Elliot Teaford's article on Ocean Pacific's decision to drop the women's event from the upcoming Op Pro Surfing Championships ran in the May 5, 1989, issue of the Los Angeles Times. A backlash followed, and the women's event was quietly reinstated.

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 Association 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 canceled. That left the Hunting-ton 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 

 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 not been canceled, 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 sets the standard for other corporate sponsors. Other sponsors can look at what Op has done and it could start a domino theory. It’s almost like a step backwards.”

The ASP was quick to express disappointment in the decision to drop the women’s event. Graham Cassidy, ASP executive director, said in a prepared statement that the move was "not in contravention with rules followed by the ASP since 1982." But, he added, 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.”

If the ASP didn’t sanction the Op contest, the Professional Surfing Association of America, which sponsors another pro 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.”

"HUNTINGTON BEACH SURFING CHAMPIONSHIPS DROPS WOMEN'S COMPETITION," LOS ANGELES TIMES (1989)

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