“If your career is over, or surfing is not paying the bills, being fake is the key to get a job in the industry.” Photo: Quincy Dein.
Watching the Oakley Lowers trials this week got me thinking about how cut throat the surf industry is. Even though their surfing was mind-blowing, most of the surfers in the contest were not sponsored by anyone except a local Acai bowl café. It’s an industry where only the chosen few make an actual living and get a full ride for contests travel.
In the early years of a journey to career surfing, the surfers are forced by sponsors to surf NSSA contests, which pretty much makes or breaks their future. These contest are more political than a fixed election. To get a 6 point ride on a wave, you have to ride the wave perfectly, while the NSSA’s star group of favorites are pushed through to the final every contest. Back in the early 2000’s, there were a few other surf series as well where getting a top 3 ranking at the end of the year was easy, while surfing against the same people in the same waves. Unfortunately, all the sponsors cared about was your #43 NSSA ranking.
The surf industry wants you to stay focused–they especially look down on partying–yet these companies throw parties and portray a rock star lifestyle while the team managers and underpaid employees of these companies get black-out drunk and hide in restroom stalls with dry goods and come back out looking like a wet haired Beyoncé. If you are a surfer that does not hide your partying as well as them, you are shunned by the industry, and the finger is pointed from all angles.
If your career is over, or surfing is not paying the bills, being fake is the key to get a job in the industry. You can get your foot in the door by being an ambassador for a company which is similar to a permanent internship, where you are paid in stickers and clothes. The upside is you can tell chicks you actually work for a surf company. If you get really lucky, the company will offer you a position making almost enough to break the California poverty line, and most people will take this offer for the prestige of working for a well known, “cool” company.
Surfing good isn’t enough these days. Most of the companies that would flow good surfers clothes, travel and contest money are owned by corporations, and all these corporations care about is exploiting sweatshop workers in Asia to smash out production of hard, uncomfortable cotton shirts with ugly logos and marketing to get some kid in Nebraska to buy them. Surfing is about grass root companies in your home town, the ones kicking down the boys with gear, talent, passion, and love for the ocean. With the current direction the surf industry is going, it will be harder and harder for anyone to have an equal chance at living their dream of being a professional surfer.
