Claiming all the way to the bank.
There are a couple reasons to be jealous of professional surfers. Traveling the world isn’t a horrible perk. Neither is the opportunity to surf the best waves on the planet…with just one other person in the lineup. And thousand of people (babes in bikinis) adore you for it. Oh, and then you get paid for all of this. It’s actually infuriating if you stop long enough to give it some thought; the powers that be graced the likes of Mick Fanning, Gabriel Medina, Kelly Slater and a handful of other men and women with the natural talent to ride walls of water in ways that warrant these blessings. But not you. Nope, you (probably) don’t get paid to do what might be the easiest activity/hobby/sport/lifestyle to love.
Since we’re all on the same page of reasons to envy professional surfers, somebody thought it would be cool to rub it all in a little more. Empire Avenue sat down with a calculator and broke down how much a handful of ‘CT surfers made in 2015…per wave. Because getting paid to surf isn’t enough already. You need to feel the sting of learning how quick Adriano equaled your monthly salary.
Of the ten surfers examined, Mick Fanning, Adriano de Souza and Felipe Toledo made the most money per competitive wave in 2015. Each topped $1,000 per wave, with Mick making his bucks most efficiently (267 waves caught. $373,250 in prize money. $1,398 per wave). When the tour hit Margaret River ADS was raking in $2,777 each time he stood up on his board. Gabriel Medina cashed a healthy $767 each time he took off, an average that was significantly lowered by the fact that Medina caught 152 MORE waves than the average surfer over the course of the Tour. On the flip side, he dwarfed Brett Simpson’s wave count of 141. But Simpo’s 141 waves while wearing a jersey netted him more than $100K and an average of $748.
Not that surfing isn’t still amazing. And it’s preaching to the choir by pointing out that none of us really need an extra incentive to jump into the ocean every day. But still, have fun going back to your job of not getting paid to catch waves.
