“It's a challenge, It's hard to get a wave”: the Impact of constraInts on women surf tourIsts

Abstract

This article aims to explore active female surfers' constraints associated with surf tourism. A qualitative, interpretive research paradigm informed by feminist perspectives was utilized. Twenty female surf tourists were interviewed in an effort to address the study's objectives. Semistructured in-depth interviews were the main data collection method, allowing women to freely speak about their experiences. Analysis of these interviews revealed a range of personal, sociocultural, and practical constraints, which worked to limit these women prior to or during engagement in surf tourism. It became evident that the major constraints that hindered women were “the unknown” and management of logistics. In addition, women felt constrained by their financial resources and by being a minority as a female surfer. These findings are discussed in relation to existing leisure constraint theories identifying similarities to constraints encountered in other kinds of tourism. Furthermore, this study's findings support assumptions of constraints being equally enabling as well as restricting, thus demonstrating a positive relationship between constraint and experience.