Regulating “Nirvana”: Sustainable surf tourism in a climate of increasing regulation

•A response to the issue of crowding in a sport tourism context is analysed.•Physical carrying capacity regulation alone is inadequate to address crowding issues.•Current regulatory regimes fail to address behavioural management and social carrying capacity.•Vocational training and cultural interchange positioned as social adjuncts to purely physical capacity regulation.•Links between recreational carrying capacity and sustainability are highlighted.Indonesia's Mentawai Islands are widely regarded as a surfer's “Nirvana.” This paper uses qualitative interviews and participant observation to explore the politics of surf tourism recreational capacity management in the Mentawais, and the wider implications for Mentawaian host communities’ involvement in the surf tourism economy. While much of the Mentawaian surf tourism industry was vehemently opposed to a recently introduced capacity management model, the market responded favourably. There appear to be immediate advantages for government and local communities in incentivising low-volume, high-yield land-based surf tourism development, and social carrying capacity measures such as vocational training and cultural interchange emerge as viable adjuncts to purely physical carrying capacity regulation.