A-frame

Aaberg, Denny

Aaberg, Kemp

Abberton, Koby

Abbruzzi, Sid

Abellira, Reno

Abubo, Megan

academia and surfing

Adler, Tom

advertising and surfing

Aeder, Erik

aerial

Aguerre, Fernando

Aichner, Scott

Aikau, Clyde

Aikau, Eddie

Aipa, Ben

air-drop

airbrush

Airshow

Ala Moana

Alabama

alaia board

Alaska

alcohol and surfing

Alexander, Kala

Allen, Chuck

Alms, Paige

aloha shirt

Alter, Hobie

Alvarez, Pepe

Ancell, Kevin

Andaman Islands

Andersen, Lisa

Anderson, Craig

Anderson, Simon

Andino, Kolohe

Angel, Jose

angle

Angola

Angourie

Antarctica

Apocalypse Now

Arabian Sea

Aragon, Janice

Arakawa, Eric

Archbold, Matt

Arena, Eduardo

Ashton, Juan

Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP)

Atlantic Ocean

August, Robert

Aurness, Rolf

Auster, Ken

Australia

Avalon, Frankie

Azores

backdoor

backside

backside attack, Pipeline

backwash

bail out

Bain, Rob

Baja California

Baker, Bernie

Baker, Grant “Twiggy”

Baker, Tim

Bali

Ball, John “Doc”

Ballard, Bill

Ballard, Rochelle

balsa

Baltic Sea

Banks, Jim

Barbados

Barilotti, Steve

Barland, Michel

Barreda, Sergio “Gordo”

Barry, Michael

Bartholomew, Wayne

Baxter, Jackie

Bay of Bengal

Beach Boys, The

Beacham, Debbie

beachboys

beachbreak

Beachcomber Bills Grand Prix

Beachley, Layne

beavertail

Becker, Phil

Bedford-Brown, Stuart

Belgium

Bells Beach

Bendall, Ma and Pa

Bennett, Barry

Benson, Becky

Benson, Blanche

Benson, Linda

Bermuda

Bertlemann, Larry

Surf resorts were the fastest- growing segment of the surf industry in the early 2000s, and remain so today, for understandable reasons: they provide escape from crowded lineups, supply the most waves per vacation dollar, and offer a reduced-risk exotic adventure. "The brute reality," celebrated American surf traveler Kevin Naughton said in 1999, discussing surf resorts, "is that the surf world is now one of increasing demand and diminishing resources. Surf resorts are the inevitable outcome." In 1978, California's Mike Boyum received permission from the Indonesian government to build a rustic surf camp near the jungle-rimmed village of Grajagan, in southeast Java. For $200 a day—with a one-week minimum stay, and a 10-surfer capacity— visitors to the Grajagan camp were able to ride long, hollow, perfectly shaped waves for as long as they could paddle. It wasn't illegal for others to ride there, but the break's remote location was a nearly insurmountable barrier for nonresort surfers. Camp amenities were basic: wooden huts, bedding, mosquito nets, food, bottled water, beer, hot showers, towels, and first aid. Transportation from Bali was included in the price. By the mid-'80s, the Grajagan resort was earning an estimated $250,000 in annual profit during its four-month season. While a number of similar low-amenity resorts opened in the early '80s at places like Isla Natividad in Mexico and Tonga's Ha'atafu Beach, the next real development—arguably the first surf "resort," as compared to the surf "camp"—arrived in 1983 with the launch of Fiji's Tavarua Island Resort, built on a 30-acre site featuring three prime surf breaks. The American-operated Tavarua resort quickly established itself as the surf world's premier vacation spot. A $100 daily rate (transportation not included) included private cabin accommodations, first-rate food, a fan- cooled lounge/restaurant area, television, refrigeration, flush toilets, fishing and snorkeling gear, windsurfing equipment, and live entertainment. Tavarua eventually found itself in the center of a legal and ethical controversy. In 1991, after reportedly muscling nonpaying surfers out of the lineup at Cloudbreak—Tavarua's primary surf spot—resort owners found themselves trying to defend how en- forced exclusive rights to a particular break fit into a sport that has always cherished the idea of a playing field that is free, natural, and unregulated. "The notion that ownership rights can extend to reefs is foreign to surfers," journalist Steve Hawk said, "maybe even repulsive." In practice, however, most surfers seemed to approve of the idea of paying for a crowd- free surfing environment. Meanwhile, the issue of the Tavarua resort's exclusivity, pursued by local Fijian surfers and surf charter boat operators, was picked up by government officials and the national media. As of 2003, the legal status of Tavarua Island Resort's reef ownership remained uncertain. No nonresort surfers have been prosecuted yet for riding a resort- "owned" wave. New surf resorts continued to open at a steady rate through the '90s and early '00s, some of them inexpensive low-amenity operations looking to attract the younger, more hard-core traveler, but most catering to the middle-aged surfer with a career and family looking to maximize his surf vacation time; baby-boom longboarders are a particularly sought- after demographic. (Resorts don't offer a guarantee of good surf, however, and some of the more popular destinations have become victims of their own success; the lineup at Grajagan, by the late '90s, was often filled with as many as 100 surfers staying in three separate resorts.) Niche resorts were developed by the early '00s, aiming for families, beginners, New Agers, born-again Christians, and other groups. The line between the surf resort and regular vacation resorts, meanwhile, became blurred, as the latter began to tap into a fast-growing market by offering surf packages. Chartered boat trips, furthermore, became popular in the '90s as an alternative to surf resorts. As of 2003, there were roughly 100 surf resorts worldwide, located in Indonesia, all across the tropical Pacific Ocean islands, Costa Rica, the Maldive Islands, El Salvador, the Philippines, Australia, and elsewhere. Day rates for most surf resorts range from $50 to $200. See also Grajagan, Tavarua.

surfing resorts

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing