A-frame

Aaberg, Denny

Aaberg, Kemp

Abberton, Koby

Abbruzzi, Sid

Abellira, Reno

Abubo, Megan

academia and surfing

Adler, Tom

advertising and surfing

Aeder, Erik

aerial

Aguerre, Fernando

Aichner, Scott

Aikau, Clyde

Aikau, Eddie

Aipa, Ben

air-drop

airbrush

Airshow

Ala Moana

Alabama

alaia board

Alaska

alcohol and surfing

Alexander, Kala

Allen, Chuck

Alms, Paige

aloha shirt

Alter, Hobie

Alvarez, Pepe

Ancell, Kevin

Andaman Islands

Andersen, Lisa

Anderson, Craig

Anderson, Simon

Andino, Kolohe

Angel, Jose

angle

Angola

Angourie

Antarctica

Apocalypse Now

Arabian Sea

Aragon, Janice

Arakawa, Eric

Archbold, Matt

Arena, Eduardo

Ashton, Juan

Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP)

Atlantic Ocean

August, Robert

Aurness, Rolf

Auster, Ken

Australia

Avalon, Frankie

Azores

backdoor

backside

backside attack, Pipeline

backwash

bail out

Bain, Rob

Baja California

Baker, Bernie

Baker, Grant “Twiggy”

Baker, Tim

Bali

Ball, John “Doc”

Ballard, Bill

Ballard, Rochelle

balsa

Baltic Sea

Banks, Jim

Barbados

Barilotti, Steve

Barland, Michel

Barreda, Sergio “Gordo”

Barry, Michael

Bartholomew, Wayne

Baxter, Jackie

Bay of Bengal

Beach Boys, The

Beacham, Debbie

beachboys

beachbreak

Beachcomber Bills Grand Prix

Beachley, Layne

beavertail

Becker, Phil

Bedford-Brown, Stuart

Belgium

Bells Beach

Bendall, Ma and Pa

Bennett, Barry

Benson, Becky

Benson, Blanche

Benson, Linda

Bermuda

Bertlemann, Larry

The world's first professional surfing association, formed in Coolangatta, Queensland, in 1975, by contest promoter Graham Cassidy, Rip Curl wetsuits cofounder Doug Warbrick, and Australian pro surfers Ian Cairns, Peter Townend, Mark Warren, and Terry Fitzgerald. The Australian Professional Surfing Association (APSA) was designed primarily to standardize, organize, and manage a domestic pro circuit, and later served as Australia's organizational link to the International Professional Surfers (IPS) world tour. Professional surfing in Australia began with the $1,500 Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach in 1973; by the middle of the decade there were more than a half-dozen Australian pro events. The first order of business for the APSA—founded in a sidewalk burger cafe? in Coolangatta, with Warbrick elected president—was to create a standardized points system in order to crown a year-end national pro champion. Public image was important as well, as Townend expressed that surfing, through the APSA, could "project an image of authenticity and responsibility." The APSA was anathema to thousands of Australian surfers, who felt it was wrong to try and transform their freewheeling activity into a points- and-ratings sporting contest; Cassidy himself said he was "racked with these fears that what I'm doing is going to take away from surfing the virtues that first attracted me." Six APSA events were, nonetheless, held in 1976, with the $12,000 Coca-Cola Surfabout in Sydney lauded as a model pro surfing contest. By the time Cassidy took over the APSA presidency in 1981, there were 18 events on the schedule, some of them making headlines in the Australian mainstream sports pages. (Hawaiians Fred Hemmings and Randy Rarick, with input from Townend and Cairns, had meanwhile formed the IPS world tour in 1976, using the APSA points system.) While some APSA events had juniors and women's events, most of the contests were men's division only. In 1983, the APSA created Surf League to help reinvigorate Australia's long-neglected surfing clubs. Along with overseeing contests, the APSA also petitioned state and local governments on surfers-rights issues, organized environmental gatherings, and served as a surfing-information conduit to the mainstream media. The APSA raised contest sanctioning fees and the minimum prize money requirements during a national recession in 1989, which helped drive sponsors away. Two years later the APSA was brought into the regional branch of the Association of Surfing Professionals; in 1993 the APSA events were run under the auspices of the newly formed Australian Championship Circuit. See also professional surfing.

Australian Professional Surfing Association (APSA)

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews