A lot of eye rolling goes on, when I tell people that most of my professional experience was in Hawai’i. I might get different looks, if people realized the little surf shop where I cut my teeth in advertising is actually a multimillion dollar operation with a global presence.

The surf industry continues to grow both at the beach and in land locked areas. The sport of surfing has the rare quality of global appeal, as well as becoming a cultural phenomenon. For 50 years and running, surfing has captivated American popular culture. Visa released a commercial last week for their checkout service starring pro surfer Kolohe Andino and a monstrous Tahitian wave.

Visa Checkout is the easier way to pay online. But can it really be done in one of the heaviest waves in the world? *Dramatization do not attempt. Sequences shortened. Screen images simulated. Purchase process shown after Pizza Hut ordering process is complete. Must enroll in Visa Checkout with a valid card.

Why would Visa pump so much money into a surfing commercial (I assume Morgan Freeman voiceovers don’t come cheap), when the credit card company could have easily used another sport? They’re an official sponsor of the NFL. Slapping a football logo on the ad would have been a lot easier than paying for a tank of helicopter fuel. The point is that Visa is an international card. Surfing is an international sport. It’s recognized as internationally cool.

The north shore of Oahu hosts the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing every year. People flock to the three contests from as far away as South Africa. The 2013 Billabong Pipe Masters contest was streamed online by over 3.9 million people from 70 different countries. For comparison, that’s over 5 times as many viewers as all of New York Fashion week. There’s a sort of fascination about surfing that comes from a mixture of adrenaline and viewer accessibility.

I’ve had the opportunity to work with some of the leading surf brands in the world. The interesting secret is that surf companies often profit more from shirt sales than any other product. People aren’t solely buying the product these companies specialize in. They’re buying the idea behind the brand. That's probably why I've seen plenty of Quicksilver shorts in the West Village and Sanuk shoes in Central Park.

The surf industry provides excellent examples of branding at its finest. Quicksilver is the smooth talker, while Hurley is the jock, and Volcom plays the bad boy role. Whatever niche customers want within the larger industry, they can find it somewhere. A Hurley sales rep I once worked with explained it best: “We don’t just sell trunks to surfers. We sell shirts and board shorts and shoes to kids in Montana. It’s a movement that people want to be a part of—no matter where they’re at.”