How can El Salvador, a country rich with epic waves but trapped in the shadows of a war-torn past, shine a light on its world-class surfing and establish itself as a tourist destination — especially given continued State Department travel warnings?
It helps to soak up the surf scene in Southern California.
A group sent by the Salvadoran government toured coastal areas from Santa Monica to San Clemente the past few days on a surf safari aimed at learning how surf-centric destinations operate: from how businesses and retail shops cater to wave riders to how the hospitality industry can incorporate sustainability into its practices.
They made stops at surf landmarks and museums along the way.
The tour was the latest step in an effort by the Salvadoran and U.S. governments to find a common place – in the ocean – after visits earlier this year between California Gov. Gavin Newsom and El Salvador’s newly elected president Nayib Bukele.
The El Salvador initiative – called Surf City – brings together the small nation’s coastal towns, with the touring group taking back information learned from Southern California.
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Karla Rodriguez, El Salvador’s director of planning, said the government is working on its master plan for tourism, fine-tuning ideas on how to get more infrastructure in remote areas and how to develop surf areas in a sustainable way.
The touring group had a mix of representatives, from a security expert to tourism officials to hotel and surf shop operators already entrenched in the coastal communities.
“It’s more than we expected,” Rodriguez said, of how big the surf influence is in Southern California. “Here, you breathe surf, you live surf, everything is surf.”
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The El Salvador delegation’s fact-finding trip to Orange County followed a series of August meetings in El Salvador between tourism officials there and some from California, including Visit California President and CEO Caroline Beteta and Ed Fuller, president and CEO of the Orange County Visitors Association.
Fuller and Beteta led the California delegation in Orange County, along with Visit Huntington Beach CEO Kelly Miller and Jim Burba, president of the Burba Hotel Network and a Visit California board member.
“Tourism has the power to change the story of underdeveloped economies,” Beteta said in a statement. “The governor realized that this cooperative initiative helps El Salvador realize its economic potential and helps California by stabilizing the region and easing immigration pressures.”
Visit Huntington Beach staff took guests to the International Huntington Beach Surf Museum, the Surfers’ Walk of Fame and the Boardriders headquarters in Huntington Beach to meet with Quiksilver founder Bob McKnight and surfing’s first world champion, Peter “PT” Townend, who was a stunt double in the ’70s surf film “Big Wednesday,” parts of which were shot in El Salvador.
On Thursday, Dec. 5, the group stopped in at the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center in San Clemente to learn about the sport’s rich past.
“It’s important you develop your surf culture and you have a tie to the surf history, because you cannot plan your future unless you know your past,” said Glenn Brumage, executive director of SHACC.
Brumage noted that El Salvador has long been known as a destination for surfers.
Before Townend traveled there for “Big Wednesday,” surf journalists Kevin Naughton and Craig Peterson documented their journey to El Salvador, a tale that landed in Surfer Magazine.
“We all saw them and thought ‘that is awesome,’” Brumage said of the surf images that came out decades ago.
Finding its place in a surf-rich region – with Costa Rica and Nicaragua already catering to droves of surfers searching for waves – takes more than just building beach-front resorts and plopping surfboards in the sand.
“We are trying to make some changes and learn how to get more infrastructure to get good practices to learn about surfing, how to develop an area, how to develop security – all kinds of things related to surf,” Rodriguez said. “We’re looking to change our face around the world. We have really good things in El Salvador, the surf, the volcanoes and mountains. But the best thing we have is the waves.”
But as they move forward, one important factor to consider is how to do it in a sustainable way.
“We need to understand the industry, the brotherhood and you need to make sure we don’t sell out,” said Rodrigo Larios, general manager of Puro Surf Hotel and Performance Academy, who has been surfing 25 years. “Too much of a boom, it becomes something that is too exploded.”
That means making sure locals benefit from growing tourism with job opportunities; that resorts use local farmers for food; and that towns can sustain an influx of people with the proper infrastructure, he said.
Larios, 45, was a kid when the country was ravaged by a civil war from 1979 to 1992, remaining unstable and unsafe for many years to follow. The U.S. Department of State currently has a Level 2 travel advisory for El Salvador, warning visitors to exercise increased caution due to crime.
But Larios said since the new administration took over in June, the country is on a path toward changing its image.
“There’s still a long way to go but they started doing the right steps to make for some harmony,” he said. “At last, we can see a light there, that we can be at peace.”
Being in the United States, he said, is a dream come true.
Sophia Valdivia, senior travel trade and film manager for Visit Huntington Beach, said showing off the area’s surf culture is a great way to develop a relationship between the two countries.
“This is an exploratory trip. They came over and it was just a lot of education. They want to see the best practices,” she said. “Now, more than ever, I think travel is so important and tourism especially – not only because it’s an economic driver … but sharing with the relationships.”
On the list before the Salvadorans departed Sunday was meeting with Huntington Beach lifeguards to talk about safety when there’s an influx of visitors coming to the coast, and a stop to tour the Vans headquarters in Costa Mesa.
“Huntington Beach can host El Salvaldor and kind of share knowledge and make a difference,” Valdivia said. “It’s something cool to be a part of that, not just promoting a destination, it’s kind of doing something that can hopefully turn into a long-term partnership and hopefully make a difference.”
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