An examination of the changes on facilitators and constraints during lifelong participation in surfing

ABSTRACT

Research question

Continued sport participation hinges on facilitators and constraints, which may change throughout an individual’s life. The research question for this study was: ‘How do facilitators and constraints change over time in the pursuit of lifelong participation in sport?’

Research methods

Interviews with 16 participants who commenced surfing as a child and continued to surf at middle adulthood revealed the facilitators and constraints that affected their commencement and continuation of surfing.

Results and findings

Findings showed that social factors (e.g. friends and family) facilitated surfing as a child and continued to do so in middle adulthood. However, a significant shift was noted in middle adulthood towards participants’ mental wellbeing as a strong facilitator for continued participation. Furthermore, middle-aged adults used other activities to develop competencies that would compensate for any loss of functional capacity and help them continue surfing.

Implications

The results offer an application of social ecology in sport which contributes to understanding facilitators and constraints within a sport-specific context over lifetime participation.

KEYWORDS:

• Intrinsic and extrinsic rewards
• lifetime sport participation
• social ecology
• intrapersonal
• interpersonal
• structural factors
• socialising
• wellbeing
• relatedness
• competency
• mastery
• autonomy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).