Items21The creator’s order
- 1
Nat YoungYoung won the 1966 World Championship in San Diego by turning hard off the bottom on a shorter, thinner board while his rivals cross-stepped and noseroded on longboards. That contest is usually credited with tilting judging towards power and manoeuvres, and the shortboard revolution followed within…0 - 2
Gerry LopezLopez won the Pipeline Masters in 1972 and 1973 by standing calmly inside the barrel at a wave most surfers were trying to survive. His relaxed, upright tube riding on short pintail boards made deep barrels the thing judges looked for at Pipeline, and it still is.0 - 3
Shaun TomsonThe South African won the 1977 professional world title after showing in the mid-1970s that a regular-foot surfer could ride the Pipeline barrel on his backhand, setting an edge and staying deep rather than racing out. His backside tube riding became the benchmark judges still apply at left-hand…0i - 4
Wayne Bartholomew"Rabbit" won the 1978 world title with an aggressive backhand attack and helped build the professional tour itself, later running it as ASP president. His career connects the early free-surfing showcases in Hawaii with a structured, judged professional sport.0i - 5
Margo ObergBorn 8 Sept 1953Oberg won the 1968 World Championship as a teenager and then professional world titles in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when women's events were few and often held in poor conditions. Her powerful, committed surfing in big Hawaiian waves challenged the idea that women's heats were a sideshow.0 - 6
Mark Richards (surfer)Richards won four consecutive world titles from 1979 to 1982 on twin-fin boards he shaped himself, which were faster and looser in small waves than single fins. His run shows how much equipment shapes judging: the twin fin made rapid, linked turns possible, and judges began rewarding them.0i - 7
Tom Carroll (surfer)Carroll won world titles in 1983 and 1984 with a compact, powerful style built for the new three-fin thruster, and his snap under the lip at Pipeline in 1991 is one of surfing's most replayed turns. He made heavy-water power surfing a competitive requirement rather than a free-surf extra.0i - 8
Tom CurrenBorn 3 Jul 1964Curren won world titles in 1985 and 1986 and, in 1990, a third after starting the season in the trials. His smooth, flowing lines, linking turns without wasted motion, are still the reference judges and surfers use for "flow", and his 1990 run is the template for winning through consistency.0 - 9
Lisa AndersenAndersen won four consecutive world titles from 1994 to 1997 with a powerful, rail-driven style that measured up against the men's tour rather than a separate women's standard. Her success also changed how surf companies marketed and sponsored women, widening the field that followed.0i - 10
Layne BeachleyBeachley won seven world titles, six of them in a row from 1998 to 2003, and pushed for women to compete in heavy waves and big-wave events. Her aggressive approach in powerful surf raised the conditions women's heats were expected to run in.0i
