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

Biannual surfing contest held at various locations around the world from 1964 and 1994; usually referred to as the World Contest. The World Surfing Championships were considered to be an amateurs-only event, although most of the top competitors from 1964 to 1972 were nominally professional. "It was obvious almost from the beginning," surf journalist Drew Kampion noted in 1984, "that a World Contest was an ambiguous sort of thing; very unpredictable." The number of World Championships categories—gender and age divisions—ranged over the years from one to seven, and the competition format changed almost from event to event. Waves for the 1978 World Contest in South Africa were big and perfect, while finalists at the 1994 event in Brazil battled it out in two-foot dribblers. Some World Contest performances singlehandedly changed the direction of surfing; most passed by virtually unnoticed. The World Championships can be divided into two distinct era: 1964 to 1972 and 1978 to 1994. Before the world pro tour was created in 1976, the World Contest was the sport's biggest event, and six of these competitions were held during this period, in Sydney, Australia (1964), Lima, Peru (1965), San Diego, California (1966 and 1972), San Juan, Puerto Rico (1968), and Torquay, Victoria, Australia (1970). Each contest, except for the 1964 event, took place under the auspices of the International Surfing Feder- ation (ISF). Amateur competitive surfing, after losing popularity in the late '60s, nearly went fallow in the early '70s, and the World Contest was tabled until 1978. (See following entries for detailed accounts of the first six World Championship events.) The contest was officially called the World Amateur Surfing Championships from 1978 to 1994, in order to make a clear distinction from the 1976- founded world professional tour. Fourteen of the amateur-only contests were held, but the event was no longer the last word in competitive surfing. Hot young teenage surfers often viewed the World Con- test as an important but hardly essential stop on the way to a pro tour career, while a huge majority of everyday surfers could no more name the reigning amateur world champions than they could the European heads of state. But the idea of holding a biannual international amateur contest was sound enough, and the overseeing International Surfing Association (ISA) was formed in 1976 as a replacement for the ISF, to provide a more or less consistent World Championships framework. The 1978 World Champi- onships, held in South Africa, passed by virtually un- noticed: just 48 surfers from six countries competed in a sparsely attended one-day, men's-only contest, and apartheid politics prevented Australia from send- ing a team. But the contest grew in years to come, and by 1988 surfers were competing in men's, junior men's, women's, longboard, bodyboard, and knee- board divisions, as well as for overall team points. Tom Curren, Gary Elkerton, Damien Hardman, Lisa Andersen, Andy Irons, and dozens more future world tour stars competed in the World Championships before turning pro. Three hundred surfers from two dozen countries competed in the 1994 World Cham- pionships; host countries over the years included Japan, England, and Brazil. The World Amateur Surfing Championships were replaced in 1996 by the World Surfing Games. Men's and women's division winners for the World Surfing Championships, along with the host country, are listed below. Tandem division winners included from 1972 and before; juniors division winners included from 1980 forward. 1964: Midget Farrelly, Phyllis O'Donell (no tandem) (Sydney, Australia) 1965: Felipe Pomer, Joyce Hoffman, Mike Doyle/Linda Merrill (Lima, Peru) 1966: Nat Young, Joyce Hoffman, Pete Peterson/Barrie Algaw (San Diego, California) 1968: Fred Hemmings, Margo Godfrey, Ron Ball/Debbie Gustavson (Rincon, Puerto Rico) 1970: Rolf Aurness, Sharron Weber (no tandem) (Torquay, Australia) 1972: Jim Blears, Sharron Weber, Steve and Barrie Boehne (San Diego, California) 1978: Anthony Brodowicz (no women's) (East London, South Africa) 1980: Mark Scott, Alisa Schwarzstein, Tom Curren (Biarritz, France) 1982: Tom Curren, Jenny Gill, Bryce Ellis (Gold Coast, Australia) 1984: Scott Farnsworth, Janice Aragon, Damien Hardman (Huntington Beach, California) 1986: Mark Sainsbury, Connie Nixon, Vetea David (Newquay, England) 1988: Fabio Gouveia, Pauline Menczer, Chris Brown (Aquadilla, Puerto Rico) 1990: Heifara Tahutini, Kathy Newman, Shane Beven (Niijima, Japan) 1992: Grant Frost, Lynette MacKenzie, Chad Edser (Lacanau, France) 1994: Sasha Stocker, Alessandra Vieira, Kalani Robb (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) See also competitive surfing, International Surfing Association, International Surfing Federation, World Surfing Games.

World Surfing Championships

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

Features