Surfers to celebrate 40 years of National Scholastic Surfing Association at exhibit launch

Decades ago, surfing was perceived as a pastime for slackers — not a sport to be taken seriously.

But in 1978, a group formed with the goal to change the image of surfing into that of a competitive sport for aspiring athletes.

There was only one hitch: the young surfers involved in the group had to be in school and get passing grades.

The National Scholastic Surfing Association is celebrating its 40-year anniversary with an exhibit showcasing the amateur-level competitions’ rich past. It opens Friday, Nov. 2 at the International Surfing Museum in Huntington Beach.

No school, no surf

It started with a group of teachers and surfers — John Rothrock, Chuck Allen, Tom Gibbons, Rob Hill, Laird Hayes — who wanted to ensure surfers excelled not just in the waves, but also in the classroom.

“That’s specifically why they founded the organization in the first place – to help give surfers get a better image,” said NSSA executive director Janice Aragon. “You have to be in school, with passing grades, to be allowed to participate.

“I tell people, ‘it would take a building the size of a football field to tell the story’. It was quite an undertaking.”

Tens of thousands of young surfers have gone through the NSSA ranks, later going on to professions as doctors and lawyers, she said. There’s even an area of the exhibit for “industry and scholars” for people who have made significant milestones in their careers, in and out of the surf world.

That includes Aragon, who was a competitive surfer in the mid-’80s before coming on board in 1989 to help manage the NSSA program.

Peter “PT” Townend was fresh off becoming surfing’s first world champion when he judged the event in 1979, the year after Huntington Beach local Bud Llamas earned the first NSSA championship title.

Townend and fellow Australian Ian Cairns founded a company called Sports and Media Services to help bring professionalism to the sport.  They took on the NSSA as clients, becoming the executive team that ran the events.

“That period in the ’80s had an incredible effect on surfing’s image in California and the US,” he said. “Kids get through the system and they are actually educated. We don’t need any more dumb surfers.”

World champions

The list of surfers who would go on the World Champion Tour is long.

At the time, the hot surfers to watch were Tom Curren and Kim Mearig, who would both become world champions.

Eleven-time world champion Kelly Slater came up through the NSSA ranks, as did his biggest rival, three-time champion Andy Irons.

There was Hawaii’s Carissa Moore, holder of several world titles and the record number of NSSA national titles — 11. Florida’s Caroline Marks, who now lives in San Clemente, came close with nine NSSA titles.

San Clemente’s Kolohe Andino also holds 9 national titles, a record for the male division.

One athlete Aragon will never forget – a determined Bethany Hamilton, who had her arm bitten off by a shark, but came back to compete.

“She won the explorer division of the national championships,” Aragon said. “Everyone on the beach —  I’ll never forget that — everyone was just to their feet when she won.”

40 years of stoke

The NSSA has two categories: the main division with youth 18 and under that draws more serious competitors who must be in school and maintaining a 2.0 grade point average. That division is the more prestigious level that sponsors watch to discover the next hot surfer.

Then, there’s the explorer’s division, open to anyone, with age groups into the senior surfers.

Rick “Rockin’ Fig” Fignetti is the surfer with the longest track record with the NSSA, entering that first contest in 1978 and still, 40 years later, a regular competitor in the explorer’s “Duke” division.

“He’s a big part of the history of what’s gone on here,” Aragon said of Fignetti, who also commentates the national division. “We have a section (in the exhibit) of local standouts and Fig is one of them. It’s a very cool section that has been set up to praise the local heroes that came through the program.”

Fignetti was 22 when he entered his first event and laughs about still competing as he approaches 62.

“Who would think there would be, like, a grandpa out there,” he said with a chuckle.

But his best results came in his 50s, decades after he first started competing. He finally got that elusive national explorer title in not just one, but two finals, the “super seniors  and Duke” divisions, in 2012.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Fignetti said. “For me, that was the capping off of everything – I thought I’d end up dying without winning one.”

Fignetti said there have been a lot of changes through the years. Now, young surfers have serious coaches and a team, big sponsors, live-scoring technology, and the equipment is more technical and finely tuned.

“I’m so amazed by the younger guys ripping so hard,” he said, joking that the 3-foot-tall surfers already look like professionals.

One thing that hasn’t changed is the stoke on the sand and the memories people have from spending weekends traveling to contests around the country.

“So many people have said it’s the best part of their lives,” Aragon said.