Mark Richards enters the year as IPS world champion. Margo Oberg is the women’s champion

Of the world’s top 10, one, Larry Blair, is a goofy foot. 7 are Australian, 2 are Hawaiian and 1 is South African

The IPS men’s pro tour carries $243,850 in prize money. Women’s pro surfing, has a total of $10,000 in awards

Linda Davoli is the first woman to surf against a man in a major pro event, losing to Stewart Campbell 74.0 to 60.6

Australian pro, Derek Hynd loses his sight in one eye after being hit by his board in a heat in Durban

Joey Buran wins the Waimea 5000 in Brazil, beating Cheyne Horan to become the USA’s first Pro Tour event winner

Mark Richards enters the year as IPS world champion. Margo Oberg is the women’s champion

Of the world’s top 10, one, Larry Blair, is a goofy foot. 7 are Australian, 2 are Hawaiian and 1 is South African

The IPS men’s pro tour carries $243,850 in prize money. Women’s pro surfing, has a total of $10,000 in awards

Linda Davoli is the first woman to surf against a man in a major pro event, losing to Stewart Campbell 74.0 to 60.6

Australian pro, Derek Hynd loses his sight in one eye after being hit by his board in a heat in Durban

Joey Buran wins the Waimea 5000 in Brazil, beating Cheyne Horan to become the USA’s first Pro Tour event winner

Buzzy Kerbox works as a model in British Vogue, thanks to his friend, super-fashion photographer, Bruce Weber

Ian Cairns wins the world cup in twelve-foot Haleiwa, saying, “They can’t put us old guys out to pasture yet”

Mark Richards wins his second world title with a solid victory over Dane Kealoha at the “Pipe Masters”

LaJolla surfer, Chris O’Rourke, dies of Hodgkin’s disease

The first IPS (later ASP/WSL) WCT event ever held in California, at Malibu, is won by Mark Richards

The first Action Sports Retailer Show in Long Beach draws 150 exhibitors and 500 retail buyers

Simon Anderson brings his new Thruster design to Florida’s Surf Expo and gets three orders

Marui leads the Japanese surf-culture boom with its first contest, The Marui Surf Pro

Two Argentine brothers, Fernando and Santiago Aguerre, launch their new brand, Reef Brazil

Chris Bryne, ranked ninth in the world, retires from pro competition due to chronic back problems

Tom Carroll falls over a fence at a Sydney pub and faces knee surgery, which may end his surfing career

Ray Keller announces a $100,000 plan to sponsor all Hawaiian tour surfers on behalf of his insurance company UIIA

Simon Anderson wins Pipeline on a 7’6” thruster, most surfers are forced to agree, three fins are working

Willy Morris is third in the world cup, the highest placing by a Californian for the year

Mark Richards collects his third world crown. Margo Oberg retains her pro women’s title as well

Ian Cairns arrives in Hawaii, recruiting pro surfers for a new organization (ASP) to replace Fred Hemmings’s IPS

The inaugural O.P. Pro at Huntington Beach attracts a Labor Day crowd of 60,000 spectators

Posting a near perfect final heat, regular foot Michael Ho won his first ASP Tour event at the Pipeline Masters

Tom Carroll ends the season by winning his first pro tour event, the World Cup

Mark Richards wins his fourth consecutive world title. Debbie Beacham is tops on the women’s tour

Ian Cairns’ coup against the IPS forms the ASP, which becomes the governing body for pro surfing

Tom Curren, 19, wins the first event of the Grand Slam, the South Side Open, beating Shaun Tomson

Free-surfing maestro Martin Potter, 17, posts his first pro tour victory at the Stubbies Classic in Australia

Dave Clark and Scott Funk open Tavarua Island with 8, two-person rooms and a 66-year lease

Hans Hedeman wins two pro tour events in a row in South Africa

Australian Mark Occhilupo, places equal third in Japan after breaking the nose off his board earlier in the event

Hawaiian pro tour events are blackballed by the ASP after Fred Hemmings refuses to pay sanctioning fees

Hawaii’s own, Michael Ho, wins the first Triple Crown of Surfing title in answer to the ASP Pro Tour politics

Tom Carroll avoids the inherent politics and bad vibes in Hawaii, staying in Australia to train for next year

The ASP fines all surfers who enter blackballed Hawaiian events. Eventually all pay the fines except Dane Kealoha

Tom Carroll wins the ASP Pro in FLA. The surf is so small a boat is run past the break to kick up some swell

Quiksilver’s The Performers is one of the first, for-sale home videos from a major surf company

Tom Carroll becomes the first goofy-foot to win an ASP Men’s Pro World Championship

The 1984-85 ASP season (WCT) had gotten off to a poor star - First seven contests, only $94,000 in prize money

The ASP Tour returns to Hawaii after the 1983 ban. To many top surfers, the Triple Crown remains more important

Joey Buran, The “California Kid” wins the Pipe Masters in some of the biggest, most flawless Pipe on record

