It cost Jamie Tierney $5.959 to become a surfer in 2018. The writer and filmmaker, who lives in Los Angeles, published last Friday on The Inertia his sports-related expenses. The budget was allocated to travel, both abroad and within the United States, and to equipment.

His biggest investment was traveling outside his country. His trip to Japan took $2.000 of his budget. His visit to France cost him $1.500 and surfing in Mexico cost him $1.200. These expenses include airfare, car rental and food. $1.000 went to gas to travel from Los Angeles to Southern California in search of better waves in the winter. Among the places visited were San Diego, Rincon, Huntington, Ensenada and Los Angeles. In addition to travel, the content creator bought a surfboard for his wife for $99, five bars of wax for $10 and a wetsuit for $150.

“Surfing is my favourite thing to do and I’ve always valued the experiences of things so I don’t mind spending around $6.000 a year total on that. It’s nice to realise that I was actually able to offset a good portion of the expenses by creating content. It took me a year to spend the equivalent of a snowboard or a three-day trip to Tavarua,” the surfer explained.

“I had years where I would go away for six months and spend $20.000-$30.000 on travel, but I always found a way to offset a significant portion through work,” he added.

Tierney clarified that he already had two new boards in 2018 and that he had an electric car.

“Surfing is increasingly becoming an area for rich people, but I feel like I’ve found a way to get good waves in a variety of places while minimizing my costs,” he said.