Surfing has become to commercial, it’s run by clothing and accessory companies and a few surfboard labels that have grown large enough to control the majority of surfboard sales…. so they say.

I seldom look through the two major surfing publications, Surfer and Surfing magazines. I find them hard to look at and certainly not directed to my demographic. But in the past couple of weeks I’ve bought the latest issues of both. Looking to get the magazine for my son because his picture was in an ad that was in Surfing not Surfer, I made the mistake of buying Surfer. Then bought Surfing when my son informed me I’d got the wrong magazine.

So we had both magazines at the house… I looked through them, the first time in a long time I’ve picked up one of those publications. I wasn’t surprised at what I saw, but I got to thinking. Between both magazines I saw only one picture of someone riding a long board that was part of an article. Only one surfboard brand that had an ad with a long board and only a few ads with a picture of someone riding a long board, excluding the section in one of the magazines of surf schools.

I’m not going to go look now but I don’t remember pictures of alternative boards either. It’s all the pro stuff, which is fine because that’s what those mags are all about. But the funny thing is the modern short board does not hold the highest market share of surfboards sales… at least that’s what I’ve been told.

There isn’t any publication that is dedicated to long boards and alternative boards even though more of this type of board is ridden and in the water most of the time. How can that be?

No adds, no pros, no magazines hyping product, yet people buy most of their equipment at places that sell surfboards made by little known core builders. Not unlike the early days of surfing and surfboards, thankfully, surfing is still mostly the same. As Wayne Rich would say… the underground lives.

D.R

Wayne Rich with my wife and Twinkie the kid hanging ten.