20 Little Known Surfing Facts You Won't Hear Anywhere Else…

If you’re looking for a list of obscure, interesting surf facts to impress your mates, you’re in the right place. 

A huge list of surfing facts you definitely won’t have heard anywhere else (unless they copied this post that is…).

Enjoy.

HUGE LIST OF SURFING FACTS

Prior to 2014 zero percent of the male World Champions were from Brazil. Since 2014 75% of all world champions have come from Brazil.

Quiksilver, Roxy, DC Shoes, Billabong, Element, Von Zipper, RVCA, and XCEL are all owned by the same company – Boardriders, Inc.

There are three right hand point breaks, and two right hand reef brakes on the WSL Tour schedule, yet only one designated left hander (boo for the goofy footers).

Hayden Shapes’ Hypto Crypto is the biggest selling surfboard model of all time.

Kelly Slater dated Gisele Bundchen, Cameron Diaz, Bar Refaeli,Tamara Mellon &Pamela Anderson before meeting his current long term girlfriend, Kalani Miller.

The three fin thruster set-up was invented by Simon Anderson in 1980.

The Bells Beach Surfing Event has been running every since 1961, making it the longest running professional surfing event in the world. 

Wetsuits were first invented in the 1950’s by California Physicist Hugh Bradner.

The winter water temperature in Ireland is 8°C warmer than the East Coast of Canada at the same longitude. 

In October 2020, Sebastian Steudtner surfed the largest wave ever caught at Nazare, in Portugal. The wave was 86ft tall. 

Owen Wright won $300000 USD in the Quiksilver New York surfing event in 2011. This is the largest prize ever won in surfing to this day.

The prize money for winning a WSL Championship Tour event in 2023 is $80,000. Compare that to winning Wimbledon $3,000,000, a PGA Golf Tournament $3,600,000, or Darts World Championships $640,000. 

The last 30 Women’s World Championships have been won by just seven surfers: Stephanie Gilmore, Tyler Wright, Carissa Moore, Layne Beachley, Chelsea Georgeson, Sofia Mulanovich and Lisa Anderson.

In 2010 Joel Parkinson won the World Title, yet failed to win a single event. 

In February 2022 a 49 year old man was Pipeline Champion, and simultaneously the number 1 ranked surfing in the world. His name was Kelly Slater. 

In the last 30 years, only 5 of the men’s World Champions have been from Australia. In the Women’s division there have been 20. 

Brazil has never produced a female World Champion.

There has only ever been one set of identical twins to compete on the World Championship Tour : CJ, and Damien Hobgood. CJ became World Champion in 2001.

It costs between $425-to-$575 to ride a single wave at the Surf Ranch.

Gabriel Medina is the most followed surfer on Instagram with 11.1M followers. That’s more than Kelly Slater, Jon Jon Florence, Steph Gilmore, and the World Surf League combined.

CONCLUSION

Well there you have it, the best, most obscure list of surfing facts you’re likely to find anywhere on the web. 

Have you got a fun surfing fact you’d like to share?

If so, throw it in the comments section below.

Yew!Rowan

ROWAN CLIFFORD

Rowan is the technical nerd behind the scenes. A lover of everything entrepreneurial, and living a minimal, simple life. Surf, Travel, Create.