Amount Awarded

£25,000

Event Background & Funding

EventScotland has supported the Scotland leg of the O’Neill Coldwater Classic since 2008 when it was known as the O’Neill Highland Open.  The O'Neill Coldwater Classic Scotland is one of the highest rated surfing events in the world, one of only two in the UK. The 2011 Series takes in four worldwide extreme surfing locations, New Zealand, Scotland, Canada, and Santa Cruz.

The week-long event has been staged in Thurso since 2006 and, during this time, O’Neill have developed a long standing relationship with the town, attracted by the consistency of the waves and the popularity of the location amongst the competitors.

“It’s a combination of the quality of surf on the reef up in Scotland as well as the feeling of adventure and pushing the limits that appeals,” says 2010 Cold Water Classic Series winner Shaun Cansdell. “Last year there was snow, most years there is some sort of hail storm. It is wild and it is most definitely cold.”

For two of the 120 world class surfers, however, the reward is monumental. Not only do they pick up the prize money and ASP rankings points, but more importantly they have the opportunity to lift the coveted Highland Sword, and each will receive a plot of land in the Scottish Highlands and with it, the title of Lord.

Tourism

The event achieved estimated spectator numbers of 5,500 over the 8-day event. The majority were day visitors from the Highlands and rest of Scotland visiting an average of 2.5 days. Staff and surfers contributed to eight overnight stays each while 300 visitors from the rest of Scotland and 600 from rest of UK stayed on average three nights.

The event had an economic impact of £440,000 to the local economy and £420,000 to Scotland.

Business

O’Neill is committed to sourcing local suppliers in Scotland and particularly around the Thurso region where possible.

Media

Media is of major importance to the event. Scotland's rugged coastlines and dramatic surf conditions provide stunning TV footage that showcases Scotland's excellent surfing opportunities and beautiful landscape. Highlight shows were distributed worldwide, as well as live webcasts and multiple national and international news broadcasts which profile Scotland as The Perfect Stage for surfing. The event achieved a total broadcast air time of 859 hours across every continent in 2009 and footage from the 2010 event continues to be broadcast globally on a rolling basis.

O’Neill also hosted press trips to the event for 13 different publications, including international specialist surf journalists.

Special destination ads for all Coldwater Classic locations were produced by O’Neill in 2010 to promote the special characteristics of each location. These were placed in all major European surf magazines in the UK, Spain, Germany, Benelux, France and Portugal. The Scotland creative was incorporated into the overall marketing campaign, including O'Neill flagship stores window takeovers (e.g. Bluewater in London) and O'Neill catalogues (readership of c. 2 million).

The Coldwater Classic website achieved 264,881 unique visitors, with the main origin being USA - a 28% increase on 2009; the Scotland event live webcasts received 182,000 views. Each year, O'Neill also produces a CWC Series DVD which reaches around 1 million consumers.

Overall media value of the Coldwater Classic Scotland 2010 is estimated at US$6.3m (broken down into US$5m TV value worldwide, US$500k print, US$600k web and US$200k through retail/promotion in O'Neill store world wide).

Participation and development

The event provides the local community and businesses with an opportunity to develop the surf industry in Caithness. Developing a fringe festival-type programme around the event has been cited as one method to attract greater numbers of spectators in the future.

O'Neill communicates and works closely with local surfers to establish good relationships and gain the information to promote the area as a surf destination through marketing materials and media coverage.

Cultural and social benefits

As a result of the event, O’Neill brought their surf school along with six professional surf instructors to Thurso and Fraserburgh in July/August 2010. Fifty children per day had the opportunity to try surfing for the first time under professional supervision.

Key Outcomes

Major influential media coverage totalling a media value of US$6.3m (estimated)

Attendance figures of 5,500

Opportunity to try surfing with professional instructors for local children