With the clock ticking down for the LA2028 surf contest taking place just south of San Clemente in three years, two organizations are lobbying to govern the surf athletes and benefit from the sport’s wave of popularity.
Will control go to USA Surfing, the longstanding San Clemente-based nonprofit organization that for decades has served as the pipeline to prepare young surfers for the world stage? Or to the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association, a Park City-based winter sport group that hopes to get on board with the saltwater sport?
Now that surfing will have its third Olympic appearance, it is officially a permanent sport in the Summer Games lineup. And the group that governs the sport is poised to gain millions of dollars in funding for training, development and promotional efforts.
Both USA Surfing and U.S. Ski & Snowboard, since the start of the year, have been making their case to the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, with audits and ongoing discussions underway.
Both groups have stated their case in hearings before the committee, bringing in some of the sport’s top athletes to voice their support.
Surfing’s pipeline
Each summer, top young surfers from across the country journey to Lower Trestles, considered the best surf break on the mainland and now the future home of the 2028 Olympics, taking over the lineup as the USA Surfing national championships get underway.
The USA Surfing competitive format and training system is intentional, rooted in getting amateur surfers who aspire to be among the world’s best prepared for the big leagues, said Becky Fleischauer, CEO of USA Surfing.
The organization has a solid track record, with several USA Surfing graduates landing on the coveted World Surf League World Tour and the Olympic stage. Team USA athletes have already clinched two gold medals, Hawaii’s Carissa Moore in 2021 in Tokyo and San Clemente’s Caroline Marks in 2024, both who came up through the ranks of USA Surfing.
USA Surfing was the national governing body when the sport debuted in the Olympics for the 2020 Tokyo Games.
But the mismanaged reporting of funds caused conflicts with the USOPC, and USA Surfing in 2021 voluntarily decertified in order to straighten out its management and organizational structure.
USOPC took over the managing role for the 2024 Paris Games, with an understanding that once the audit deficiencies were rectified, USA Surfing would be reconsidered for governing body status, officials with the organization said in their new application to USOPC.
The findings from the audit have been rectified, it’s leadership argues. There’s new management, a new board and staff, new policies and procedures and safeguards in place.
But U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association also put its name in the hat.
It touts a portfolio with various snow-focused sports, experience in growing lifestyle sports into high-performance competition and now, it hopes to expand its reach off of the slopes.
Snow vs. surf
For USA Surfing, it’s not about owning Olympic rights, or leveraging commercial assets, said Fleischauer.
“It’s about sustaining a home where all surfers can grow and thrive,” she said.
At risk is a dismantling of the system that has already helped American surfers make history, she argued, an organization recognized by the International Surfing Association, the world governing authority for surfing in the Olympics, which had fought for decades to get the sport included.
USA Surfing sends not just young surfers to compete in ISA events, which are built to mimic Olympic events, but also juniors, longboarders, stand-up paddlers and para athletes — disciplines that aim to one day be part of the Olympic Games.
LA28 gives American surfers a massive home field advantage, and will be one of the biggest global moments for U.S. surfing with the spotlight on Lower Trestles.
“It only makes sense that with Lowers as the LA28 venue, that surfing be governed by and for surfers in our backyard, and that the attention and funding gained from that big Olympic moment goes back into surfing for the long term,” Fleischauer said. “No one knows Lowers better than the surfers, coaches, trainers, shapers, filmers who live and surf here every day.”
It’s important that coaches know the athletes — everything from favored board dimensions and fin setups to past injuries and mental roadblocks, Fleischauer said.
Sophie Goldschmidt, CEO of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, argues that integrating surfing into the organization would allow the athletes to tap into existing infrastructure, “allowing surfers to have additional tools to succeed on the world’s biggest stage.”
Surfers could “immediately take advantage of high performance, year-round support, sports medicine, marketing and athlete services,” she said in an email response.
Each sport within its organization has a unique identity, she said. Snowboarding, for example, has a different culture than alpine skiing.
“We brought in leaders from those communities, listened to the athletes, and made sure their unique vibe was preserved,” she wrote. “We’ll do the same for surfing.”
