ASP has big announcement for women’s surfing (live chat)

Forget the year of the horse, 2014 is the year of the female surfer.

In September, the Assn. of Surfing Professionals announced that women – who never have competed at one of surfing’s most famous breaks, Lower Trestles in northern San Diego County -- will finally get the chance to show off their moves as part of the 2014 world tour.

But wait, there’s more exciting news for female surfers -- to be announced exclusively by the association during an L.A. Times chat Tuesday.

The current women taking part in the 2014 ASP Women’s World Championship Tour “are hands down the most talented, beautiful, articulate and marketable” female surfers in the history of the sport, Dave Prodan, ASP’s vice president of communications, told the Los Angeles Times in an email. “They’re deserving of the highest-quality platform upon which to perform, and that’s what the ASP is committed to delivering.”

In September, Prodan noted to The Times that the ASP’s new owners had publicly committed to making women’s surfing a bigger part of both its business plan and its philosophy in 2014, a change that many female surfers are thrilled bout.

“All the women have so much to offer. All of them have such a high talent level,” Carissa Moore, 2013 ASP women’s world champion, told The Times in September.

“Unfortunately, surfing in the conditions we are given most of the time,” she added, “we aren’t really allowed to open up and show how progressive we’ve gotten, but you know with a wave like [Trestles] I think we’ll really be able to show what we have in our bag of tricks.”

Join Stacey Leasca as she chats live with ASP CEO, Paul Speaker, Deputy Commissioner Jessi Miley-Dyer and top-10 female surfer Courtney Conlogue on Tuesday at 10 am. Leave questions in the comments below, or join us on Twitter using the hashtag #AskLATimes.

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