I received a comment overnight from a Ph.D. student at Paris West University who had run across the old Waikiki Surf Club newsletters from the 1950s that I found among my dad’s papers.

His comment introduced me to the Center for Surf Research at San Diego State University. It’s interesting to see how this California campus is leveraging the international interest in surfing.

From the program description:

The Center for Surf Research is THE international hub for research on surf tourism and issues of sustainability as they relate to surf tourism and the broader surfing industry and community. We aim to provide links to and between the global community of researchers and academics working in this field, the political decision makers and industries who need this research to make informed resource management decisions and improve sustainable practices, and communities and surf consumers to support their needs and facilitate informed consumer decisions.

It’s interesting to see the kinds of research that’s being done. Summaries are available on the center’s website.

For example:

This research analyzes a strategic approach to managing surf tourism in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Surf tourists travel to often remote destinations for the purpose of riding surfboards, and earlier research suggests the mismanagement of surf tourism in some destinations has resulted in significant deleterious impacts on host communities. The research question in this study addresses how surf tourism can be managed to achieve sustainable host community benefits in the context of a developing country. Primary data came from semistructured interviews and participant observation. The findings demonstrate how sport governing bodies can engage host communities in a collaborative framework for the sustainable utilization of sport tourism resources.

The center has an occasionally-updated blog.

Shouldn’t Hawaii be in a good position to be a leader in such research, with it’s well-known programs in Travel Industry Management, Planning, and links to the Asia-Pacific region. Opportunities lost, I’m afraid.