Coast riding a wave
Global forum confirms city’s surfing position
THE Gold Coast will cement its status as the world capital of surfing when it hosts the Global Wave Conference in 2020 – the year the sport makes its Olympic debut.
GWC organisers Save the Waves Coalition, the world authority for World Surfing Reserves, and the Surfrider Foundation will today confirm the Coast as host city for the 6th biannual GWC.
Forecast to inject $1.2 million into the local economy, the five-day conference will be held the week before the World Surfing League world tour event at Snapper Rocks – four months before surfing is introduced to the Olympics at the Tokyo Games.
A coup for the city, the Coast’s push to poach the event followed the coalition’s 2016 decision to declare the stretch of coast from Burleigh Point to Snapper Rocks the Eighth World Surfing Reserve.
It will be the first time the GWC has been held in Australia, which is now home to more than 2.6 million surfers.
The 2020 GWC will bring up to 400 surf industry experts from around the world – from marine scientists and ocean conservationists to academics and champions of the sport – to Coolangatta to discuss issues facing surfing, the ocean and their futures.
Southern Cross University and Griffith University will be actively involved, with the conference to include a surfing expo, movie festival and live music.
Gold Coast World Surfing Reserve chairman, former world longboard champion and Bulletin columnist Andrew McKinnon travelled to the US this month to present the city’s pitch for the 2020 event to the 2018 GWC in Santa Cruz, California. Mr MacKinnon could not be contacted for comment yesterday.
The Coast’s surf industry pumps an estimated $3.3 billion into the local economy each year and employs 21,000 people.