KellyMay 2006I live in the UK and spent about a year living in Cornwall where I saw how much money came into the bodyboard/surf industry from people living in places like London. A little easier to learn to surf in the UK where waves are smaller but these guys/girls class themselves as proper bodyboarders or surfers although in SA we tend to reckon you have to be quite competent before you can lay claim to that label.
In SA we also have all the holiday makers who hit our coasts from places like Jo'burg and what we should be doing is embracing this market - to a point I reckon this is being done - but as a sport we should be marketing it more to them --- making sure they subscribe to Logic and now also Movement Mag, get them to buy a few DVDs to keep the stoke going while back home, telling them which labels/shops should be supported and which shouldn't and maybe even joining your local club if one exists - maybe they have a newsletter to keep them up to date and they may wish to head down for some of the contests. sixty40 would also be a source for getting news and keeping the stoke alive if they live away from the coast so make sure they know about it.
We should definitely be making more use of coaching clinics for holiday makers - setting more up and using them to promote bodyboarding as mentioned above.
This is potentially a big market which can be tapped and it is up to all of us to help promote our sport. It won't help much if just one person gets on the case but if we all do a little then it will have a much bigger overall impact. More sales means that as a bodyboarding industry we will be able to bring in the products which you guys want to see on the shelves.
All it probably takes is to make a few new mates with the guys in the water - the rest will just happen naturally.
