Holding surf contests in the U.S. is an expensive, and sometimes unprofitable, endeavor. Photo: Will Sileo
Every exciting moment you’ve ever witnessed in a surf contest is accompanied by the bland – but equally important – task of balancing a checkbook. From the WSL Finals to your high school surf contest, events have expenses. If you can’t find a way to pay the bills, the event is not long for this world.
And just as there are a thousand ways to skin a cat, there are numerous avenues that contest organizers can take to create revenue streams. From knocking on the doors of government bureaucracy to getting a cut of the national lottery to selling sponsorships, event organizers worldwide get creative with their cash flows to bring you professional surfing (and make a few bucks if they’re lucky).
I spoke with five surf event organizers to understand how – in an age where it feels like the sky is perpetually falling in the industry – they manage their finances and what type of money there is to be made (or lost) in the business of surf events.
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Brazil: Flavio Padaratz, president of CBSurf
“We are the richest national (surfing) tour in the world,” said Flavio ‘Teco” Padaratz, president of Brazil’s national surfing federation CBSurf.
Brazil has its own national “dream” tour consisting of four to five stops with roughly USD $80,000 in prize money awarded per event. The federation even holds qualifying events for the national tour on top of championships in other disciplines such as junior surfing, longboard, stand-up paddle, and adaptive surfing.
Padaratz, who spent 15 years surfing on the ASP tour (now WSL), took the reins of the federation back in 2022, making it a priority to improve its financial situation.
Since surfing became an Olympic sport, the federation has been able to access funds from the Brazilian National Olympic Committee (NOC) derived from a four percent cut of the national lottery. How large a slice of the pie each Olympic sport gets depends on a ranking score based on criteria such as surfers’ international event results, gender equity, social inclusion, and environmental tasks. Padaratz was able to raise surfing’s ranking from 38th (out of 39) to third. As a result, their NOC lottery income increased from 3.5 million reals (USD $603,000) to 10.5 million reals (USD $1.81 million).
“That (NOC funding) covers most of the tours,” explained Padaratz. “It covers the qualifying tour fully. It fully covers the juniors plus 80 percent of the costs of the stand-up paddle and longboard events.”
Padaratz estimates that 80 percent of the federation’s funding comes from government sources – and not just the NOC. Local municipalities that host events also chip in money plus there is a government program that allows companies to redirect their tax payments to sponsorship of sporting events. Essentially, companies can turn their taxes into an investment in sport with the added benefit of brand exposure. The other 20 percent of funding comes from private sector sponsorships, which Padaratz says only made up five percent of their revenue before he was elected.
There are even occasions where the contest money generated exceeds expenses, but Padaratz needs to be clever with how they allocate their resources; public money not spent needs to be returned, so they use that money first to cover expenses. Private funds left over can be put into a rainy day fund or used to grow the federation in other areas.
The opposite has also happened when local governments failed to make their promised sponsorship payments and a contest’s budget ended up in the red. Padaratz reports that, while there were a few instances of this in the first years of his tenure, they have been taking measures to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
While Brazilian surfing is blessed with an abundance of public funding, receiving so much money from government programs also comes with its pains. For every single service contracted and individual item purchased for the running of an event, there need to be three separate price bids submitted by paper six months in advance to prove there is no fraud or corruption.
“After the event, if you don’t submit all the bills to prove (the price quotes) you submitted before, you have to return the money,” said Padaratz. “We have to show the government that we are responsible for our bills, that we are clean and transparent.”
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Indonesia: Tim Hain, Asian Surf Co.
Asian Surf Co. (ASC) ran three WSL QS events in Indonesia in 2024: Nias, Krui, and Manokwari. They all were funded without a cent of private sponsorship.
“In general, the ASC has gone around these regions and advised them, ‘You want to increase your tourism? You’ve got this magical wave out in front that is just pumping dollars. You just haven’t realized it yet. So here’s what you need to do and we’re here to help you do it,’” said Tim Hain, an expat living in Bali who has worked with ASC on event organization and communications.
Hain has lived in Bali and been involved in the business of surf events for more than two decades. Together with the ASC, he has helped produce various events across Asia in Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Maldives, India, and the Philippines.
ASC’s model typically sees the local government take ownership control of the events, while ASC is hired to run the event production and bring the surf-specific know-how. This model is not designed to create profit because the cost of the event is seen as a larger, long-term investment in tourism. A profit via private sponsorships could even raise questions of corruption if the government agency were audited.
However, in other instances, the ASC does obtain the rights to the event and is financially on the hook. Such was the case with the WSL longboard event in Kuta, Bali in 2023 where they drummed up enough private sponsorship to turn a 10 percent profit.
With private sponsorships dwindling, ASC now relies more on public funding from regional governments.
“We used to be able to get additional sponsors, like Bintang (beer) or Garuda (Airways),” said Hain. “But as of last year, ASC isn’t allowed to bring sponsors. Only the government entity involved can bring on sponsors. So we’ve told the government they’ve got to budget more money for these events. Since surfing events are so unique, it’s a challenge to make them understand everything that’s needed in terms of safety, media, infrastructure, and organization.”
