For most surfers, a wetsuit is just cold-water gear. For Cornwall-born influencer Erika White, now based near Byron Bay, Australia, it has become part of the product.

According to Surfindaddy (byline “admin,” Nov. 6, 2026), some of White’s OnlyFans subscribers are not paying to see the suit come off — they are paying to see her keep it on. “I couldn’t afford a new wetsuit,” she said. “Now men pay to watch me wear one.”

From Universal Credit to a reported six-figure month

White’s path into adult subscription content started with an unstable surf-influencer hustle. According to OK! Magazine‘s Olivia Salamone (Oct. 12, 2026), brand deals, free boards and wetsuit sponsorships were not consistent income, so she joined OnlyFans to fund surfing and travel.

Before that, Salamone reports, White lived in a tiny studio beside her family home on Universal Credit and had roughly $132 a week left after rent. Yahoo‘s David J, writing for Where Is The Buzz (Oct. 9, 2026), puts the same leftover figure at about £100 a week. “I was literally living on peanuts,” she told OK!.

She also cleaned toilets while trying to make the online career work. “I was bloody cleaning toilets. I don’t wanna be cleaning someone else’s s— off a bowl. Like, I’d rather just, like, take a sexy picture of myself and sell it,” she said, as quoted by Surfindaddy (OK! soft-censors the same line).

White previously reported that her monthly OnlyFans earnings climbed from roughly £5,000 to £50,000 in eight months, Surfindaddy notes — figures that have not been independently verified. OK! translates those claims to about $6,603 to $66,030 a month over the same stretch. “Now, I probably make more than pro surfers, and I get to surf and travel and do all these things I love,” she told OK!.

According to Surfindaddy’s report on her earlier SURFER interview, White has said OnlyFans transformed her finances. (A direct SURFER URL was not available for this write-up.)

The wetsuit niche

The detail that jumped out in Surfindaddy’s coverage is the neoprene audience. “They love the tight neoprene,” White explained. “I have gotten paid to literally just be in my wetsuit. To me, that isn’t a sexual thing. To others, they find it kinky.”

Winter kit takes the look further: “When I’m wearing the winter surf gear, you’re fully covered. You’ve got the boots on, the gloves and the hood, and only your face is showing. It kind of looks like a gimp suit.”

She compared the appeal to foot fetishes — something you may not get until you have it yourself — and said she can imagine the draw as “just being in tight neoprene. Everything is hugging your body quite tightly, so it’s pressure in all the right places.”

Surfindaddy notes that other surfers, including Jacob “Zeke” Szekely and Billy Kemper, use OnlyFans more for training tips and behind-the-scenes access. White’s paying niche, at least for some fans, is different.

What the money buys

Gear that once meant patched holes is now seasonal. Yahoo’s David J reports a quality surfboard can run about £1,000 and a wetsuit about £400. “I used to be the surfer who had holes in his wetsuits,” White said in that piece. “There was one wetsuit for the whole year; now there are new wetsuits for every season.” (OK! quotes a similar line with “my wetsuits.”)

The same Yahoo report says she has booked wave-pool sessions costing more than £100, bought a £300 skateboard to get to the venue, traveled through Hawaii, New York and London, and rented a home near Byron Bay for A$1,800 a week — a property she once filmed from a small Airbnb cabin on the same street. OK! also reports the A$1,800-a-week rent near Byron Bay.

“I can just plan these business trips where I get to go on these surf trips and make content, make money, have loads of fun and just travel the world,” she told Surfindaddy. “It’s sort of everything that I’ve wanted in a career.”

Boundaries after burnout

Not every early follower liked the shift. People told her the adult work “ruined your whole aesthetic,” she said in OK! and Yahoo’s coverage, but lifestyle-only posts did not pay the bills.

According to Yahoo’s David J, heavier posting as her platform income grew led to burnout, so she set boundaries: she will only post the vlogs and surfing she actually wants to do. (That Yahoo piece oddly uses the word “Influencer” in places where OK! and Surfindaddy identify the platform as OnlyFans; the platform name here follows those two outlets.)

The takeaway

White’s story sits at a familiar creator-economy intersection: sponsorships that look glamorous but do not cover rent, a subscription platform that does, and a niche audience willing to pay for something as specific as keeping the wetsuit on. The reported jump from about £5,000 to £50,000 a month in eight months is striking — and still unverified. What is clearer from her interviews is the trade she chose: less toilet-cleaning, more control over surf trips, and a business model built around the same neoprene she once could not afford to replace.

Image: Surfers at Newquay, Cornwall, photo by Airwolfhound, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).