Gold Coast to host 2020 Global Wave Conference on eve of surfing’s Olympic Games debut
GET ready to see plenty more of the world’s top surfing stars after the Gold Coast poached a new major event which will play host to some of the sport’s biggest characters.
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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 Gold 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 (WSL) 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 follows 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 event 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 and concerns facing the sport, the ocean and the planet.
Southern Cross University Coolangatta campus 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 Gold Coast 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 McKinnon could not be contacted for comment.
“One characteristic about here is that all roads lead to the surf. It is out greatest asset — our beaches and surf,” former world champion Wayne ‘Rabbit Bartholomew’ says in a video submitted as part of the Coast bid.
“It’s a known fact and it’s really time to give back and to make sure into the future generations that these surf breaks are here to stay.”
Keynote speaker’s at the 2018 conference included marine biologist Dr Sylvia Earle, Imax filmmaker Greg MacGillivray, World Champion surfers Shaun Tomson, social media guru Guy Kawasaki, big wave champ Greg Long, Patagonia’s Liz Clark and Dr M. Sanjayan from Conservation International, with problems associated with plastics in our oceans a hot topic of debate.
The bid was backed by the State Government and Tourism and Events Queensland, Gold Coast City Council and Gold Coast Tourism, surfing bodies the WSL and Surfing Australia, the Tim Bonython Movie Festival and The Drop Live Music Festival.
The Coast’s surf industry pumps an estimated $3.3 billion into the local economy each year and employs 21,000 people, with the spend by local surfers on surf equipment, getting to the beach and riding waves estimated to total more than $230 million a year.
The Coast bid included plans for a mini-World Surf Reserve conference, like the one held in Santa Cruz during last month’s GWC, a film festival, surfing expo and live music events.
First held in the Canary Islands, the GWC has since visited Biarritz, in France; Rosarito, in Mexico; Cornwall, in the UK; and Santa Cruz, in California.
The Bulletin understands the Coast bid received unanimous support from the coalition and its partners Surfrider Foundation, Surfers Against Sewerage and Conservation International.
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