Indonesia has its own way of operating when dealing with international surf organizations like the WSL. As Hain puts it, the government will never write checks to foreign entities. They prefer to pay for the contractors, set up the infrastructure, and directly write prize money checks to the winners. To avoid accusations of corruption during audits, they prefer to retain control – perhaps a reason the Championship Tour hasn’t returned to Indonesia since 2022.
Hain has learned an important lesson from his time in Indonesia about successfully balancing a surf contest budget.
“Find a benevolent benefactor,” said Hain. “People you’re dealing with have to understand how, yes, it’s costing them money, but it’s all about the benefits they’re getting. Events are not really money making propositions. They’re more to try to accomplish goals that maybe can’t be accomplished other ways.”
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USA: Darren Brilhart, event production
Contrary to the heavily government-funded surf contests of Brazil and Indonesia, if you’re running a surf event in the United States, you’re largely on your own to find funding.
“You could break even, you can make money, or you can lose money,” said event producer Darren Brilhart, owner of Brillo Productions. “It can go in either direction. It all depends on sponsorship.”
Brilhart has produced over 800 contests throughout his career. He’s worked on WSL CT events, the US Open, the Cold Water Classic, and USA Surfing, among others. By his estimation, high-profile events like the US Open can turn a profit solely through pursuing private sponsorships.
Brilhart says in the example of brand-owned events, like the O’Neill Cold Water Classic, that creating revenue isn’t a priority because the event is seen as an expense to promote the brand.
With Brilhart’s current work putting on USA Surfing’s event series, the organization finds itself in break-even mode. Every dollar that comes in is reinvested back into the events or business as a whole. However, he notes that other contest organizers could spend less on production quality to secure a profit for an event.
Brilhart believes the reliance on private funding limits the number of surf contests in the U.S.
“A lot of events have moved to other countries like El Salvador because their tourism department is paying,” said Brilhart. “We used to run the WSL longboard event in Malibu, but that event moved to El Salvador because they’re funding it.”
Where other countries like El Salvador beckon surf events with an open wallet, the costs of running events in the U.S. without public help can be prohibitive. Instead of paying surf events to come to their beaches, U.S. cities often do the opposite and charge organizers for permits, police, and lifeguards, which, according to Brilhart, can cost thousands to tens of thousands of dollars depending on the event and location.
However, there are exceptions. For example, the tourism board of Huntington Beach, California has historically provided funding and/or waived fees to lure contests to their city.
Brilhart says the key to running contests is securing funding outside of the surf industry.
“We have to go after the non-endemic brands, like Toyota or Chevy, that want to be part of surfing,” concluded Brilhart. “Those are the brands everybody is hoping to lock in as a sponsor – put up serious money to be able to produce a top quality event. Because the surf brands are struggling themselves. It’s hard for them to constantly support surfing events.”
Japan: Miku Hirano, event production
Running surf events in Japan is a family business for Miku Hirano and her father. Hirano has been in the business since 2001, running more contests than she can count including WSL QS events, an ISA Olympic qualifier, and numerous national contests.
In all her years in the industry, she says she’s never ended an event with the finances in the red, which she attributes to her strong connections in both the private and public sectors. But it’s not so easy for others to gather the funds to run events in the country.
“It depends on the contest, but we get a profit from running events,” said Hirano. “But for other contest organizers, it can be tricky to find sponsors.”
Pleasing government entities is also a crucial part of successful events in Japan. “We always make sure to leave an economic impact for the town that we are running events in,” said Hirano, who estimates that 50 percent of event funding comes from public sources.
When there is extra cash flow generated for an event, Hirano explained that sometimes they invest it back into the athletes, offering cash payments for participation in special exhibition events.
In 2023, Hirano paid for Jeremy Flores and Harley Ingleby to do freesurf exhibitions during an event in Fukushima Prefecture to highlight the water quality in the aftermath of the nuclear disaster in 2011.
Hirano has advice for those looking to run financially successful surf events in Japan: Put your money where your mouth is.
“You have to have a passion for the surf industry,” said Hirano. “You can say anything with your words, but you have to prove them. We are unique in that our events are always successful, never losing money. That’s why we get (funding) easily.”
Portugal: Francisco Rodrigues, president of National Surfers Association
The Liga MEO Surf tour is testament that it’s possible to run a financially sound national surfing tour separate from a country’s national federation. The Portuguese tour consists of five events that collectively award more than 100,000 euros in prize money.
Francisco Rodrigues, president of the National Surfers Association, which runs the tour, says it’s funded mostly via private sponsorship. Only 20 percent of funding comes from local governments where events are held. Additionally, participating surfers have to pay membership fees, but those funds are allocated to the structural budget of the association and not directly to the event budgets.
Rodrigues wouldn’t disclose exact event costs but said the whole tour operates on a six-figure euro budget. As a non-profit organization, if extra revenue comes to the event, they don’t pocket it – they increase the prize money for surfers accordingly.
As far as Rodrigues’ secret to balancing the finances of an event, it’s all about sales.
“(For a) stable event, control the sales part – the funds you get from the sponsors,” said Rodrigues. “With that in hand, you can adapt your costs and also work with a buffer because surprises will happen for sure.”
