Professional / Competitive Surfing
Professional surfing has become extremely competitive in recent decades. With sponsorships and better prize money, professional surfing too is gaining more and more media attention.
Competitive surfing is a sport where pairs or groups of surfers compete against each other and are judged on their surfing abilities. Each contestant is given a certain amount of time to ride the waves and showcase their expertise and skill at the sport. The surfers are each judged on the number of waves ridden, the quality, maneuvers, difficulty levels and the poise and grace with which the surfer rode the waves.
Professional surfing got some structure in the 1960s. However, at that point there were no major sponsorships and prize money to be won. The surfers organized these competitive surfing events only for the love and joy of the sport. It was in the 1970s that the first real sponsored competitive surfing events started being organized in Hawaii. By the mid 70s, professional surfing events were happening along every coast from Sydney to California.
Today, there are several Pro Surfing Tours and amateur associations that provide encouragement to the sport of surfing. The professional surfing tours that are most popular are:
- ASP or the Association of Surfing Professionals
- PSTA – Pro Surfing Tour of America
- Fosters Surfing Tour
- World Championship Tour
- World Qualifying Series
It is the ASP that primarily governs all competitive surfing events and maintains the ranking of professional surfers worldwide. The Top 44 seeds are automatically given entry to compete in the WCT.
However, there is a continuing argument among many surfers that surfing is all about the love of the sport and not about performing for a crowd. The best surfers are those who train on beaches that have many surf breaks. These surfers may never be professionals but they certainly enjoy their surfing – and sometimes that’s what counts most!
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