Surfing in the 2020 Summer Olympics: How the Olympics and the Sport of Surfing are Changing

By Alyssa Freyder

The 2020 Tokyo Games are just four months away, which means the Olympic debut of surfing is right around the corner. 

The addition of surfing marks a sure sign that the Olympics are changing. 

Along with surfing, skateboarding and sport climbing are being added to the list of events this summer. These sports are different, deliberately designed to attract teens and 20-somethings — “lifestyle sports.” That’s what makes them, surfing in particular, symbols of change in the Olympics.

“The Olympic blueprint is changing,” said Robert Fasulo, executive director of the International Surfing Association. “They are trying to make the Olympic experience more engaging for their fans and they are trying to draw in a younger audience.

“To connect with a younger audience, they have to know you are connected to relevant issues. They are also about expression. Skateboarding and surfing are all about youthful and human expression.”

If surfing is going to change the Olympics, it is also very likely the Olympics will change surfing, likely drawing more attention to surfing and the environmental issues it stands for — and more. The sport’s popularity is all but sure to explode much the same as snowboarding did after it was featured in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Japan. 

Between 1988 and 2003, as detailed in the book Snowboarding Bodies in Theory and Practice, snowboarding experienced a 385 percent increase in participation, and during the early 2000s, snowboarding was one of America’s fastest growing sports.

Casey Landvogt, is a 32-year-old who lives in San Clemente, in Orange County, California, south of Los Angeles. A former professional surfer in the World Surf League, Landvogt was just a teenager during the 1998 Olympics but remembers that many of his friends and family showed interest in snowboarding after its debut.

“I remember instantly wanting to try snowboarding after seeing it on TV,” said Landvogt. “It reminded me a lot of surfing and I just had to try it.

“I could totally see the 2020 Olympics having a similar effect on surfing. It won’t be as easy for everyone to just go surfing since some places don’t have oceans and some people don’t have the athletic ability, but I think a lot of people will definitely be interested in trying it out at least.”

Olympic surfing, Fasulo said,  has been discussed for many decades — all the way back to the Hawaiian legend Duke Kahanamoku in the early 1920s.

Kahanamoku was an Olympic swimmer and is considered by many to be the “father of modern surfing.” He won three Olympic gold medals; is known for developing the flutter kick; he also set three world records in the 100-yard freestyle over a span of four years.

Between editions of the Olympic Games, Kahanamoku made an attempt to bring back what was thought by some to be the lost sport of surfing. When European settlers came to the Hawaiian Islands, they demonized surfing, so the sport was — for some — a lost art for many years. 

When Kahanamoku traveled for swimming exhibitions, he took surfing to California and Australia.

There it easily, comfortably and naturally fit into the beach lifestyles.

Fast forward several decades. Past the Beach Boys, flip flops, wood-paneled station wagons and more. 

The official decision to add surfing to the Olympic was made at the 129^th session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Rio De Janeiro in 2016. The IOC decided that 20 men and 20 women from around the world will compete in separate events for the Olympic gold, silver and bronze.

Fasulo asserted that the values of surfing align with those of the Olympics — in particular, friendship, excellence and respect. 

“Surfing introduces lifestyle and culture and it’s something that the Olympics needed,” said Fasulo. “The Olympics [are] also about celebrating high-performance which is exactly what surfing is.”

But even more, surfing as an Olympic sport demonstrates how the Olympics are evolving.

“We’d really like to believe that we represent something new and different,” said Fasulo. “Surfing represents a new age of Olympic sport. It’s about lifestyle, self-fulfillment, it’s about how you’re in touch with the environment and how you become a better person.”

Fasulo also said that surfing has been known to help people with their mental health. An organization called the International Surf Therapy Organization (ISTO), which offers surfing for therapy. The sport has been known to help people with autism and learning disabilities; recovering addicts; and, as well, veterans and active-duty military with PTSD. 

“There’s a lot of science out there that shows being in the water and being in the waves has an impact on your psyche, mind and your body that is very therapeutic,” said Fasulo. 

Ian Culbertson, an instructor of surfing at the University of Southern California, has been surfing since he was a teenager. He said that surfing has been a great help for his mental health. 

“Surfing helps relieve my stress,” said Culbertson, now 39, who started to seriously surf in college. “Just being out in the water and away from everything. It’s just you and the water. It’s just you and mother nature.”

Over the past few years, surfing has become more invested in the discussion and preservation of the environment. Keeping the ocean clean is important to surfers because — well, obviously.  

During the Tokyo Games, the ISA will be doing its part in the Olympics to advocate for ocean sustainability and cleanliness. 

“We are running what’s called the Olympic Surfing Festival which will be right behind the beach [in Japan],” said Fasulo. “The environment and sustainability will be an important part of this festival. There will be talk shows, artists showcasing what’s being done at the ISA and the IOC at Tokyo 2020.”

The goal of the festival is to get people thinking about what more they can do for the environment. 

“It’s about reminding people that we play in the ocean and we live in the ocean,” Fasulo said. “The ocean provides and is an extremely important resource to our world.”

Culbertson says that even though surfers have become more aware of climate change and keeping the ocean clean that there is always more that could be done:

“The ocean is where we surf every day and we have to take care of it. We have to make sure we are advocating for policy change that will benefit the ocean. It’s also being aware of what trash are you leaving behind on the beach or picking up trash if you see it. It’s that simple.”

The ISA and Culbertson also hope that the Summer Games will help spread surfing to more people across the globe. 

“There has been a little bit of a debate in the surfing community. There always is. Surfers are free spirited, and they like to think what they do is special, and they worry about too many people in the lineup,” said Fasulo. “But the reality is it’s a good thing and it’s a very powerful vehicle for surfing to reach parts of the world that don’t have surfing.”

Culbertson believes surfing will catch on like karate did when the movie The Karate Kid first came out. 

“People who watch the Olympics will want to try the sport they are watching. I think people will be really interested in surfing and want to try it for themselves,” said Culbertson. “I think in the next few decades wave pools will become bigger and people in countries that are landlocked will be able to surf too.”

Although some people believe that surfing will grow a fan base, others believe that it will continue to be a low-key sport. One of those is Keith Plocek, a journalism professor at the University of Southern California who specializes in surfing journalism. 

“I think surfing is already overpopulated where it’s at,” says Plocek. “Beaches like Malibu are already packed with surfers. People will just move to another beach and find that that one is packed, too.”

Plocek is also concerned about the ability to watch the surfing event since it will be based on the weather and swell conditions. 

“I don’t think it will gain much of an audience since there is no guarantee that the Olympics will be able to broadcast the event at one specific time,” says Plocek. “If the swell isn’t good then they’ll have to push back the broadcast. So, will people wake up at 3 in the morning to watch it if it gets moved? I doubt it.”

Even though there is not a clear answer to whether or not the sport will grow its audience, there is a clear answer that surfing will continue to be in the Olympics for the 2024 Games in Paris. 

Earlier this month, the IOC not only confirmed surfing for 2024 but said it will be held in Tahiti, a French outpost. 

“It’s another example of how the IOC is starting to think differently about how the games are organized,” says Fasulo. “We like the fact that they are willing to adapt. And as far as surfing is concerned Tahiti is a sacred site. So, it’s extremely exciting.”