost every board riding club joins the SA insurance scheme which counts heads in the clubs). So there’s pretty much 20,000 Australian surfers in board riders’ clubs.
So if there’s a bit over 200,000 regular surfers in Oz, about 10% of them are in board riders clubs. I did write that in a piece for ASL some time ago, maybe that’s what Shawn Weston is thinking of. Anyway does that seem a bit more realistic, 90% of regular Australian surfers aren’t in board riders’ clubs and 10% are?
How about fluffing the readership numbers?
Well that’s the fun thing about magazines Superworm, they are concrete objects distributed for sale and generating money thereby, the sales figures are very accurate since they’re how the filthy lucre is or isn’t then handed out to various parties. However, due to the same reason, they are pretty closely guarded. I knew the sales of Tracks, Surfing magazine (and others in the stable), and Deep because I was running those titles and was thus directly responsible for sales both on the newsstand and through subs, I also knew the sales of one or two of my titles’ foes, and for some time had a general idea about ASL’s. I never had to lie about them, like what would be the point?
Of course the readership numbers were then fluffed in media guides as so forth, like “pass along readership” was always the big fluff. Sell 80,000 mags and the “pass-along readership” was suddenly one million!! Honestly, nobody had a clue. But the mags and the sales were real.
Haha! Those fluffy pass along readership numbers was what I was getting at!
When people watch me surf, they see average.
Germany, Netherlands, Tonga, Wales, South Africa. That’s your lot!
Like you, I am not a mathematician, by nature. Noty by Nature, which means when it came to math courses, I was down with O P P. (cheating). It wasn’t that I didn’t study, I just couldn’t wrap my brain around the flow of mathematically finding an answer to a problem. I never got higher than a C. Ever.
That said, when I was in college I had to take Statistics for my Major. On the midterm, I got an A-. I tripped because I didn’t know how I pulled it off. For the Final, I surfed that morning before the exam and got to the class about 5 minutes before it began. It was held in a theater. No seats were empty. I sat in the aisle, along with others who showed up too late to get a seat*. Exam results were posted on a glass encased post board outside the theater. I set the curve. That also awarded an A+ for the course. I didn’t cheat either which is why I’m still floored to this day how I pulled that off.
In other words, when it comes to Statistics, I know what I’m talking about even though I don’t know why. Just believe me.
These Statistics are inflated.
*I knew the risk of this by going surfing.
I had the same experience through school. except for the A part. I stuck to my solid C results. just like George W. speaking of George, have you seen his portrait of sadam.H. he has really come a long way since his early terrior works.
Saddam Hussein was shelling Kurdish villages with mustard gas, wipiing out entire populations numbering nearly 1000 in single event shelling attacks. Maybe I have a more expansive view of what constitutes a weapon of mass destruction but I consider chemical weapons to be such.
Dick Cheney is to blame more than GW.
I don’t come here to talk politics.
Nothing anyone says here can change my opinions. I don’t gather facts from the news media. Knowledge from boots on the ground bring a much clearer picture of realities regarding conflicts the world over.
Let’s stick to surfing-ish topics of conversation.
certainly wasn’t my intention to ruffle your feathers Otto. just saying there is nothing wrong with averaging a C.
It was a bit of an odd pivot. I have number of friends that are former/current operators. A few that were KIA. The darkness, evil and violence perpetrated against civilians by enemy combatants (Iraqi ba’ath party forces/daesh/al queda) is too much for the public to read about. Scenes of horror carried out in kill rooms. Incitement of fear with violence that is beyond words.
And no there isn’t anything wrong with averaging a C.
Wow. Everyone here seems to be a college graduate with a great vocabulary and deep cultural references. Am I the only autistic high school drop out?
You don’t have to have a degree to check-out a book at your local library. Don’t have to have money either.
There’s street smarts and book smarts. It’s good to have some of both. People with book smarts and zero street smarts pose far more danger to civil society than people with all street smarts and no book smarts.
I have a street and a book but no smarts
Smarts. Kmarts. VVALmarts.
“You know what smarts me sometimes? How many VALs theres are crowding the line-up these days!!!”
We’ve all said it. We’re all smart here at BG.
I just looked outside and we had 2 Smarts parked illegally and booked , you know those little cars that replaced the Mini , now the Mini is more Maxi than Smart ?
Smarts will get booked if they’re not on a street
Yes but if you have a degree you can constantly boast of it while knowing that you have perfect teeth and your children are going to accomplish great things due to their genetic superiority.
I was in college for 7 years. Think about it. How smart am I? I have a graduate degree but that 7 years isn’t even counting those years.
I’m not smart enough to be this good at piano:
https://youtu.be/DAPkOxRnh4c
You don’t have to have a degree to have perfect teeth , you could also come from the Brazil Storm , qualify for the CT and pay an Orthodontist ?
I wish I was autistic at least then I could blame that.
It is a handy card that I can play when it suits me.
Dyslexia is in my pack of marked cards, and i got 14% in the yr 12 maths exam.
At 19.21 German Time I was unable to predict your velocity and position at the same time due to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle but can announce that 8 out of BG’s 100 commentators have up voted you , which gives you an 8% upvote rating …..assuming that BG actually has 100 commentators , but having no data find myself unable to determine the statistical possibility of there being more or less … ?
do the numbers factor Toledo and his extended family living in San Clemente as contributing to the American total or is the number put on brazils total? perhaps the ISA has cleverly factored it into both countries. a pretty quick way to inflate numbers if you are trying to get funding for your olympic dream.
i think there are more than 2.85 million surfers in the US.. well here we go again.. what is a surfer? there has been a million of them in the waters around these parts for the last week and watching cams on surfline ( i know fuck me, but a buddy gave me his info) there are a fucking truckload of them in California waters over the summer you poor fuckers.. maybe 2 million? so if wavestorms count, I say we have 5 million in the us
I’m gonna go far out on a very tender limb and say there are less than 35 million surfers in the world and that the ISA is a pyramid scheme.
i think that limb is a big ole oak limb that we hang a swing from, so you aren’t that out there so to speak. In the US, i would say there are more than 2.85 million people that own a board and a wet suit..
I think we all know that these numbers are hugely inflated and a load of bullshit.
https://beachgrit.com/2016/…
Off topic a little. Skin dizzle has a pretty interesting situation going on.
https://www.nytimes.com/201…
I think theyre all in the Goldy or close by.