Social media is ruining surfing.
Surfing has become an increasingly popular sport and this leads to an increase in crowds in surf sessions. To make it worse, social media is like gasoline on fire.
Some examples that happen these days.
Surfers get all excited when they get to the beach and see amazing waves and they start sending messages to all their friends on WhatsApp saying it’s epic and in the middle of the surf they complain there are too many people.
Photographers and filmmakers publish the sessions they recorded on all their channels for a few subscribers or viewers.
Surfers who post stories and videos on social media of the incredible and uncrowded waves they caught that same day and the day after complaining it’s crowded
Adventures that get to less known spots and then publicy them on social media turning them into hotspots.
Posting surf sessions or waves on social media will lead to an increase in crowds and in many cases ruin sessions and secret spots.
Of course, it’s always good to have our sessions recorded, but most of the time it’s not necessary to expose them on social media.
The common surfer doesn’t earn money for posting surf content and having a few more followers won’t make him famous. The best thing to do is save the videos to remember later instead of putting them on social networks and surfing with more crowd in the following sessions.
The same goes to photographers and filmmakers – posting surf videos or photos will not make them rich or famous.
If people really need to publish the sessions at least they should do it some time later and without mentioning the location – especially in secret spots.
The new generation of surfers and surf photographers has to realise that the media coverage of surfing leads to an increase in crowds and an increase in crowd leads to a deterioration in the quality of the sessions.
If surfing with little crowd or having secret spots is not important for you, at least think and respect that can be one of the most valuable things that many surfers do.
Is it really worth exposing surf spots and increasing the crowd just for more followers?
