In the late 1970s, a surf spot on Java named Grajagan, on the island of Java, became home to the first pay-to-play surf camp. Over the next decade, prepackaged surf travel caught on in a big way. By 1988, Sydney’s Surf Travel Company—the original surfing-only travel agency—listed nine destinations in its brochure, from Indonesia to Baja to the Philippines. The camps themselves were owned by American and Australian surfer-entrepreneurs, all of whom had to run the usual Third World gauntlet of ...
Chapter 7:
Long Division
- Return of the Longboard /
- Simon Anderson and his Mighty Thruster /
- Surf and Destroy /
- Terror from Below /
- The Unsinkable Tom Carroll /
- An Explosion of Talent /
- Tom Curren's Mile of Style /
- How to Turn a Circus into a Riot /
- I Predict Waves in Your Future /
- Cult of the Surf Photographer /
- Video Killed the Surf Movie /
- Waves for Sale /
- Surf Boom Redux /
- Terminally Hip /
- Super-Sizing the World Tour /
- Somebody Should Do Something /
- Surfers vs Apartheid /
- Make Room at the Top, Obrigado! /
- The Last Big Wave /
- Eddie Aikau's State of Grace /
- A Beloved Rival /
Waves for Sale
Tavarua lifted pay-to-play surf travel out of the dirt. The resort was comfortable and clean, with a growing list of list of amenities, and the food was excellent. Not only was the island mosquito-free, but heart-shaped, and Tavarua cleverly marketed itself as a place were a hardcore surfer could in good conscience bring a nonsurfing mate.