Thoughts on the surf industry and where its headed?

[thomaslundgard]

What is everyones thought on the surf industry? Wavepools, big name brands, etc... Want to hear what people like and don't like about surfing now vs. surfing back in the day. Open to any thoughts. Stay stoked!

[jaffa1949]

I've been surfing since 1958 so a lot of back in the day one year off 60 surfing
The loss to surfing is where genuine surf companies are bought out by dollar seeking non related companies.
ie an investment bank owns the FCS brand.
Crowds but it would a pretty poor personal attitude to wish people away from what I enjoy so much as my lifestyle.
Love the progress in boards enables an old surfer to maintain a resemblance of higher performance.
Boards are slowing in progress though as companies play fashion follow the leader and generate all too similar models.
I applaud smorgasboarding as the acceptance of all the forms of surfing is become more widely spread.
I am appalled by the loss of respect in the water and the sense of entitlement that causes so much friction in the surf. Not know the level of your own skills but thinking you hold a place in the line up.

Good stuff , although when I first started surfing 100 miles up or down the coast was new territory and you would often be one of the first to surf a beach and you might be the only one.

Now every coastline has surf travel potential. Some of it too epic for mere mortals but echoing what you drew in your school books. Nazare , Teahupou,Shipsterns, would have always been beyond me, but amazing to see.
Selfish hypocritical dislike, surf prediction sites and cameras, when they bring extra people to my home break. Like them when they show me places to go for my surf

[oldmansurfer]

There are newer forms of surfing, wave pools, tow in, hydrofoils, SUP, windsurfing, kite surfing etc. I imagine there will be still newer forms to come out in the future that will allow for more surfers. There is new and better gear and I imagine that will keep improving although fads will continue to support the industry. The surfers are starting younger and training better and I imagine the best is yet to come.

As far as I what I used to like .....long ago when we had to kill dinosaurs to get to the beach .....ok well not that long ago....there were no leashes and if you fell down you had to swim in and get your board and paddle back out. So kooks were self limiting. They paddled out caught a wave or wiped out lost their board swam in and were gone from the lineup for 10 to 15 minutes or longer then repeat and either they became a better surfer or they gave up because it was too difficult. Now with leashes someone who can barely swim can clog the lineup and they don't lose their board. It was much more self regulating way back then although much less surfers however if today they all had to surf without leashes there would be much less surfers as well.

[oldmansurfer]

I imagine with wave pools there will be wave pool experts. Guys who get the wave so dialed in they can do repeatedly some insane maneuvers that would be difficult to learn in the ocean. Just need to have reliable wave pools or some employee of a wave pool who gets to surf it often or kids that grow up surfing a wave pool. For instance if they can make a thin lipped tubing wave then maneuvers in and out through the lip will be possible perhaps even in thicker lipped waves. So they get tubed then punch out of the wave through the lip then turn back and punch back into the tube through the lip. Perhaps multiple flips or who knows? Surfers can be so creative. What do they call that turn where you go over the falls in the tube? They do it boogie boarding but I bet at a wave pool someone might learn to pull something like that off on a surfboard.

[oldmansurfer]

3D printable boards soon??

[waikikikichan]

What do they call that turn where you go over the falls in the tube? They do it boogie boarding but I bet at a wave pool someone might learn to pull something like that off on a surfboard.

El Rollo

[BoMan]

Traveling to surf will become even more popular as folks pursue their own endless summers and build skills at training resorts like Surf Simply.

The loss to surfing is where genuine surf companies are bought out by dollar seeking non related companies.

Amen to that...and with the explosion of cookie cutter boards the niche for hand shapers is shrinking. My local shop used to have a dedicated guy, but now he works in Santa Cruz and takes orders.

I imagine with wave pools there will be wave pool experts. .

I agree. Wave pool surfing will be even more "arial" like we see at skate parks and snowboard pipelines.

On the horizon, a populist movement may arise to...

[oldmansurfer]

Never going to happen. Surfing is whatever YOU make it

[RinkyDink]

Maximize the number of customers in order to maximize the number of units sold.

[waikikikichan]

I don't like the new advent of "cad shapers" who have never "mowed foam" with a planer. They are not "shapers", they are "scrubbers". The shaping machine did most of the work, they just smooth out the lines left by the machine.

[waikikikichan]

I don't like the "surf themed" fashion and retail stores. Shops like Hollister are all made up ( the company is actually from Ohio ).

[pmcaero]

it's heading up (or down) river

River surfing , mostly using special paddleboards, is exploding.