Education is more important than surfing.
A growing number of young surfers are spending more and more time away from home training to pursue their dreams of becoming successful professional surfers. While there are many options available for these athletes to complete a home study program or online courses, there is a need for a sanctioning body to assist them and partially oversee this process. As it comes of age, it is the responsibility of the professional surfing world to promote the importance of education and help prepare professional surfers for careers once they leave the circuit.
Professional surfing continues to evolve and move towards being accepted as a mainstream sport. With the sport of surfing’s growing popularity, there is also more responsibility among the sponsors and professional organizations to do more for the professional athletes during and after their careers. The argument must be made that promoting a path to higher levels of education is an important step for the evolution and legitimacy of surfing. While the NSSA promotes academic achievement, its efforts concentrate on amateur athletes. There is a need for the ASP and the companies who sponsor professional athletes to fill this gap and help promote continued education among surfing’s professionals. Such a move will no doubt add additional motivation to athletes as their careers play out and their exposure to opportunities expands.
As mentioned, this reinforced bond between academics and athletics will add legitimacy to the sport and can serve as an important component in the future of professional surfing. Setting up an academic advisory program and even ASP sponsored learning centers that would collaborate with established universities, and colleges would set an important example to both the surfing world and non-surfing world. It would do much to make a positive change to the perception of surfers as being carefree and unmotivated.
During the 2014 Bells webcasts, I heard the commentators talking about how the Brazilian athletes work hard to improve their English. Why not set up a mobile school that travels around and helps surfers work on polishing their English, on finishing high school, and eventually on obtaining a college degree. Outside of surfing together, giving the surfers an opportunity to study together will help the young athletes improve their discipline and further build their camaraderie. Let’s work to end the common notion that surfers in general are poorer students than non-surfers.
I think that professional surfing can set a precedent by leading by example. You should encourage surfing’s best to prepare themselves for future economic and social mobility both during and after their professional careers. They are among the most talented and motivated group of athletes on the planet. They will no doubt see the long term value of pursuing their success in the water by earning a degree for either personal or professional reasons.
