Social Networking on the Waves

In the spirit of Likemind coffee mornings, an article in the NY Times explains how surfers have turned their image around and are using the waves to network. 

Surfing, once the sport of Hawaiian kings, has come full circle.  After becoming a counterculture activity for beach bums and bohemians, it has emerged as a status sport, like skiing and golf.

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.  Surfers find plenty of time for talk while driving in search of good spots, while changing into and out of wetsuits in the parking lot, and especially while waiting between sets of waves.

It’s still a little unclear as to why surfing has found a broader respectability, but the article hints that the initial public offering of Quiksilver in 1986 may have been a cataylst.  But Jake Burton Carpenter, founder of Burton Snowboards has a more straight forward answer:

A big part of what’s happened is that the market has aged, and not in a negative way.  I would run into so many people who say, "Oh, I used to surf."  But people are staying with it more.  These board sports you can do the rest of your life.