Huntington Beach Surfing Championships Drop Women’s Competition

The Op Pro Surfing Championships, the annual summer showcase for the world’s top surfers held in Huntington Beach, have dropped their concurrent women’s competition.

For the most part, the move is a business decision designed to ensure the top men’s surfers compete in what has become Southern California’s only big-name, summer event, said Dan McCue, a spokesman for the surfing tournament.

But Jorja Smith of San Clemente, a former champion of the women’s contest, is feeling left out in the cold by the move.

“I just really don’t understand it all,” Smith said. “I basically feel like I’m being discriminated against.”

The Assn. of Surfing Professionals (ASP), which represents women and men, also has expressed its displeasure with the move.

The Stubbies Pro, a surfing event held a week before the Op Pro in Oceanside, was recently cancelled. That left the Huntington Beach contest, sponsored by Ocean Pacific Sunwear, Ltd., as the lone Southland ASP event. The Op Pro, scheduled for Aug. 1-6, is preceded by a contest in South Africa and followed by one in Europe on the ASP tour.

“It’s doubly bad since the Stubbies has gone under,” said Bill Sharp, managing editor of San Clemente-based Surfing Magazine. “Suddenly, we’ve gone from two contests to none in an area looked to for guidance and trends in women’s surfing.”

Op officials don’t see it quite that way, however.

“Our obligation is to make sure the top men come to Huntington Beach,” McCue said.

By eliminating the women’s competition, the contest has pushed the $65,000 in prize money it offered to the men at last year’s event to $80,000. Last year’s women’s purse was $15,000.

“We have to make it as attractive as possible,” McCue said. “That was our primary motivation for this decision. Had the Stubbies (contest) not been cancelled, this might not have happened.”

McCue said women would not be barred from participating. They could surf in the newly created Op Junior event, held for amateurs. Or, if they met the proper qualifying standards, could compete in the men’s contest.

That’s of little consolation to Smith, who took home the $6,000 winner’s prize last year.

“I was really looking forward to not spending money (traveling to a contest) and just having money coming in,” said Smith, who had competed in the Op from 1985 through 1988. “I’m upset because they didn’t try to cut back anywhere else. They left the bikini girls (contest) in. They just took away our money.

“I can’t believe they’re doing this. It kind of worries me, too. Op set the standard for other corporate sponsors. Other sponsors can look at what Op’s done and it could start a domino theory. It’s almost like a step backwards.”

McCue said Ocean Pacific has spent about $2 in the past two years supporting women’s surfing.

The ASP was quick to express disappointment in the decision to drop the women’s event.

Graham Cassidy, executive director of the ASP, said in a prepared statement that the move was “not in contravention with ASP rules followed by the ASP since 1982.”

But, he said, the ASP would reluctantly sanction the event and added that a “legal wrangle was not in the best interest of the sport, the industry and the competitors.”

Smith expressed disappointment in the ASP. She said she had hoped the organization would have put up a stronger fight, but added “Of course, they don’t want to lose the Op.”

If the ASP didn’t sanction the Op contest, the Professional Surfing Assn. of America, which sponsors another tour, could snap it up.

Said McCue: “We made the changes we’ve made for the good of the event. It’s a positive change. I don’t think (dropping the women’s contest) is an issue. Our obligation, first and foremost, is that the event remains a hallmark of the sport.”