Surf City welcomes alphabet soup

The Assn. of Surfing Professionals sets up shop alongside other local surf groups.It’s one of the most powerful acronyms in competitive surfing, and it’s coming to Huntington Beach.

Surf City is about to be home to the ASP, older brother to the ISA and a surefire way to land another WQS, and maybe -- just maybe -- a spot on the WCT.

Don’t try to make sense of it all at once -- your head will start to hurt. For now, just remember that Huntington Beach has landed another of the largest organizations in the international surfing community, further solidifying its role as an industry stronghold.

OK, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, about those acronyms. First -- the Assn. of Surfing Professionals: They’ve just announced plans to open their North American offices in Huntington Beach in a suite adjacent to Surfline.com, the leading online surf forecasting company.

The Assn. of Surfing Professionals administers the professional surfing circuit, similar to the NFL in football or the NBA in basketball. The association is currently wrapping up its 2006 season, concluding with one of the gnarliest contests in surfing, the Rip Curl Pro Pipeline Masters in Maui. This year’s world champion is Kelly Slater, who earned the crown after taking home the most victories on the World Championship Tour (more on that later).

The ASP is actually based in Australia, but it has decided to open its North American branch here in Surf City. Meg Bernado of Huntington Beach-based Surfing America will take over the helms of the new ASP office, which she said would provide a new support system for pro surfers in North and Central America.

The move also frees up the newly created Surfing America to focus on its own International Surfing Assn. team. Unlike the pro circuit, the international association is recognized by the International Olympic Committee as the official body for amateur surfers. Teams in the ISA compete in Olympic-style events with their national team at biannual world championships, scheduled to be held in Huntington Beach in 2006. Surfing America sponsors the American team.

Bernado said she plans to help the Assn. of Surfing Professionals boost its own competitive circuit and introduce more World Qualifying Series events, which serves as a sort of minor league to the World Championship Tour.

The biggest stop on the World Qualifying Series, the U.S. Open of Surfing, is held every year in Huntington Beach, and Bernardo said her group plans to add a second Surf City competition beginning this January.

The informal working name is the Huntington Beach Winter Classic, but sponsor Ocean and Earth might find a way to slip into the title.

Sean Collins of Surfline.com said the winter classic’s Jan. 18 start date might produce better waves than the typically sloshy summertime U.S. Open.

“Technically, the waves are better then,” he said. “There are more waves from local storms and sand bars are a little better on both sides of the pier. The south swells we get in the summer time are pretty walled up.”

The trade-off, Collins points out, is that Huntington Beach won’t get the same crowds in the winter as it does during the summertime U.S. Ope.. It’s those summertime crowds, Bernardo said, that just might eventually convince the Assn. of Surfing Professionals to host a World Conference Tour event in Huntington Beach.

At the moment there is only one Western U.S. stop on the tour, the Boost Mobile Pro held in September at Trestles in South Orange County.

“The tour has tried to go to the more exotic waves, but there’s a lot of talk from surfers and from the surf industry that they’d like to have an event where the surfers can be seen,” she said. “If you look at that side of it, the city of Huntington Beach can do that. Just don’t expect it to happen in 2006.”

In the short term, pro surfers will benefit from having an office in North America, surf shop owner and competition announcer Rick Fignetti said.

“It will be a little bit easier to get what they need at the office,” said Fignetti, who writes a column for the Independent. “You know how the surfers are -- they don’t usually get their entries in until before the last day.”