Thirdly, the establishment of the world’s first ever Center for Surf Research at San Diego State University. This has provided a focal point for industry, non-profit organizations, and academia to come together and discuss the specific and unique dynamics of the surfing world. The conference in January of this year organised by the
Center and the Groundswell Society, “Surfing’s New Aloha: The Growing Trend of Giving Back” drew on a range of people related to the surfing world all trying to make a difference and understand the future of many different aspects of sustainability and surfing.
As with the Rio conference, this represents a process that begins to articulate the problem in a comprehensive fashion that, in turn, facilitates discussions of the solutions. Over the coming months I will be working with both Sustainable Surf and The Center for Surf Research to continue these discussions and conduct research that aims to understand sustainability within the surfing world. This has begun with the UK’s first research group focused specifically on sustainability and surfing at Plymouth University, The Plymouth Sustainability and Surfing research group.
Surfers, as a culture, are at the beginning of the process of understanding what sustainability is in surfing and what triggers are needed to build momentum on this initial transition. I would like to ask as many people as possible reading this to comment on what they believe this should look like and what should happen next.