The Hawaiian Triple Crown of Surfing, run by Randy Rarick, is won by local favorite Derek Ho

OP pulls out of their celebrated ASP blanket sponsorship

Ian Cairns is punched by an unidentified assailant in Ehukai Beach Park, on Oahu

The Professional Surfing Association of America (PSAA) is founded by Joey Buran

A new era of glassing dominates, with clear, free-lap layups superseding cut laps, and airbrush on the foam

The popularity of thrusters, quads, and channel bottoms calls for more muscle and sweat by surfboard sanders

Citing “beach erosion,” Supervisor Anthony Noto of Babylon, New York, attempts to ban surfing at all town beaches

Occhilupo is the Pipeline Masters winner in yet another non-ASP-rated Hawaiian event

Frieda Zamba, a goofy-foot from Florida, wins the women’s title and begins three years of domination in her division

Tom Carroll secures his second ASP world title (1984–85) and then announces he will not surf in South Africa

Australian Nat Young establishes a professional world longboard tour and promptly wins 4 of the first 5 titles

Quiksilver is the first major surf company to go public, with a listing on the NASDAQ

Tom Carroll, won the Bell’s contest by beating Curren in the finals. Carroll’s prize purse for the event was $8,400

Shaun Tomson’s victory in South Africa, makes him, at 31, the first surfer over 30 to win an event on the ASP tour

Pro bodyboard competition is included as part of the U.S. Bud Tour

Derek Ho won the Pipe Masters and Triple Crown for ’86, the Ho brothers took the title in each of it’s first 4 years

Tom Curren and Freida Zamba of the USA win the men’s and women’s 1986 ASP World Championships (WCT)

Graham Cassidy is voted in as Ian Cairns’ replacement. ASP headquarters moves to Australia

Barton Lynch wins the OP PRO. Second place Sunny Garcia makes his pro statement

OP Fiji opens the way for specialty events on tropical islands

In Japan, Damien Hardman goes to the ASP points lead

Tom Carroll sets a world point record in the final of the Margaret River Thriller, averaging almost 9 points per wave

Brilliant Australian surfer Gary Green, sixth in the world tour ratings, and moving up, quits the tour

Gary Elkerton dominates the Hawaiian leg of the tour with two wins in the Hard Rock and the Billabong

Curren wins his second crown, going away. Carroll is runner-up

ASP votes to change tour’s end to Hawaii, meaning a world champ will be decided in 7 months, from May to December

Damien Hardman’s WC title surprises everyone. Greg Day his manager, has another WC in Wendy Botha

Tom Carroll signs a sole endorsement with Quiksilver for $1 million (Australian)

Jeff Booth wins $21,500 in a PSSA event at Salt Creek

Australian Gary Green quits the tour again, then signs an “image contract” with a wetsuit maker

Fred Hemmings requests that drug testing be permitted in Hawaii and fear fills the pro surfing world

Damien Hardman wins his seventh event of the 1988 season

Tom Carroll springs into world title favorite’s slot with a magical win in 10-foot Sunset at the Hard Rock World Cup

The Pipe results are inconclusive, with explosive extrovert Robbie Page coming out on top

Surftech Surfboards making molded boards is founded by Randy French in Santa Cruz, California

The Surf Industry Manufacturer’s Association is founded with 350 surf companies as members

After seven years in Long Beach, ASR show adds a second yearly show in San Diego

Quiksilver’s annual revenues jump from $5.3 million to $70 million in six years

Top pros ring in the New Year in a depraved manner

Barton Lynch, in a sensationally controlled performance, takes the crown. He is the oldest world champ, at 25

Of the world’s new top 10, seven are goofies. Seven are Australian, one each is Californian, Hawaiian and British

The men’s world tour has $2,345,000 prize money. The women’s tour has $245,000

Michael Tomson’s company, Gotcha, is selling around $80 million a year and Quiksilver’s share price has tripled

Surfboard prices in Southern California approach $500

Martin Potter wins the O’Neill after a lengthy holiday in Hawaii

Tom Carroll splits with manager Peter Colbert

Martin Potter wins Bells

Martin Potter wins the Coke. Barton Lynch says, “He’s only human”

Martin Potter wins the Marui Pro, making it four out of five events on the year’s tour

26 of the top of the 30 rated surfers on the WCT bypass the South African leg of the world tour

SIMA, The Surf Industry Manufacturer’s Association is founded with 350 surf companies as members

Joel Tudor, 13, becomes the youngest surfer to place in the finals of a world-class pro contest, at Oceanside, CA

Richie Collins, wins the OP PRO. Asked if the win fulfilled his greatest dream, he says, “No, it’s to go to heaven when I die”

Tom Curren wins his 24th tour event in France, extending his own record win count

Proving his Triple Crown Title in ’87 was no fluke, Gary Elkerton of Australia won his second Triple Crown in 3 years

Martin Potter decisively wins the ASP World Championship Tour title. He reportedly earns over $300,000