Surfing generates nearly $200 million a year for Santa Cruz — and coastal changes could put it at risk

In the summer of 1885, three teenage Hawaiian princes visiting Santa Cruz dragged hand-hewn, 17-foot redwood boards — each weighing more than 200 pounds — across the sand at Main Beach. Riding waves at the mouth of the San Lorenzo River, they introduced surfing to the mainland United States, an event that would help shape Santa Cruz’s coastal identity for generations.

The cultural phenomenon they helped launch now generates nearly $200 million a year in Santa Cruz, according to a landmark report released in September by the nonprofit Save the Waves Coalition. But that economic engine, the authors warn, is increasingly at risk — not only from climate change and sea level rise, but from how policymakers respond to them.

Those kinds of decisions have already reshaped the shoreline, including the historic surf break where the princes first surfed the California coast. In the 1960s, sand was dredged there to begin construction of the Santa Cruz Harbor, permanently altering how waves formed at the river mouth.

The report argues that decisions made along the coast in the coming years could determine whether Santa Cruz’s remaining surf breaks endure. It urges city and county leaders to factor surfing’s economic and cultural value into long-term coastal planning, and calls for surf breaks to be made more welcoming to historically marginalized groups, ensuring broader access to the sport’s benefits.

“Surfing is not just a hobby,” said Shaun Burns, reserves network coordinator for Save the Waves, during a presentation to Santa Cruz City Council on Oct. 28. “It has value economically and culturally here in Santa Cruz and it needs to be prioritized in planning.”

Putting a dollar figure on surfing’s impact is no simple task.

To estimate direct revenue, coastal economist Dave Anning of Integral Consulting tallied income from surf-related businesses, including apparel, surf lessons, and the rental and repair of surf equipment. Those industries alone generate about $150.2 million annually, the report found.

More challenging was estimating spending tied to surf trips themselves, such as fuel and meals purchased by visiting surfers. Using anonymized cell phone location data collected at surf breaks by the analytics company Placer.ai, the report estimated that Santa Cruz hosted about 783,000 surf trips in 2024, generating an additional $44.5 million in indirect economic activity.

To measure what could be lost as surf conditions decline, the report assessed the “surfability” of 31 local breaks, defined as the percentage of daylight hours when wave conditions are rideable. Dave Revell, a coastal geomorphologist with Integral Consulting and a co-author of the report, analyzed how rising sea levels could change the way waves break, reducing the time surfers are able to ride them.

The findings were stark: One foot of sea level rise would reduce surfability across Santa Cruz by 29%, cutting annual surf-related revenue by an estimated $12.8 million.

Still, Gary Griggs, a longtime coastal geology expert at University of California, Santa Cruz who was not involved in the report, cautioned against exaggerating the near-term risk. At current rates, he said, Santa Cruz is unlikely to experience one to three feet of sea level rise — a range examined in the report — within the lifetimes of today’s surfers.

Save the Waves’ more immediate concern is that efforts to protect coastal infrastructure could damage surf breaks even faster than climate change itself.

“I think sea-level rise is not the biggest threat (to surfing),” Revell said. “The biggest threat is how humans adapt the coast.”

He pointed to shoreline armoring, such as rock walls that protect structures behind them but accelerate erosion and reduce the sand needed to form rideable waves.

The report’s conclusions appear to be gaining traction locally.

In late October and early November, Save the Waves presented its findings to the Santa Cruz City Council and the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors. On Nov. 18, the City Council voted to direct staff to update the city’s Local Coastal Program to recognize surfing as a coastal resource.

“It’s a huge win for surfing,” Burns wrote in an email after the decision.

Beyond economics and coastal planning, the report also highlights long-standing barriers to access within Santa Cruz’s surf culture, arguing that exclusion limits who benefits from surfing’s economic and cultural value.

Bella Bonner, a co-author of the report and founder of the nonprofit Black Surf Santa Cruz, said focus groups conducted for the study revealed a troubling pattern: Surf breaks with the highest surfability were often those with the most hostile and unwelcoming social environments.

Bonner described surfers “barking” at members of her group, questioning where they were from or telling them they did not belong — even though all were Santa Cruz residents.

“Come be in the water at the same time as us. See what you have to say after you experience surfing when we’re in the water too,” said Bonner. “Our ask would be to match us in our joy.”

Save the Waves hopes Santa Cruz can serve as a model for other coastal cities grappling with how to protect surf breaks while adapting to a changing shoreline.

“If we do this for Huntington Beach,” Revell joked, “we can see who the real Surf City is.”