ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the externalities produced by surfing in respect to the two key drivers of surfing activity: the place of the tube and the practice of travel. It raises the issue of the carbon costs involved in commercial air travel; and in terms of the place of the tube, the chapter outlines the environmental, cultural and social costs locations suffer through the influx of surfers into an area. The chapter then focuses in particular on the case of Bali and Gili Trewangen in Indonesia. It uses this case to question whether the 'utopic Groundhog days' enjoyed by Ouhilal should be simply framed as internally pleasurable events, or whether they must be contextualised as rituals with external consequences too. The chapter suggests that the debate over the nature of surfing utopia could be usefully informed by lessons from environmentalism, including a new 'coyote' politics of pragmatism that enables the integration of surfing with sustainability more strongly.
