Surfing

Synonyms / Other Terms Used

Long Boarding, Short Boarding, Big Wave Surfing

Category

Sports, Water Based Activities, Water Sports, Sporting Activities, Activities, Recreation, Tourism

Message / Function

For notice in general and to signify the activity of surfing

	Source	Description
	Dutchicon	Tube wave with human figure on surfboard in the center
	DER	Human figure on surfboard, water shown as two wavy lines plus fat curve indicating wave
	CNIS	Human figure on surfboard, water shown as two wavy lines plus curves indicating wave
	BS 8501:2002	Human figure on surfboard, water shown as two wavy lines plus curves indicating wave
	Erco	Human figure on surfboard, water shown as four bent lines indicating wave
	Ecuador	Human figure on surfboard, water with wave
	O'21	Human figure on surfboard up in the air, water below
	Peru MST	Human figure on surfboard, water shown as two wavy lines
	Peru 2016	Human figure on surfboard, water shown as two wavy lines
	NZS 8603	Human figure on surfboard, water shown as two wavy lines
	NPS	Human figure on surfboard, water shown as wavy contour
	NARSSM	Human figure on surfboard, water shown as wavy contour
	BTA 1989	Human figure on surfboard
	Fiori	Human figure on surfboard
	EJP	Human figure on surfboard
	Dutchicon	Human figure on surfboard with fin visible
	U.S. National Park Service	Human figure on surfboard, fin visible
	WTO-Portugal	Human figure holding surfboard, wavy line below
	Anggara Putra	Two surfboards with decoration in vertical position, horizontal line below
	O'24	Circular arrangement of five surfboards at the ends of arcs starting in the center

Note: Some of the examples shown above were mirrored horizontally to contrast differences.

Discussion

The selection above illustrates the range of pictograms available, from human figures on a surfboard on calm water shown as one or more wavy lines to variants with the surfer in a tube wave, but also just renderings of a surf board. No single visual stereotype can be identified.

In our research we discovered that there is only very limited test data available:

Fiori (2008) examined a map symbol similar to the pictogram labeled Fiori on basis of a Comprehension Test, where 69.7 % of the responses were classified as correct. Among the 17.8 % wrong responses were answers like Skateboarding, answers not to be expected when aspects like water are part of the rendering.

Recommendations

BS 8501 Public Information Symbol No 9059: Surfing

We recommend using a pictogram similar to public information symbol No 9059 of BS 8501:2002, as we expect a variant also displaying water to be better comprehensible than the variants showing no water. This would provide a better differentiation from Skateboarding or possibly Snowboarding.

Furthermore we advocate to conduct a study including a Comprehension Test comparing all the concepts above to determine the image content working best.

Tests of pictograms of referent Surfing

Fiori, S. R. (2008): Mapas para o turismo e a interatividade - proposta teórica e prática. Tese de Doutorado - Depto. de Geografia, FFLCH-USP.