This half-page article ran in the July 1975 issue of SURFER. No author credit, but I'm nearly certain it was written by publisher Steve Pezman. I've never read it before; the text piece is overprinted on a black-and-white image and you really have to bear down to pick out the words from the photo. Today, 45 years after it was published, I forced the issue and found a surprising little burst of pre-world tour information.

What Pezman describes, below, never came to pass. Summer 1975 came and went without a pro tour, as did the summer of 1976. Neither Dick Graham or George Downing (mentioned here as pro tour founders) led the charge when the International Professional Surfers [IPS] tour launched in late '76. When the first tour did debut, it had a grand total of $77,650 in prizemoney—a big chunk less than the $100,000 forecast here.

But if Pezman got ahead of events here in terms of details and timing, he nonethelsss hit a bullseye when thinking about what a pro tour might look like in the future. "I can already see some exciting prospects," he writes. "Lopez and Russell tied in points, out at Pipeline, dueling in 12-foot cylinders in the last event of the tour . . . the surfing level could really blow minds." Make that Ferriera and Medina, and I sit here at the tail end of 2019 thinking, "Steve, you looked into that hash-oil-filled crystal ball of yours and got it exactly right."

Roy Crump's comments on the recent Hang Ten meet became increasingly relevant due to the fact that the same basic system—an attempt at creating the greatest possible degree of objectivity while still allowing for and encouraging inventive and spectacular surfing—will be used to determine the winners of some serious cash on the new pro tour, which kicks off this summer.

Right now, individual events are being scheduled for four good-wave areas in California, starting in September [1975] and running into November. Then the tour will move to Hawaii for the Hang Ten and Lightning Bolt contests in early 1976.

There will be 24 surfers on the tour, representing the major surf powers of today—Hawaii, California, the American East, Australia, and South Africa— plus 12 alternates. The surfers chosen are all representative of the contemporary surfing philosophy of their home areas.

The objective scoring system has allowed certain aspects of contest surfing to become more efficient and less controversial. Under the objective system, pro surfing is a different game. It uses all the lessons learned in freesurfing but creates a discipline of predetermined values for each maneuver. This does not always mesh with the aesthetics of freesurfing. But the system, like all of surfing, is in the process of evolution.

The reality of a professional surfer earning a sizable living boggles my mind a bit, but I can already see some rather exciting prospects. Lopez and Russell, tied in points, out at Pipeline, dueling in 12-foot cylinders in the last event of the tour. Or Huntington Pier, during a good time of year for swell. The surfing level could really blow minds. How's Bertlemann, Hawk, Mark Warren, Shaun Tomson, and David Nuuhiwa sound for a typical heat?

Dick Graham, coordinator of the Hang Ten meet, with head judge and meet director George Downing, have put this concept together, along with the sponsors for the tour and the individual meets. With all the contests put together—including the Duke, the Smirnoff, the Gunston 500, and the Coke contest—the 1975-'76 pro season will offer well over $100,000 in prize money.

 In the May 1976 issue of SURFER, this short item, written by Steve Pezman, appeared near the back of the magazine. "Dick Graham and George Downing are announcing a professional circuit based on their objective system that includes the recent Bolt contest, a $5,000 Australian leg in April, a $10,000 event in Japan in May, a $9,000 Sidran’s Hot Dog Classic on the South Shore in June, and completing with another $9,000 meet in California. The circuit is also scheduled to expand in 1977 to include contests in both Brazil and Peru. Combined with the rich $16,500 2SM/Coke Surfabout in Sydney, judged on the Australian objective system, add other as-yet-nonaffiliated money contests, and all of a sudden, there you have it, a direct way to support yourself through just surfing!"

 Totally by coincidence, world tour cofounder Randy Rarick emailed last week to fine-tune the History of Surfing chapter that deals with the formation of the IPS. "At the end of the summer of '76, upon my return from the Gunston 500 in South Africa, I approached George Downing [with the idea of starting a pro tour], as he had been the representative for the old International Surfing Federation and had run the World Team events, as well as the American Pro. I told him I thought it was time to come up with some form of a ratings system, and that pro surfing was happening. Downing shot me down and said only HE could be the one to propose such a system. I was dejected that he didn’t appreciate my enthusiasm, but I was keen to get something going to further pro surfing. At that point I turned to Fred Hemmings, who basically was a competitor to Downing, as he was conducting the bulk of the pro events in Hawaii. I convinced Fred of the idea of establishing a points rating system—he wanted to do the ratings according to how much prizemoney each surfer won. Once that happen, Fred and I founded our partnership and hunkered down to make it work.

SWING AND A MISS! 1975: "A PRO TOUR IS A REALITY THIS SUMMER"

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