Surfs Up Conspiracy: Number of surfers in USA explodes to 2.5 Million | CEO’s sabotaging new entries to sport?

How many people did you surf with this morning? 20? Perhaps 50 if it’s a better break?

Whatever the number, surely you were wishing there were less. Only in the last 12-years the population of surfers in the U.S has ballooned from 1.4 million to 2.5 million. That’s over 1 million new kooks in the water and less waves for YOU! Might as well just quit right now.

If you pay attention to the surf industry you’ll also notice the big brands are tanking. Now I’m not claiming a conspiracy where the wave hungry CEO’s are purposely putting out terribly designed, over-priced, unfashionable product to sabotage their business in order to get less people in the water and therefore more waves for themselves, but maybe NEWSWEEK is?

Since most surf company CEOs are surfers themselves, they have a personal—and selfish—interest in keeping the waves from being overrun with flailing beginners. “We don’t do anything to encourage surfing,” Sean Smith, executive director of SIMA, tells Newsweek. “The president of Rip Curl doesn’t come in and say, ‘I was out at Trestles and it was packed, let’s get even more people out there.’”

 

Read the whole Newsweek article Waves Crowded as Number of Surfers Surge here