By Jess Ponting
The 2024 Consumer Trends Survey secured 4,310 responses. Special thanks to Firewire, Rob Machado, Dan Mann, Taylor Jensen, Blair Conklin, The Wave Bristol, Wavegarden, Fireside Surf, YourWave, STAB, Surfline, Chris Cote and many others for supporting the effort to maximize responses.
The graph below shows the average dwell time across all 2,069 surf park users.
The following graph represents a breakdown of the 1,500 responses from the seven surf parks with more than 50 respondents. Respondents were asked how long they stayed at the last surf park they visited. I discussed these results in my previous article.
In an effort to understand a little more about each surf park, its market and dwell times I did a little exploring across skill level and gender to see if different groups were using surf parks in different ways.
First, let’s look at the overall dwell times across all parks broken down by reported surfing ability. Ability was self-reported into the following categories:
- Beginner (still learning)
- Intermediate (occasional surfer, limited experience, can catch and ride a wave)
- Experienced (regular surfer, competent in most wave conditions)
- Advanced (avid surfer, highly skilled, competent in challenging conditions)
Beginners are far less likely to spend more than a day at a surf park than other groups, but 90% spend at least two hours per visit, and 43% spend at least four hours. Advanced surfers are almost 6x more likely to spend more than a day at a surf park than beginners. As skill level increases, the proportion of users spending at least four hours at the surf park increases.
Next, let’s look at a breakdown by gender of all those who have visited a surf park and the skill level of all surf park users broken down by gender. Alternative gender responses to male and female were provided but not utilized at levels that warrant reporting. The breakdown of surf park users is close to the gender breakdown of the US surfing population overall, which was 74% – 26% in 2022. The 78% – 22% split in surf park users does however indicate that there is room to grow as women’s participation should, theoretically, at least match the proportion of women in the general surfing population. In terms of reported skill levels among surf park users, women are overrepresented at the beginner and intermediate levels, while men represent more than 2x the proportion of experienced surfers. The gender gap narrows considerably with advanced surfers, with women only 5 percentage points behind men.
Breaking down the average dwell times across all surf parks by gender, far fewer women spend under two hours than men. Men and women are roughly the same at two to three hours. However, women spend four to eight hours at surf parks at a rate more than 33% higher than men. One in every 5.5 surf park visits made by men are for more than one day, a rate 61% higher than women.
The data presented below related to the seven surf parks that yielded more than 50 responses from users. They are presented in decreasing numbers of responses and the number is noted in the heading and first graph – please take this into consideration when thinking about the validity of each analysis.
Surf Ranch. n=504
The WSL Surf Ranch is a real outlier in terms of its gender representation, the relative skill levels of its users, and the skill levels across genders. All of these measures are incredibly flat compared to the average across all surf parks. The pattern of dwell times across genders is relatively flat though men stay overnight 3x more than women and as skill level increases, so does the proportion of overnight stays.
The Wave Bristol n=392
The Wave, Bristol manages to keep 85% of its visitors onsite for more than two hours. At 18% the representation of women among visitors is slightly less than average (22%). While male visitors report being more highly skilled than women visitors, a higher proportion of women stay at least four hours, women stay overnight at a rate 26% higher than men. All skill levels stay between two and eight hours at the highest proportions, roughly one in five advanced surfers stay more than one day (even though no women reported themselves as being advanced).
URBNSURF Melbourne n=218
URBNSURF Melbourne has the same gender breakdown as The Wave, Bristol of 82/18 but is notable because of the short dwell times. Only one in every 4.6 visitors stays longer than three hours, 78% staying three hours or less. Beginners peak at two to three hours of dwell time and do not stay more than one day. Multiple day visits increase with skill level. A gender breakdown of dwell times is relatively flat with women trending toward longer dwell times overall.
Waco Surf n=191
The Waco Surf sample skewed heavily male with only 4% of the sample being women. The proportion of visitors staying three hours or less is almost half that of URBNSURF Melbourne. One in three visitors to Waco visits for more than one day. Higher skill levels tend to stay longer and women tend to stay longer than men (though the sample of women at Waco Surf is very small).
URBNSURF Sydney n=85
Though the sample size for URBNSURF Sydney renders the data less reliable than Melbourne, dwell times are quite similar with Sydney doing slightly better with 73% of visitors staying three hours or less as opposed to Melbourne’s 78%. Male visitors report being far more skilled than visiting women, 64% of whom are intermediate, though there are still significant proportions of experienced and advanced surfers among women. Advanced surfers of either gender stay the longest at URBNSURF Sydney, though the steady growth in dwell time with increasing skill seen in other surf parks is a little more disjointed.
Alaia Bay n=60
The Alaia Bay sample contained only 8% of women participants. Of this group one in five stays more than one day and one in 4.6 stays four to eight hours. 58% stay for three hours or less. The small group of women report higher proportions of beginners and experienced surfers than men but no advanced surfers. Women stay four to eight hours at a rate 3x that of men but tend not to stay more than one day. Interestingly beginners report the highest incidence of staying more than one day at 25%.
Palm Springs Surf Club n=52
Of the small sample from Palm Springs Surf Club, the gender breakdown is the most popular of the surf parks sampled at 82/18. Of this group, 45% stay four hours or more, and only 18% stay for less than two hours. Men report being more skilled than women visitors, with almost half of women being beginners. Women stay four to eight hours at a rate 1.7x greater than men, though men stay more than one day 1.4x more than women. The data shows that 50% of visitors staying more than one day are beginners and that no advanced surfers stay more than one day. These results are quite different from other surf parks and may be a function of Palm Springs Surf Club’s water park and resort-style offerings and the population centers it draws from, it may also be an anomaly caused by the small sample size.
Understanding Dwell Times
This analysis, while somewhat limited by sample size for some properties, reveals several key trends related to gender, skill level, and park-specific characteristics that influence how long visitors stay.
Overall, and with some exceptions, more skilled surfers tend to spend longer at surf parks, with advanced users significantly more likely to stay multiple days compared to beginners. Gender differences are also evident: while men represent a higher proportion of experienced surfers, women tend to stay longer during single visits, especially at parks like The Wave Bristol and Palm Springs Surf Club. This suggests that while men may visit for high-intensity experiences, women might be more inclined to make a full day or multi-hour outing of their visit.
Park-specific data shows considerable variation in dwell times and visitor profiles. For instance, Surf Ranch stands out with a relatively balanced skill and gender distribution, though male visitors are still more likely to stay overnight. In contrast, Waco Surf attracts mostly male visitors who generally stay longer, while URBNSURF Melbourne sees the shortest dwell times, with most visits lasting three hours or less.
These findings speak to the unique appeal and visitor dynamics of each surf park and demonstrate opportunities for surf park operators to tailor their offerings to different user segments. For example, parks looking to attract a higher percentage of women or beginner surfers might consider enhancing amenities for extended visits, while those targeting advanced surfers could benefit from offering options that support multi-day experiences.
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