After surfing made its Olympic debut in Tokyo in 2020, the sport enjoyed a boom in popularity with 1.4 million people riding the waves in the year following those Games, according to Surfing England. With surfing returning to the Paris Olympics this summer – in the irresistible location of Teahupo'o in Tahiti – even more of us may be tempted to take to the board.
But perhaps you think surfing is the preserve of athletic young men, effortlessly riding the rough waves of Newquay. When it comes to age and gender, the reality is a lot more diverse than you might think. Surfing England found that not only has surfing participation more than doubled in six years, but now almost as many women as men are trying the sport. And it’s not just teens and twenty-somethings – around 40% of Surfing England’s Facebook followers are aged 45 and over.
