Money in surfing vs climbing

Are we sure it’s not just cause surfers are hotter? 

JonasMR wrote:

Are we sure it’s not just cause surfers are hotter? 

That might have something to do with it.  The two most popular climbers, Ondra and Honnold, are lanky weirdos.  Sharma was a good looking dude but he's not really around the limelight anymore.  Back in the old school glory days it seems there were more very handsome climbers and I think they were statistically more shirtless and in short shorts whereas now they are wearing sun hoodies and tech pants.

Christopher Smith wrote:

That might have something to do with it.  The two most popular climbers, Ondra and Honnold, are lanky weirdos.  Sharma was a good looking dude but he's not really around the limelight anymore.  Back in the old school glory days it seems there were more very handsome climbers and I think they were statistically more shirtless and in short shorts whereas now they are wearing sun hoodies and tech pants.

That is totally it! Look at surfing photos... always in CA or Hawaii or somewhere warm, the surfer not wearing much... whereas surfers in Iceland,  Norway, etc can be doing epic shit but the full wetsuit, hoodie and booties just dont quite attract the attention of the mainstream. As climbers we should just start wearing less. If surfers don't worry about skin cancer why should we? Just wear only running shorts, and maybe a helmet. 

Ira OMC wrote:

That is totally it! Look at surfing photos... always in CA or Hawaii or somewhere warm, the surfer not wearing much... whereas surfers in Iceland,  Norway, etc can be doing epic shit but the full wetsuit, hoodie and booties just dont quite attract the attention of the mainstream. As climbers we should just start wearing less. If surfers don't worry about skin cancer why should we? Just wear only running shorts, and maybe a helmet. 

If you’re climbing for money or status then you may have missed the point. Please put your clothes back on. 

Christopher Smith wrote:

It might be in part too because of a perception that climbing is dangerous in comparison to surfing (even though I'm willing to bet that statistically it's the opposite).  Also probably has to do with most people having a fear of heights.  Also it's probably just because the clothes are trendy.  I remember when I skateboarded at first we were seen as outcasts and losers.  My senior year of high school though skate clothes became super trendy.  I'm sure there was explosive growth in the market then and many pros started making a lot more because of broader advertising reach.  I'm honestly not sure I want to see that in climbing though (and I'm not sure we will because of the aforementioned fear of heights).  Crags are often very crowded in certain areas as it is.  Might also create problems with access as if we don't have enough already.  I suppose if it's just isolated mostly to gym climbing though (which we might see with climbing plastic in the Olympics now) I can live with that.  More gyms can be built whereas that's not the case with rock.

Tony Hawk Pro Skater games probably had a lot to do with skating becoming more mainstream. Can you imagine how boring a climbing video game would be?

It’s been a while since I went surfing regularly but there’s no question that surfing is far more of a marketable pursuit than climbing. Climbing is, at its core, about grabbing things and pulling. Despite the parkour trend in setting in gyms, that will be the dominant movement paradigm forever. To reach elite status, you have to grab really small and/or sloping holds really hard, something average non-climbers will never understand or appreciate. In fact most average climbers don’t understand or appreciate it. Surfing is standing on a rapidly moving wall of water that is on the edge of crashing down. It’s full of suspense, variety, speed and its basic athletic repertoire is accessible to anyone. You can do it standing, lying down, whatever. It’s a huge adrenaline rush when you do it well because it’s in large part the energy of the ocean doing the work. Everyone instinctively gets this. But climbing? Climbing is slow, usually methodical, often frustrating and if done wrong, potentially lethal. If you can swim and it’s not too big and the break is not on a sharp reef, surfing is quite safe. Then throw in the beach lifestyle and yeah, it’s the winner by a landslide. Take a look at the recent Daniel Woods video about his V17 versus any surf/skate video and the difference is clear. Climbing seriously is for neurotic obsessives and fortunately there are not too many of them in the population at large.

Peter Beal wrote:

Take a look at the recent Daniel Woods video about his V17 versus any surf/skate video and the difference is clear. 

TBH, the whole mellow video vibe feels way more like skate videos then other climbing shorts. Which I like! But you are completely right: it falls flat. I can't imagine a bunch of street skaters roving a city hitting spots - but first, putting giant pads down and having spotters before doing some immense rail. Where is that danger/excitement element? Climbing also just moves way too slow. I thought that Mellow V17 DW was a good climbing video! But good climbing - or I guess bouldering videos that focus on one problem are also pretty repetitive. Even Free Solo was repetitive tbh. The final scene of the final climb was out of this world, but the lead up was frustrating to many (including me)

There are some outliers - it seems that anything that Sharma is involved in just is raised to a different bar. Rampage was such a great video! And it's just a bunch of stupid dudes in an RV! But it just had enough human connection to engage you. Lots of Sharma videos feel like lifestyle surfing videos - and it doesn't even take much to pull that off. You could film and edit in some climbers getting street tacos and all of a sudden they're multidimensional people rather than these weird beings that live under desert rocks. But there's limits to that too - you don't have to edit in you buying a fridge. Man, I've finished this pretentious film critic cigarette, anyone got another one for me?

Climbing seriously is for neurotic obsessives and fortunately there are not too many of them in the population at large.

