The Death of Surfing and Freedom

Today I was reading about how a city in England is trying to increase its tourism industry by constructing an artificial shore reef that will, if succesful, create waves that can then be surfed by surf tourists. The first thing that came to my mind after this was how crowded it would be. Crowded and fake. Like it or not that is the direction that surfing is going anyway. First off Surfing has become a business. Corporations make millions of dollars every year off this hobby (call it lifestyle if you will but that died a long time ago). It has been accepted and popularized by the media. Its even perceived as a good, clean, fun, sporty thing to do.

All this brings us back to crowded surf spots. As the number of surfers increases, there will be an increase in the number of crowds at spots leading to increased anger, fighting, and with all probability deaths. At some point in time law enforcement will be forced to intervene and we may have an organizational system imposed upon us like skateparks do with helmets and waiting in turn etc. This will likely be coupled together with the concept of private waves, that is someone will own the spot where the waves break and be able to control who surfs there and how much it will cost. Welcome to the death of the spirit of surfing and freedom.