By Tyler Forrest
Lindsay Usher has been active on the water since she was 12 and can really shred. By the time she was in college she was a championship caliber kayak surfer. Years later she found her way to a surf board. Growing up, she spent summers in the Outer Banks of North Carolina so it's no surprise one of her research topics is the study of surf culture and tourism.
Usher, assistant professor of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Studies in the Darden College of Education and Professional Studies at Old Dominion University, conducted her first research study on surfer territoriality (known as localism) and surf culture in Las Salinas, Nicaragua. In 2013, she began conducting surf research in Virginia Beach, Va., where she has examined beach access for surfers and the impacts of surfing regulations of their experiences.
For Dr. Usher, her most recent research study in Virginia and North Carolina explores surfers' connections to the places they surf and how that influences their interactions with other surfers in those places, as well as their desires to care for those places, constraints to accessing those places, and their opinions on the changing nature of those places (i.e. beach nourishment). Surfers in Virginia Beach were also asked about a proposed surf park in Virginia Beach. The proposed park would be developed at the former Dome site, a geodesic house that once saw top level musical acts from around the world before being torn down in 1994. Currently, the 10.35-acre lot is empty and nestled between 18th and 20th street near the oceanfront.
According to Usher, she was having a hard time in the beginning getting participants to respond to the survey, and noted that it is a common problem in social science research currently. But after several media outlets in Virginia and North Carolina wrote articles about her research, Usher has seen an increase in respondents.
"Surfing is an important part of the culture in coastal communities of Virginia and North Carolina, so this is a user group that should not be ignored," said Usher. She also noted theorganization known as Save the Waves conducts 'surfonomics' studies that show the annual economic contribution of some of the most popular surf breaks in the world range from 1 to 35 million dollars.
To Usher's knowledge, no 'surfonomics' studies have been done in Virginia or North Carolina but she guesses that the economic contribution of surfing is likely substantial. "The developers of the surf park in Virginia Beach are counting on those numbers as well," she said.
Usher plans to publish the research results in peer-reviewed journals and will also share the findings with the public, likely through surf organizations, and management agencies.