FINALLY someone said it! Just gotta say it in the "Why are there so many scientist/academic climbers" thread!

Surfing and skate boarding are some of the coolest things/activities out there--they are often the epitome of cool for teenagers, etc, while climbing is not--enter the trad-dad and giant eyeball neck tattoos. 

(Also the global market for surfing is ~3B, for skateboarding is ~2B, and for climbing ~1B.) I mean look at snowboarding--since it's no longer cool, less kids do it each year, and sales/professional incomes trend down.

JonasMR wrote:

Are we sure it’s not just cause surfers are hotter? 

Well, that plus surfing is WAY more fun to watch and easier to understand. 

M R wrote:

Surfing and skate boarding are some of the coolest things/activities out there--they are often the epitome of cool for teenagers, etc, while climbing is not--enter the trad-dad and giant eyeball neck tattoos. 

(Also the global market for surfing is ~3B, for skateboarding is ~2B, and for climbing ~1B.) I mean look at snowboarding--since it's no longer cool, less kids do it each year, and sales/professional incomes trend down.

How the hell did snowboarding become uncool?  Damn kids these days....get off my lawn.

Why the FUCK would you want Climbing to be like Surfing?

Fucking sport is chock full of  gym gumbies and trustafarians as it is and everyone complains about over crowding, human waste and environmental problems.

Re-title this thread:

"How can we ruin Climbing and our local crags even faster than we are already and cash out in the process? To hell with the future, make Joshua Tree even more like Huntington Beach."

You do not want Climbing to have the money that Surfing has in it if you remotely care about it.. Only a corporate tool or idiot wants to grow it faster.

hillbilly hijinks wrote:

Why the FUCK would you want Climbing to be like Surfing?

Fucking sport is chock full of  gym gumbies and trustafarians as it is and everyone complains about over crowding, human waste and environmental problems.

Re-title this thread:

"How can we ruin Climbing and our local crags even faster than we are already and cash out in the process? To hell with the future, make Joshua Tree even more like Huntington Beach."

You do not want Climbing to have the money that Surfing has in it if you remotely care about it.. Only a corporate tool or idiot wants to grow it faster.

Climbing is worse than surfing and mainly for one reason.

Any idiot can roll up to Bishop, RRG, Smith and project semi hard climbs and blast their bad music and take Gram photos. Most Kooks arent making it out on overhead days. If they do most aren't taking multiple beatdowns when they botch a dropin . If they do, they deserve to be in the lineup if they follow etiquette.

Even with waveparks getting bigger, surfing on decent size days will always eliminate 70% of the surfing population.

Harder to fake it in surfing

Maybe climbers should have ‘turf wars’ like some beaches do for surfers. You know, eg, the gunks locals would beat up any city folk or jet-setters trying to climb there and yell ‘locals only’ etc. 

of course, just kidding, but I wonder if this happens or has happened at any crags. 

M R wrote:

Maybe climbers should have ‘turf wars’ like some beaches do for surfers. You know, eg, the gunks locals would beat up any city folk or jet-setters trying to climb there and yell ‘locals only’ etc. 

of course, just kidding, but I wonder if this happens or has happened at any crags. 

Wings of Steel style?

Localism in small logical amounts would do probably help in climbing. Maybe it would stop people from bragging about their multiple ground falls  at J-tree in a day.

Insert name wrote:

Climbing is worse than surfing and mainly for one reason.

Any idiot can roll up to Bishop, RRG, Smith and project semi hard climbs and blast their bad music and take Gram photos. Most Kooks arent making it out on overhead days. If they do most aren't taking multiple beatdowns when they botch a dropin . If they do, they deserve to be in the lineup if they follow etiquette.

Even with waveparks getting bigger, surfing on decent size days will always eliminate 70% of the surfing population.

100%. I wont go on a rant about lineup etiquette these days, but you're absolutely right on when the surf is overhead+, it clears out a large majority of the people who shouldn't be there. That reminds me of an EPIC swell to hit southern CA in 2006 - 2007? maybe? We called it "big wednesday." There was only a few breaks in san diego county that could hold the size. Blacks was pushing 20ft+, I watched some guys paddle out at Swamis who took about 5 waves on the head and never made it out. :) 

WoodyW wrote:

100%. I wont go on a rant about lineup etiquette these days, but you're absolutely right on when the surf is overhead+, it clears out a large majority of the people who shouldn't be there. That reminds me of an EPIC swell to hit southern CA in 2006 - 2007? maybe? We called it "big wednesday." There was only a few breaks in san diego county that could hold the size. Blacks was pushing 20ft+, I watched some guys paddle out at Swamis who took about 5 waves on the head and never made it out. :) 

I watched that swell break OVER the top of the Venice pier and remove the restroom building that was built out at the end. 

Eric Engberg wrote:

Harder to fake it in surfing

This.

Andrew Rice wrote:

I watched that swell break OVER the top of the Venice pier and remove the restroom building that was built out at the end. 

I think that swell will live in infamy for those of us who were there to experience it. I’ve been out of CA since mid ‘19 and I don’t believe there’s been a swell to top that one since. I paddled out once it dropped a little bit and caught some of the best waves of my life. The conditions were so clean, I remember it like it was yesterday. :)