The French province of Aquitaine was responsible for €1.1 billion of the €1.48 billion European surf market in 2004-05, according to figures compiled by the Boardsport Local Productive System, a Bayonne-based organization that promotes boardsports, which presented them at EuroSIMA’s annual Surf Summit last month.
The size of the global surf market was given at €6.5 billion, with €3.7 billion generated in the USA. The five leading players in the global surf market include Quiksilver, which holds a 23 percent market share, followed by Billabong at 8 percent, Rip Curl at 3 percent and the Volcom brand at 2 percent. O’Neill is actually estimated to be in 2nd place after Quik, but it would not release its figures to the researchers.
In terms of product, the market is divided as 75 percent apparel and footwear, 15 percent accessories, 3-5 percent wetsuits and technical wear, and 3-5 percent hardware. The 12-25-year age group continues to be the core target for the surf brands, but the 7-15-year and 25-35-year age groups are gaining stride.
As usual, the European surf industry summit was capped by the “Waterman’s Ball,” a fund-raising event attended by about 300 people and that garnered about €16,000 to be donated to environmental and charitable organizations. Awards were given out during the summit, including the “EuroSIMA Lifetime Achievement Award,” presented to Kelly Slater, who was unable to personally accept the award because he had to be in a competition the following day. The European Athlete of the Year Award was given to Micky Picon, Jeremy Flores got the European Male Rookie of the Year Award and Pauline Ado was given the European Female Rookie of the Year Award.
