World surfing champion

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The world surfing champion is a title awarded annually to the best competition surfer for the year, today based on points earned for placings at events on the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) ASP World Tour. A qualification system decides who can compete on the tour, for a total of 44 men (the top 44 as they're called) and 16 women.

1 History
2 Records
3 Winners
- 3.1 Multiple winners
4 References

[edit] History

The earliest world titles were amateur events decided by a single event, open to all comers, and were held only intermittently. The first was at Manly in Sydney in 1964.

From 1973 to 1975, there was no amateur championship held. The International Surfing Federation had been unable to establish a format or sponsorship and concurrent with this the new professional era was dawning.

1968 World Champion Fred Hemmings, retired from competition and began his career as an event promoter and ran the Smirnoff World Pro/Am that became the defacto professional World Championship from 1970 through 1975. The winners were; 1970 - Nat Young (Australia), 1971 - Gavin Rudolph (South Africa), 1972 - Paul Neilsen (Australia), 1973 - Ian Cairns (Australia), 1974 - Reno Abellira (Hawaii) and 1975 - Mark Richards (Australia).

In 1976 the International Professional Surfing (IPS) organisation was formed by the 1968 champion, turned promoter, Fred Hemmings. It put together an annual tour of 12 events around the world with a points system for event placings to decide a ratings winner at the end. This is the format used today by the ASP.

Peter Townend and Ian Cairns devised the points scoring system, shamelessly (as PT put it) appropriating the way Formula One motor racing did it. Townend also ended up the winner that first year (1976) with Cairns finishing in second.

In early years the title brought honour but only modest financial rewards in extra sponsorship etc, and not all professional surfers had it as their goal. In 1979 for instance when Mark Richards won he hadn't even attended all the events, reckoning it better to concentrate on his board shaping business than travel for the South African leg.

In 1982, following a less than positive experience with the IPS at the new Op Pro, Ian Cairns formed the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) which crowned its first champion, Tom Carroll, in 1983. The ASP continues as the worldwide sanctioning body for professional surfing.

In 1999, Mark Occhilupo's win was a remarkable comeback. He'd been on the tour about 10 years earlier but had abandoned it, then returned stronger than ever.

In 2001 the ASP cut the tour short after the World Trade Centre attacks of 9/11, on surfers' fears for their safety at competitions. The ratings leader C. J. Hobgood was declared the championship winner.

[edit] Records

As with almost every any sport there's an element of fortune needed in surfing competitions. The competition format, types of waves and human judging all have an effect, which leaves plenty of room for speculation about excellent surfers who never won a title, or could have won more.

Mark Richards' record of 4 titles 1979 to 1983 stood until 1997 when Kelly Slater took his 5th. It was joked that it'd taken so long Richards was scarcely remembered by young fans and was known to them only as "that guy whose record Slater beat". Slater's 7th win in 2005 made him both the youngest and oldest champion.

Frieda Zamba, Wendy Botha and Lisa Anderson (sportswoman) all took 4 women's titles. Anderson was followed by dominance and 6 titles by Layne Beachley.

[edit] Winners

Year	Men's champion	Women's champion
1964	Midget Farrelly	Phyllis O'Donnell
1965	Felipe Pomar	(not contested)
1966	Nat Young	(not contested)
1968	Fred Hemmings	(not contested)
1970	Rolf Aurness	Sharon Webber
1972	James Blears	(not contested)
Smirnoff World Pro/Am
1970	Nat Young	(not contested)
1971	Gavin Rudolph	(not contested)
1972	Paul Neilsen	(not contested)
1973	Ian Cairns	(not contested)
1974	Reno Abellira	(not contested)
1975	Mark Richards	(not contested)
IPS tour
1976	Peter Townend	(not contested)
1977	Shaun Tomson	Margo Oberg
1978	Wayne Bartholomew	Lynne Boyer
1979	Mark Richards	Lynne Boyer (2)
1980	Mark Richards	Margo Oberg
1981	Mark Richards	Margo Oberg (3)
1982	Mark Richards (4)	Debbie Beacham
ASP tour
1983	Tom Carroll	Kim Mearig
1984	Tom Carroll (2)	Freida Zamba
1985	Tom Curren	Freida Zamba
1986	Tom Curren	Freida Zamba
1987	Damien Hardman	Wendy Botha
1988	Barton Lynch	Freida Zamba (4)
1989	Martin Potter	Wendy Botha
1990	Tom Curren (3)	Pam Burridge
1991	Damien Hardman	Wendy Botha
1992	Kelly Slater	Wendy Botha (4)
1993	Derek Ho	Pauline Menczer
1994	Kelly Slater	Lisa Andersen
1995	Kelly Slater	Lisa Andersen
1996	Kelly Slater	Lisa Andersen
1997	Kelly Slater	Lisa Andersen (4)
1998	Kelly Slater	Layne Beachley
1999	Mark Occhilupo	Layne Beachley
2000	Sunny Garcia	Layne Beachley
2001	C. J. Hobgood	Layne Beachley
2002	Andy Irons	Layne Beachley
2003	Andy Irons	Layne Beachley
2004	Andy Irons (3)	Sofia Mulanovich
2005	Kelly Slater	Chelsea Georgeson
2006	Kelly Slater (8)	Layne Beachley (7)

Note: Multiple winners' total indicated in brackets with last win.

[edit] Multiple winners

Wins	Surfer	Country
Men
8	Kelly Slater	United States
4	Mark Richards	Australia
3
	Tom Curren	United States
	Andy Irons	Hawaii
2
	Tom Carroll	Australia
	Damian Hardman	Australia
Women
7	Layne Beachley	Australia
4
	Lisa Anderson	United States
	Wendy Botha	South Africa
	Freida Zamba	United States
3	Margo Oberg	United States
2	Lynne Boyer	United States