Malibu in 1955, archived in the Encyclopedia of Surfing. Photo: Dick Metz//Encyclopedia of Surfing
Surfing’s biggest archive has obtained enough financial backing to keep operations sustainable. The Encyclopedia of Surfing’s founder and executive director, Matt Warshaw, announced in an email update that donations totaled $177,000 for 2025, and that while they weren’t exactly swimming in a cash surplus, they were going down “no-budget drama boulevard.”
The funding came from more than 150 individual donors ranging from $25 to $5,000, and grants and trusts that gave as much as $40,000. Warshaw told The Inertia that the money goes to payroll, to pay himself and partner Mark Augias. The rest covers business overhead for running a content-heavy website.
Warshaw also noted that subscribers chipped in $60,000 last year, when coupled with the $177,000 fundraising drive in 2025, the annual budget for 2026 is around $240,000. However, he notes that since a small handful of grants and trusts make up the bulk of the income, funding is delicate.
“The deep-pocket donors have been fantastic, they all have a deep personal history with surfing and really believe in the Encyclopedia of Surfing project,” Warshaw said. “I think if we keep doing the work they will keep the money supply open.”
Warshaw thanked his subscribers for keeping the site free of advertisements.
“Some of the gratitude also comes from the fact that EOS has defied commercial internet physics by remaining 100 percent ad-free,” he wrote to subscribers. “You guys are supporting a worthy cause, in other words. But you are also helping to build and maintain one of the best-looking sports and culture websites in the world. No, the best-looking, let’s not have the truth hiding behind the skirts of humility.”
Launched in 2003 as a book, Warshaw then digitized the Encyclopedia of Surfing as a website in 2013. His latest endeavor is turning the encyclopedia into an archive of surf media, which he says is causing him to put the individual encyclopedia entries on hold until further notice.
You can donate to the Encyclopedia of Surfing here.
