Surfer-influencers are making waves--but not with the brands you'd expect

Surfing has always been cool.

Created in 12th century Polynesia (very cool) and rising in popularity in the second half of the 1900s, surfing has never reaaaallly fallen off.

In the 1950s, the'mainstream' population viewed surfers as nonconformist, beatnik-types—selfish, wasteful, and living dangerously outside the institution (again, cool).

And then, with the help of The Beach Boys and Hollywood, surfing became mainstream cool. It became a 'proper' sport when the International Surfing Federation was formed in 1964.

Since then, it's remained both cool and a pretty ace way to get your brand name out there.

Think of the big players: Rip Curl, Quicksilver, Volcom, Billabong... Roxy <3.

They're easy for me to dredge up—they dominated the surf shops my early teenaged self visited so often.

But this was the 2000s, and the way to use surfers to sell your sh*t was by giving them free kit (AKA, sponsorship). So surfers would don the gear of their affiliated brand, then go compete. Brand names popped in and out of the frame as they rode the best waves and did their post-comp interviews.

Easy as that!

But that was before the 2008 financial crash, which rocked most of the big brands pretty hard, forcing them to cut a lot of their sponsored surfers.

And this didn't just mean brands had to re-think their approach. Surfers needed to find a new income source.

Luckily, our digital age has the answers: Turn into an influencer!

So that's exactly what many have done. They've honed in on their social media presence to start earning some cash like every other not-quite celebrity does—via the internet.

One of the ace surfers who's done this is Coco Ho, using her 670K followers to land a partnership with Dove.

Yeah, Dove. A company so...white-background and real-beauty coded. The brand truly brings up no surfing connotations altogether.

But other big brands are catching on, too.

Like Audi, who got surfing legend Stephanie Gilmore to advertise their e-vehicle on her Instagram feed.

In fact, heaps of brands big and small are jumping on this surfer-influencer trend. Clearly, they're hoping to harness the coolness of these athletes to sell their products.

CRAP sunglasses welcomed longboard surfer Karina Rozunko onto their team.

Tekla and Stussy cleverly got surfer Frankie Harrer and her young family to model their sleepwear collection.

On the surface, it seems a bit random for these brands to team up with surfing icons.

But that's how you get more customers, right? By breaking into a totally new market.

And there are a LOT of people easily influenced by surfers (me being one of them).

The surf community is strong. And, just like in any other sport, if we see our preferred player (ehm, surfer) sporting a new shampoo or e-vehicle, we're more likely to check it out ourselves.

There's something about the trust you build around someone you admire. It means, even if they're getting paid to do something, you believe some crumb of it is real.

You trust they wouldn't partner with someone terrible, I guess.

So, if you want to promote your brand to a new audience that is enthusiastic, tuned in, and gnarly, the surfing community could be what you're looking for.

Because the landscape of surfing has changed, and maybe that's for the better. Yeah, big sponsorships seem easier than keeping up a social media presence (for me at least). But surfers being able to choose from more brands to partner with is good.

It means they can choose products and businesses that really resonate with them and can spend more time making videos than competing.

And if partnering with a surfer doesn't fit your brand, no worries. There are loads of niche communities out there for you to explore.

-Maggie, Copywriter