Waxing Philosophic at Surfing Conference

With an interest in such topics as “Surfing and Stress” and “Modern Surfing and Dante’s Inferno,” the Santa Monica-based Groundswell Society has become the think tank of surfing.

This weekend in Dana Point, the far-flung group of thinkers and hard-core wave riders will plumb the mind of the surfer and contemplate the sport’s perils and contributions to Western civilization.

Participants at the society’s annual Surfing Arts, Science and Issues Conference include a coastal engineer talking about artificial reefs, updates on ocean pollution and a visit by wave forecaster Sean Collins, the man surfers both love and hate.

Collins has set up cameras linked to the Internet at California surfing breaks, allowing thousands of surfers to see if the surf’s up in real time -- a bummer for local surfers who have to contend with instant crowds.

One of the presenters, Chad Nelsen, Surfrider Foundation’s environmental director, plans to talk about the effect of surfing on Indonesian island cultures. Nias, once a tropical island paradise, now has a drug problem and crime to contend with after its discovery by globe-trotting surfers.

Leading the charge is Oxnard’s Glenn Hening. Part beach bum and part catalyst, the 52-year-old Hening brings an array of credentials, including the fact that he founded the Surfrider Foundation, a powerful environmental group with a surfer’s perspective.

Hening believes surfing’s global tribe should focus on broader issues, particularly the commercialization of surf culture.

Surfers, he says, should be fed up with companies borrowing the surf culture to hawk everything from beer to lingerie.

The waves are free, yet CEOs “who don’t know the difference between Frankie Avalon and [renowned big-wave rider] Laird Hamilton” are making fortunes and not giving enough back to the sport and environment, Hening said.

Hening has teamed with Jericho Poppler-Bartlow, who helped pioneer women’s professional surfing in Southern California, and Matt Meyerson, a 1996 UCLA graduate who runs Groundswell’s business side from his Santa Monica home.

The group has no office and no paid staff -- “there’s just the three of us,” said Meyerson, 29.

Now in its third year, Groundswell has about 150 paying members and has drawn a similar number to its annual conference.

Some prominent people in the surf community will be on hand this year, including former world champion surfer Shaun Tomson, Dana Brown, who directed the surf film “Step Into Liquid,” and Collins.

The conference runs today and Sunday at the Doubletree Guest Suites; the $75 registration fee includes admission to a benefit concert.

The theme of the conference is “The Price of Surfing,” but it isn’t about buying state beach passes.

Instead, many of the speakers will address such problems as turf wars on popular surfing beaches and commercialization.

As an example of the commercialization that has overtaken the sport, Hening cited a corporate sponsor of the U.S. Open at Huntington Beach whose chief executive “was quoted as saying their involvement had little to do with surfing other than providing a target-rich environment for their marketing efforts,” he said.

But because the conference is being held for the first time in Orange County -- home to apparel and other industries that use surfing culture in their marketing -- Hening and other foes of commercialization may get some criticism in return at the conference.

For example, Sean Smith, a spokesman for the Orange County-based Sports Industry Manufacturers Assn., said Hening is being simplistic. He doesn’t understand that the surf industry in the United States is relatively small, even with gross revenue of $3.3 billion, Smith said.

“Mr. Hening loves to ask, ‘Why isn’t more going from these companies back into the environment?’ But many are small companies,” Smith said.

“Getting a large corporation ... interested in promoting the surfing lifestyle to millions of people -- with all due respect to Mr. Hening -- there’s nothing wrong with that,” he said.

Mike Kingsbury, a Huntington Beach water sports promoter who helped publicize the U.S. Open, added that the nonprofit organization Life Rolls On was the contest’s official charity. It was founded by Jesse Billauer, 24, who was paralyzed in a surfing accident, to help develop treatments and a cure for paralysis caused by spinal cord injuries.

“What’s Hening’s point?” Kingsbury asked. “That we’re selling out? Contests have been going on for more than four decades. Did he just figure this out?”

Hening’s diatribes are well known in the surf community. After founding Surfrider, he later pulled away in a disagreement over the group’s focus and corporate ties.

His status as a West Coast surfing guru was etched after he wrote an article that circulated on the Internet about five years ago about modern surfing and its cost, highlighting rising violence and localism at popular surfing breaks.

“For me and for many surfers, that article resonated,” Meyerson said.