College may be surfing's next big wave

TOFINO, B.C. — A college in this Vancouver Island town is working with an Australian university to develop a program for surfers, often better known for skipping class than hitting the books, to learn the business aspects of the sport.

Barbie Mayor, a North Island College nursing instructor and surfing mom who is coordinating the program development, said about 20 students could be heading for classes and combers in September 2009.

"There is no other program like it available in the Americas," said Mayor, an accredited judge with the International Surfing Association.

"The time is right," she said. "Surfing is a multimillion-dollar business. I believe it would bring more experienced people into the industry."

Under the program being developed with Southern Cross University in Tweed Heads, Australia, the course will be run out of Port Alberni and nearby Tofino, focusing on the global surfing industry with classroom studies and internships as well as time in the water.

"I think it's a great idea," said Drew Hawkshaw, national sales and marketing manager for Rip Curl Canada. "Everybody can surf but not everybody knows the business behind how surf companies are run."

Southern Cross students in the program must complete courses in sports management, events, technology, skills, culture and business — all with a special emphasis on surfing.

Jak Carroll, course coordinator for the surfing-studies program at Southern Cross, said several students among the 25 to 30 who register for the course annually come from North America.

He said the course started in 2004 after a call from the surfing industry for a program focusing on business and management skills.

Mayor said she contacted the Australian university a year ago while her son, CC Unger-Mayor, a member of Canada's national team, trained at Surfing Australia's High Performance Centre, the world's first specific surf-training center, in New South Wales.

The Canadian program meets the requirements of the college's dean's council but is awaiting approval from the curriculum committee and education council, Mayor said.

Hawkshaw said industry sales have at least doubled in the past 10 years and anybody with knowledge about the market will be valuable to surf companies.

Stefan Aftanas, owner of Tofino's Aftanas Surf Designs, said he once had to work construction jobs to make ends meet but now has to worry about handling the volume of business his surfboard shaping and repair company attracts.

He said the program could also help Canadians run better surfing contests and maybe lead to a national circuit.

"I think very few people know how surfing contests are run and how to run them efficiently, effectively and fairly," Aftanas said.

Malcolm Johnson, editor of SBC Surf, Canada's surfing magazine, said there are risks to trying to fit a freewheeling sport like surfing into academic constraints.

"Surfing has always been a countercultural activity, so to my mind as it gets more institutionalized it loses some of its soul," Johnson said. "You can't codify culture."

Still, Johnson said the program could be beneficial if it helps the industry develop sustainably in communities like Tofino and Ucluelet, also on Vancouver Island

"If it gets people going to college who wouldn't go otherwise, that's another huge plus," he said.