Of course, many tourists, surfers, and locals may not be willing to disclose information about their sexual activity as some social and cultural taboos may prevent it. Romance and sex tourism aside, there is also the formation of transnational communities and identities as a result of tourist and surfer migration into other countries. Oftentimes expats that reside in a location together abroad may form communities within the local communities that they have migrated to. Much like a Chinatown in San Francisco, there can be small surf hamlets in coastal areas where they may form a schools, churches, social centers, surf schools, motels or restaurants. Children of locals and surfers in certain areas can benefit from a cross-cultural home, where two languages may be spoken and they are exposed to different familial and social frameworks. These surf families may also benefit from social, economic and physical/geographic mobility as a unit.
Much of this is speaking in generalities about surf migration, sex, romance, and socio-cultural issues, however surfers have become more self aware as a culture and community recently. They are actively participating in improving environmental and social conditions in their home surf locales and ones abroad that they may visit or live in. Florence E. Babb is a notable scholar that has studied tourism and its affects on Latin America and through her historical and ethnographic research explains that “if travel enhances rather than diminishes opportunities for positive cultural exchange, then international tourism development and the [surfing] tourism encounter may help lay the groundwork for a more just and democratic world.” This type of growth and acknowledgement of surf culture’s power and ability to affect positive change and growth in surf zones around the world should be further developed and discussed. Volun-tourism and academic dialogues are becoming much more frequent these days and hopefully we as surfers will further reflect and act in a fashion that benefits us all, in and out of the water, home or abroad.
Here are some links to some resources and organizations that provide volunteer and aid abroad within surf communities:
