ABSTRACT
The World Surf League (WSL) is a professional sporting organization that staged 255 surfing events in 26 countries in 2016. This chapter explores the issues of sustainability at WSL events and attempts to incorporate sustainability, not just into the staging of the event but also into event messaging which, given the sport’s cultural cache amongst youth and an estimated global audience of 125 million, has real potential to influence behaviors beyond those in direct attendance. The chapter focuses on a case study of the 2013 Fiji Pro. Despite the recent lack of engagement with outside sustainability organizations, in the past the WSL and its sponsors have had great success producing events which were demonstrably sustainable and which produced positive outcomes for the event destinations and their communities.
