Seasons, Sharks, and Local Control of the Surfing Commons: New Evidence from the Surf Gangs of California

Abstract

This study extends prior research on the relationship between surf break quality and the degree of localism exhibited by surf gangs in at least three ways. First, it adopts Surfline.com’s latest data on California’s surf breaks in order to re-examine whether or not the level of localism displayed by California’s surf gangs is a positive function of the quality and crowdedness of surf breaks. Second, it is the first to explore the relationship between surf break seasonality, measured as the number of months each year that weather and climatic conditions allow a surf break to be accessed, and the degree of localism displayed by surf gangs in the area. Third, it explores how the presence of sharks impacts the degree of localism displayed by surf gangs. Econometric results support the expected positive individual relationships between surf break quality and congestion and the degree of localism at surf breaks. However, no evidence of a relationship between surf break seasonality and surf break localism is reported, whereas that between the presence of sharks at a surf break and surf gang activity is unexpectedly positive. The former of these two findings likely result from relatively low variability in the seasonality data, whereas the latter likely stems from collinearity between the presence of natural hazards (e.g., rocks and reef) that increase the quality of both surf breaks and habitats for sharks’ prey.