This article ran in the February 1997 issue of Australia's Surfing Life. * * * "The door is not closed," International Olympic Committee chairman Juan Antonio Samaranch told his International Surfing Association counterpart Fernando Aguerre when they met in Lausanne last June to discuss surfing's inclusion in the Olympics, possibly as soon as Sydney in 2000. And so began an agonizing five month...
This editorial ran in the December 1966 issue of SURFER, just after the World Surfing Championships wrapped up. It has been slightly edited. * * * The third World Surfing Championships at San Diego were a milestone in the sport of surfing. Bob Ottum of Sports Illustrated described the competition: “The Championships were a breakthrough for surfing.” How true. Reporting the week-long Championshi...
This article was published as a guest editorial in the Summer 1977 issue of Surf magazine. Gary Filosa, a Vermont-raised surf contest promoter and organizer during the 1970s, and president of his self-founded American Surfing Association, is among the sport's most erratic and provocative figures—but his efforts to bring surfing to the attention of Olympic organizers were tireless, and to that end ...
Surfing qualified to became an Olympic sport in 2016, and makes its Olympic Games debut this week. But getting there was a fraught decades-long process. Here is a brief look at some of the ups and downs, starts and stops along the way, as seen in surf magazine excerpts. Follow links, below, to full-text articles. * * * SURFER, September 1964 The superlative organization of the [1964 World Contes...
Lewis Samuel's 10-part Borrowed Boards series ran in SURFER in 2011 and 2012. The debut, below, is from the March 2011 issue. * * * The concept was simple. Around the world on one-way tickets, bought one at a time. Luggage limited to a single carry-on. No surfboards. What sounded like a problem was intended to be a solution. I aimed to reframe my relationship with surfing by removing all expecta...
Greg Noll grabbed on to every surfing career opportunity that came his way, with mixed results. On one end there was the actual surfing, where Noll's hulking figure practically defined big-wave riding throughout the 1960s; and Greg Noll Surfboards which, like Noll himself, was big and solid. On the other end, we've got his failed one-off Surfer's Annual magazine, which looked like a middle schoole...
SURF GUIDE MAGAZINE with KRLA RADIO presents the 1963 LOS ANGELES SURF FAIR DECEMBER 27-28, 11 AM TO 11 PM, SANTA MONICA CIVIC AUDITORIUM, SANTA MONICA EXHIBITS The newest in all lines of surfing equipment from the best Northern and Southern California manufacturers will be on display before the entire surfing world. The manufacturers [will be] unveiling their latest styles, colors, and ideas i...
"Monrovia Students Attend World's Fair of Surfing," by Mary Root and Barbara Sperske, ran in the Monrovia Daily News-Post on January 5, 1963. The Los Angeles Surf Fair, as it was officially called, took place on December 27-28. This text below has been slightly edited and shortened. * * * Many Monrovia High students and those from surrounding areas recently attended the World's Fair of Surfing a...
"Surfing and Swipes in Cornwall," by Nicholas Evans, ran in the August 5, 1967, issue of the Sydney Morning Herald. Evans was on location, reporting in from what he described as the Cornish Championships. This version has been slightly edited. * * * "Showing here today, fantastic surf spectacular, A Life in the Sun, featuring British and European Champion Rodney Sumpter,” booms the PA system mou...
This text-only article turned up recently in the EOS files, with the header "Remembering Rodney." It was written by Corky Carroll, who thinks it ran in the Orange County Register around 2000, but my newspaperarchive.com search came up empty, so it may have been a different paper. I will update this post if new information comes in. The version below has been slightly edited. * * * The other day ...