Discussing Business on Waves

The Sport of Hawaiian Kings Attracts a New Aristocrat

Surfing, once the realm of the young and the jobless, is joining golf as a status activity for business people


By MATT HIGGINS
Source: New York Times


For $10,000 a day, you can have the ultimate surfing sojourn in Indonesia aboard the Indies Trader IV, a sort of floating hotel with 15 cabins, a helipad and three-course meals with wine. A motorized tender takes you to the waves. Or for a daily rate, in addition to the cost of his airfare, Brad Gerlach will give private instruction to select clients anywhere in the world. Mr. Gerlach, who was ranked No.1 on surfing's world professional tour during the 1986 and 1991 seasons, termed the cost "not cheap at all".

Surfing, once the sport of Hawaiian kings, has come back to its roots. After being a counterculture activity for beach bums and bohemians, it has emerged as a status sport.

"It's a sort of lost that dirtbag appeal", said Isabelle Tihanyi, who started Surf Diva, a school based in La Jolla, California, that caters mostly to women, a growing segment of surfers. "Now you see more yuppies in the water with a brand-new board and a brand-new S.U.V. - all the latest technical gear."

This new species of surfer contributes to a booming market for vacation packages, instruction, equipment and real estate near some of the world's best surf breaks. Like golf, surfing has become an ideal activity around which to discuss business.

"There's more down time in surfing than any other sport", said Chris Mauro, the editor of Surfer Magazine. It was not always this way. "In the 1970s, you would stop at 25 and went to work or you were going straight to loserdom", Mr. Mauro Said. "It used to be a strike against you if you were a surfer." In those days, continuing to surf while carrying on a career was a matter best left secret. But now it is often an asset.

Todd Juneau, a real estate consultant in San Diego and a longtime surfer, looks for business while surfing. "I'll sit in the water and listen to conversations, and if someone says something about real estate, I'll find a way to interject", he said. "And it pays off. In San Diego, you never know if the guy next to you could be a multimillionaire, or a judge or an executive, and he's surfing."

Surfing's popularity has helped drive international real estate sales, with property along remote coastlines being bought and developed into resorts and vacation homes. Parts of Costa Rica are considered so crowded that some surfers have pushed north to Nicaragua. And in Mexico, rumours abound about development in a remote area of Baja California known as Scorpion Bay.

Surf schools have become another growth industry. San Diego had so many that the city began to regulate them. But for more adventure, surfers can take boat trips to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Indonesia and East Timor. "Good surf is predominantly a third-world deal", said Jake Burton Carpenter, founder and owner of Burton Snowboards. "In surfing, you're trying to get away from the crowd."

As a result, boat charters in destinations like Indonesia have begun to serve older, more affluent clients. "With boat trips, it's an older demographic because these trips are so expensive", Mr. Carpenter said.

Last summer, Enrique Huerta, who got a job in the New York fashion industry through his surfing contacts, said he overheard a comment at Montauk, a prime East Coast surfing spot, that spoke to the state of surfing today. Through a breeze, he heard a voice say, "I can get service on my Treo at Scorpion Bay."