It is five A.M. on a scorching Saturday morning in the summer of 1998, and I am awakened by the unpleasant sound of my alarm clock. Now you may be wondering why I am crazy enough to wake up this early on a Saturday, but for the dedicated surfer it is a necessity that one must take in order to maximize utility. Utility is defined as "A measure of the satisfaction, happiness, or benefit that results from the consumption of a good

mentioned before, my reasoning for waking up at five A.M. was to achieve maximum utility. I initially took into account the fact that a good day of surfing such as today tends to attract a larger crowd to the beach and surf areas. A day such as this is very rare, or scarce as an economist would call say. Scarcity in economics is defined as "The condition in which our wants are greater than the limited resources available to satisfy those wants" (Arnold p. 848). In this case, surfable areas are the limited resources. With an expanding surfing population and a limited supply of surfable areas, surfers are forced to make a choice. This choice can be anything from when to surf, or what time of the day to surf, to where to surf or how one should surf. Economics is concerned with how these choices and decisions are made. For example, when a surfer chooses to surf early in the morning, as opposed to later in the day, he is giving up sleeping time in order to satisfy his need !

e who is on the wave first gets to ride the wave without any interference. Taking these factors into consideration, the two surfers were economically viable. Whether or not they knew it, they were thinking economically in terms of costs and benefits. The layperson and even most surfers in general would be quick to argue that the two surfers were merely using common sense surfing skills and nothing more. But by taking a microscopic approach to the situation, it is quite evident that they were in fact thinking economically in terms of costs and benefits.

By now, it is nearing six A.M. and I have managed to paddle to the outside of the surf zone without getting my hair wet. A good surfer will tell you that a person knows he is successful if he can complete a surf session without getting his hair wet, but I have yet to achieve that high

As Blake and I ate our fish burritos at the local taco shop, we reminisced about our impressive surf journey. We both agreed that we had surfed some of the best waves of our lives today, and that this day will always be remembered. We also talked about our love for surfing and the ocean, with Blake making the comment "I could never get tired of surfing.... I could surf for the rest of my life and never get tired of it." I questioned Blake's comment asking him how he could have known of such a thing since he had been surfing for only 6 years. He replied by asking another question: "How could anyone get tired of surfing? I just don't get it." By then I had set the issue aside because I honestly didn't care to explore it any deeper than I had done, but after taking a course in economics, I now look upon that day with a little more intelligence than I previously had. I view Blake's reasoning for his comments to have been in a manner in which a layperson would have described!

ranking. As I wait patiently for the first set of waves to roll in, I feel a sense of anxiety in the pit of my stomach because I know the surf is going to be big. Looking on all sides of me I notice that the surfers in this location have spread out evenly from one end of the surf zone to the other. They do this because they want to maximize their utility by catching the most waves possible in the time period in which they are surfing. If all surfers in the water congregated to one particular spot, then surfers would receive disutility because they would hardly catch any waves at all due to the dense amount of surfers in that area. Granted, it is common to see more people in one surf spot and fewer people in others, but this is simply because at a given surfing location there are better breaks than others. Disutility can be defined economically as "The dissatisfaction one receives from a bad" (Arnold p. 841). To explore further, a bad is defined as "Anything from which i!

It was now roughly 10:30 A.M. and I said my goodbyes to Blake as I dropped him off at his house. I then drove over to the local community pool where I would

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Approximate Word count = 3105
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)