Goldschmidt is no stranger to surfing, she was the CEO of the World Surf League before joining U.S. Ski and Snowboard. She argues there are more similarities than differences between the board sports.
“We feel that surfers have not been supported, in the same way that we would propose to, in the past,” Goldschmidt said. “And now, we can provide them with more of that support and the structure, the leadership and the strong backing of a large and growing organization, which is in a very good place financially as well.”
They need high-performance environments, clear pathways to the Olympics, and the ability to build their personal brands, she said. “That’s what we provide, and we know it works.”
Professional snowboarder Kelly Clark, who has competed in five winter Olympics and is a gold medalist, talked at the April hearing about having a front-row seat to snowboarding’s growth in the late ’90s with the help of U.S. Ski & Snowboard.
“It was caught in this tension between being this lifestyle activity and becoming this high-performance sport on the Olympic level,” Clark said.
U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association’s portfolio currently has 10 sports and 240 athletes. Its application also notes how, from a commercial perspective, adding a summer sport would give “year-round assets and programming to sell.”
“In recent years, our commercial engine has demonstrated its ability to drive significant revenue and by including surfing in our portfolio, we’re best set up to drive upside in the commercial business for surfing,” the organization’s leadership said.
Adding surfing would require learning, with regard to international elite level events, the athletes, and Summer Games operations, the leadership acknowledged. But the organization said it would hire a “sport leader” to focus on surfing – and also potentially skateboarding – as an “insider with knowledge and experience.”
Swell of support
Shaun Tomson, a ’70s-era surf champion, pointed out a logo in U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association’s presentation to the committee depicting a surfer. The wave rider is turned backward on the board, a faux pas any seasoned surfer would quickly pick up on, an “alarm bell,” he argued.
“How are you going to maintain this cultural sensitivity and this connectivity with sports that are vastly different?” he wondered.
Top athletes, parents of young surfers, the ISA and the WSL have signed letters of support to the USOPC for USA Surfing to be named the governing body.
“The ISA strongly believes that a healthy, independent organization that truly represents the interests of surfers and the sport in the U.S. is essential as we look ahead to the LA28 Olympic Games and beyond,” ISA President Fernando Aguerre, the man who pushed for decades to get the sport into the Olympics, wrote in a letter to Olympic organizers. “That organization is USA Surfing.”
Huntington Beach surfer Brett Simpson, who coached the 2020 Tokyo Olympics team with USA Surfing and still sits on the board, said the organization has successfully prepared surfers to get to the top of the sport, onto the World Tour, as seen with the current crop of elite-level surfers who rose through the USA Surfing training and competition pipeline.
“I obviously get why (U.S. Ski & Snowboarding) wants surfing, it’s got to be one of the more popular sports,” Simpson said. “They aren’t as invested on a day-to-day basis. We’ve been doing a lot of work over the years.”
USA Surfing has ramped up its training of athletes, Fleischauer said, teaming up with Hoag Health, which this year came on as title sponsor for the USA Surfing Championships at Lower Trestles and recently opened up a facility in San Clemente. Recent athlete training included fitness assessments as well as sessions with sports nutritionists and mental performance coaches.
Future training will include AI video capture and analysis, aerial training, wave pool training, and performance clinics that cover topics from breath work to biomechanics to branding, according to USA Surfing officials.
USA Surfing officials also hope a recent shot of funding from a multi-million dollar commitment from San Clemente-based Kamaka Responsible Development and surfboard building company Resin Service will help its bid to get recertified.
Kipling Sheppard, CEO of both businesses, talked about how his kids grew up in the Southern California surf lifestyle and echoed the importance of seeing the sport of surfing stay with surfers.
“USA Surfing is doing the work. They’ve earned the trust of athletes and the surf community and are deeply committed to our sport and community,” Sheppard said. “They’ve built a proven pathway — developing ISA and Olympic gold medalists — and they’re dedicated stewards of both performance and community. This alliance will strengthen that foundation and extend its reach.”
Following the audit process, another public hearing will be held before a recommendation from the national governing board certification group is given to the USOPC. A decision is expected by the end of the year.