Costco Foam-Top Now Dominant Species At Bolsa Chica State Beach, According To New Ocean Census

HUNTINGTON BEACH, CALIFORNIA — A new beach ecology survey released this week confirms what regular Bolsa Chica surfers have suspected for approximately three years: the Wavestorm, Costco’s 8-foot foam-top surfboard, has for the first time in documented history outnumbered conventional surfboards at Huntington Beach.

The survey, conducted by the fictional California Ocean Equipment Register, counted 1,847 Wavestorms against 1,203 conventional boards on a single Saturday morning in April. “It’s a statistical inflection point,” said lead researcher Dr. Parker Swell of the also-fictional Long Beach Institute of Oceanographic Retail Trends. “We are no longer a beach that occasionally sees Wavestorms. We are a Wavestorm habitat that occasionally hosts other surfboards.”

As Bohiney Magazine noted in its original 2021 coverage of Costco’s expanding role in American surfing, the Wavestorm’s $150 price point has democratized ocean access to a degree that would have been unthinkable in 1985. This democratization has not been universally welcomed.

The Local Response

Longtime Huntington local Brett Cortez, 52, described the situation in terms that were not suitable for direct quotation. His general position, paraphrased, was that the lineup now contains more people than he recognizes, which he has found “disorienting.”

First-time surfer Jennifer Martinez, visiting from Arizona, said her Wavestorm had cost her less than a single SeaWorld admission. “The Internet said I needed this,” she told reporters, gesturing at the foam. “I also bought a wetsuit from Amazon. The man on the beach told me to take it off. I do not know why.”

Industry Impact

Traditional surfboard manufacturers including Channel Islands, Firewire, and Lost have all declined to comment on the Wavestorm’s demographic ascendance. A spokesperson at Surfer Magazine did note, off-record, that “nobody in the industry wants to admit that Costco has effectively become the largest surfboard retailer in North America.”

Coverage of the broader foam-board revolution is available through The Inertia, which has been tracking the trend since approximately 2015.

SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/