This Event Director Changed Surfing’s Image

You can see it in Ian Cairns’ eyes when he watches the surfers this week at the AirTouch Pro Surfing Championships in Huntington Beach.

Cairns, a former world champion from Perth, Australia, seems to be riding the wave with each surfer, executing moves he has done so many times.

“He could have cut back on the wave there and picked up that other wave for a higher score,” Cairns said, thinking aloud.

With that said, Cairns leaves the room to do a thousand other things he needs to do as the event’s director, from arranging media interviews, making sure judges’ computers are operating, meeting with sponsors, making sure food is delivered.

The AirTouch Pro, one of eight stops of the Bud Surf Tour, is expected to attract more than 50,000 spectators Saturday and Sunday for the men’s and women’s finals.

Cairns originated this contest in 1982 as the OP Pro.

“Basically, my idea was to bring the surfers to the people,” he said.

With a few banners and a wobbly grandstand on the south side of the Huntington Beach Pier, Cairns said he was surprised how many people showed up that first year.

“I’ll never forget it. Shane Horin and Shaun Tomson were surfing in the finals,” Cairns said. “I remember Shaun pulling a backside 360 by the pier that sent the crowd into a frenzy. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up when all those people started to yell.”

For the next four years, the OP Pro became a premier event in surfing. But that came to a halt in 1986 when a riot broke out. Hundreds of youths went on a rampage during the final day of the surfing tournament. Police vehicles were burned, youths pelted officers with rocks and bottles and a lifeguard station was stormed.

Crowds that day were estimated at 100,000, but witnesses blamed the disturbances on people who were near the scene but were not even watching the surfing.

“It was a catastrophe,” Cairns said. “I mean there were friends of mine who could have been killed.”

Cairns said he left the country and returned to Australia for five years.

Said Cairns: “The riots had a big impact on me. I felt completely responsible for what had happened. Even though it was a series of events that were out of my control, I was helpless.”

In Australia, Cairns ran a surf shop, planted a vineyard and surfed. But after awhile, he wanted to start over in the United States.

When he returned in 1990, the OP Pro had lost its luster and Cairns had to go back to work.

By uniting the Professional Surfing Assn. of America and the Assn. of Surfing Professionals, Cairns was able to make the OP Pro an important contest to compete in again.

In 1993, Prime Sports had the idea to hold a World Championship Tour event to follow the Op Pro in Huntington Beach. That was to become the U.S. Open, which begins next week in Huntington Beach.

“It was to become the Ben Hur of surfing events,” Cairns said. “So you have two huge back-to-back surfing events in Surf City.”

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Often, the mark of fame is the ability to be recognized by a single name and the list of such personalities is slowly growing in beach volleyball.

There’s only one king of the beach, Karch, and he has a crown prince, Kent. The rest of the A-list is fairly short: Stoklos, Dodd, Hovland, Sinjin.

Another name, however, recently has broken into that esteemed group: Johnson.

Adam Johnson of Laguna Beach became the seventh player to pass the $1-million mark in Miller Lite AVP career earnings with his $15,750 first-place in February at Madison Square Garden. Johnson is in sixth place in career earnings with $1,116,780 behind Karch Kiraly ($2,339,440), Kent Steffes ($1,976,608), Randy Stoklos ($1,712,310), Mike Dodd ($1,516,952) and Sinjin Smith ($1,267,390). Tim Hovland, sitting out this season because of a neck injury, is in seventh place with $1,062,157.

Johnson, 31, probably never will reach Smith’s 139 tournament victories or even Kiraly’s 118. Smith and Kiraly accumulated those victories in more than 20 years on the beach. Johnson, who has 24 victories, is only in his seventh season.

Because of a freak accident to partner Stoklos at June’s Olympic trials in Baltimore, Johnson missed a big chance at the spotlight. After Stoklos sprained his ankle in warm-ups, Stoklos and Johnson squandered two chances for an Olympic berth--losing Olympic qualifying matches to Kiraly and Steffes and to Dodd and Mike Whitmarsh.

Sunday at the Summer Games, Kiraly and Steffes defeated Dodd and Whitmarsh in the gold-medal match.

Johnson didn’t mope after the trials. Johnson and Jose Loiola have won the last three Miller Lite AVP events. July 7 at Minneapolis, they defeated Kiraly and Steffes. A week later they defeated Dodd and Whitmarsh to win at Old Orchard Beach, Maine, and the week after that they won at Milwaukee, where the Olympians did not play because they were in Atlanta.

Kiraly and Steffes may have a gold medal and Dodd and Whitmarsh a silver, but Johnson and Loiola will be the team to beat in a tournament beginning today at Santa Cruz. Johnson can’t wait.

“I think it’s great. The last few times we played them we’ve beat them and I think they know that coming into this match,” he said. “I think they are going to have to put the Olympics behind them. I think [their gold and silver medals] are wonderful for the tour, but now it’s back to the grind.”

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On the Beach appears weekly during the summer. Hamilton and Witherspoon can be reached at (714) 966-5904.