Finally, This Bud’s for Women Too

After years of surfing in the shadow of their male counterparts, women have finally carved a major inroad on the U.S. Bud Surf Tour.

The tour has opened four events to them, all of which, and this is the sweetener, will be televised.

Though women have long held a niche with the Assn. of Surfing Professionals (ASP), which sponsors the world tour, the best they could do with the Bud tour was one contest a year on the East Coast. The Bud tour, which coordinates professional contests in the United States, serves as a steppingstone to the world tour contests.

According to Mike Kingsbury, an ASP spokesman in Huntington Beach, the package was recently ironed out by attorneys for the Prime Sports Event Group, formerly Prime Ticket, which last week formalized its purchase of the Bud Surf Tour and also reached a sponsorship with Anheuser Busch in a one-year deal worth $500,000.

“It’s by far the boldest move in professional surfing in the U.S. No more second string--they’re moving up to first class,” Kingsbury said, noting that women’s surfing now has more participants, more competitors, and in May, a female-focused magazine (“Wahine”) is expected to debut.

Ian Cairns, the Bud tour director, said he has been working to enhance women’s professional surfing ever since he met Margo Godfrey Oberg, a former women’s champion, in the mid-1970s.

“I remember seeing Margo Oberg, who was then Margo Godfrey, and she was just an unbelievable surfer,” Cairns said. “It was at a contest, and she was one of the absolutely best surfers--among the men and women--on the beach. I think it’s absolutely natural that we involve them in the Bud Surf Tour.”

At last year’s Op Pro contest (which was not a Bud tour event) at Huntington Beach, Cairns said, he expected only 24 women professionals to compete. Instead, 56 signed up. “I was blown away,” he said.

“Since we started making announcements seeking women for our events, we’ve been hearing from a bunch of women we’ve never heard from before.”

Cairns and Kingsbury are also elated that the women will receive some of the TV spotlight on Prime Sports and its national audience of 53 million households.

The first of the four events adding women, Kingsbury said, will be the U.S. Open Trials in Huntington Beach on July 24, followed by the East Coast Championships in Virginia Beach, Va., on Aug. 22. The other two contests will be the Body Glove Surfbout at Lower Trestles on Sept. 18 and the Bud Surf Championships at Makaha Beach, Hawaii, on Oct. 23.

The 1995 Bud tour also finds Rockin’ Fig getting his overnight bag ready because he’s back at the announcing helm. And he likes the way the year is shaping up.

There’s more competition, new events and more prize money this year for the boys in surfing. And now they’re going to add women.

This sounds like a healthy sign for surfing.

Yep. It’s a sign that the economy is taking a turn for the better. And, there are more world qualifying events all around the world this year too.

The Surf Industry Manufacturers Assn. (SIMA) backs up Fig’s optimism. Figures from the trade group show the industry has experienced a 10% gain in wholesale sales in 1994, to $1.2 billion, up from $1.05 billion in 1993.

Also, more than 36 million Americans participated in beach lifestyle sports in 1994, up from 34 million in 1993. According to SIMA, surfboard sales hit 315,000 units in 1994, up from 285,000 in 1993. Meanwhile, there were 467,500 wet suits sold in 1994, up from 425,000.

Projections for 1995, says SIMA, are 1.62 million surfers, with sales of 352,800 surfboards and 510,000 wet suits.

In addition, snowboarding, bodyboarding, and skateboarding will also show increases. SIMA only tracks sales of products that are distributed through primary stores, such as surf shops and specialty stores. However, the beach lifestyle fuels a much larger mainstream market, which is estimated to generate more than $5 billion in domestic annual sales.

“The beach lifestyle continues to carve its niche among active Americans young at age and young at heart,” said Jimmy Olmes, SIMA president.

Speaking of growing, Fig has signed on to do a surf show on cable. Called the Beach Scene, the show will feature interviews with surfers and interesting personalities--all local folks, except when the big stars come to town.

The time slots aren’t the best. For example, on Paragon (in western Orange County) it airs tomorrow at 12:30 p.m.

Yo! Is that like a nooner with The Fig? What channel?

Channel 23. It’s a half-hour program, and this is the second one that I’ve done. It features an interview with Richie Collins. The program will have some local stuff and Hawaiian footage. I’m trying to get experience, and it’s a chance to get into something different later.

Cool. Fig says he can be seen on cable companies serving central and western Orange County, with a potential audience of 186,000 households. Check local listings. Up anchor. Get those VCRs ready to tape.

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Tour Update: Fig, who was up at Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz recently, says regular Bud tour pros such as Peter Mel are getting set for the tour’s first contest, the Billabong, on Feb. 22 through 26. The Lane has been good sized all winter, with head - high, double - and triple - overhead waves. There’s a lot more sand from recent storms and it’s improved the breaks.

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Beefs: Speaking of Maverick’s . . .

I heard that some guy got angry at Santa Cruz big-wave rider Vince Collier for jet skiing into big waves at Maverick’s. Collier, by the way, will probably be doing water patrol duties at the Lane for the contest.

You heard right, Fig. Jeff Clark, a Maverick’s local, got upset at Collier and Nate Acker for getting towed into waves amid regular surfers. For non-surfers, using a jet ski to get towed into a wave is called power surfing and was highlighted in the movie “Endless Summer II.” But power surfing near regular surfers is creating a controversy. The harbor master got involved and warned Collier of a possible fine because the jet ski is a vessel and must remain 200 feet from swimmers, bathers, and surfers.

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In a Fog: The finals for the Professional Longboarding Assn. contest held two weeks ago in Huntington Beach during extremely foggy conditions were called off. Everything was OK on Saturday, but judges couldn’t see past the sand Sunday, which resulted in a rare, four-way tie for first place. Top prize money was split among pro surfers Joel Tudor, Joey Hawkins, Ted Robinson and Josh Baxter.