Navigating the Waves of Formalization: Capital Reconfiguration and Strategic Adaptation of Informal Migrant Coaches

The rapid expansion of China's sports sector, particularly in action sports such as surfing, has created new labor opportunities for informal migrant workers. However, their professional integration remains constrained by institutional barriers and market precarity. Focusing on surfing coaches in Wanning—dubbed “China's Surfing Capital”—this study investigates how informal sports laborers navigate industry gray zones by converting embodied cultural capital (e.g., surfing skills) into institutionalized capital (e.g., certifications). Drawing on semistructured interviews and Bourdieu's field-capital theory ( n  = 20), the findings reveal a stratified formalization process: while surfing proficiency enables market entry, certification remains elusive due to skill-based disparities—low-skilled workers struggle with practical assessments, while high-skilled ones face theoretical exam barriers. Additionally, economic constraints (high certification costs) and social-structural obstacles (regulatory ambiguities, weak occupational networks) further entrench informality. Over time, coaches who successfully cultivate social capital transition into formal roles, whereas others exit due to unsustainable conditions. By exposing the uneven conversion of cultural capital into professional legitimacy, this study contributes to sports sociology by elucidating how informal sports labor navigates the interplay between institutional barriers and market opportunities, and demonstrates how credentialization processes reproduce stratification within emerging athletic professions.