[NOTE: the World Cup had various sponsors over the years; this women's portion of this debut edition of the Cup was sponsored by Lancers Wine. Although the contest was promoted as the "first professional surfing contest for women," Oberg had earned $1,500 for winning the 1975 Hang Ten event at Malibu the previous summer. The 1976 World Cup was also the first pro surfing contest to offer equal pay for top finishers in both the men's and women's divisions.]

"Oberg Wins the Lancers Surf," by Mark Osmun, January 8, 1976, Honolulu Advertiser

Eight years ago, Margo Oberg of Kauai quit competitive surfing after having won the women’s World Championship. Surfing at that time was on an amateur basis and Ms. Oberg had no need for any further trophies.

Now the money is here and the champ is back.

Surfing with impressive speed in six to seven-foot waves in the Lancers World Cup at Haleiwa yesterday, Ms. Oberg took first place and $4,000 in the richest women's surfing event ever held.

Ms. Oberg. who has already earned $1,500 and $1,000 in first-place women's prize money in the recent Hang Ten and Smirnoff meets, was able to outrace breaking sections of waves that buried her competitors.

"I work my rails, weighting and unweighting, to get more speed," she said. "It's not wiggling, but just putting pressure on different sides. I guess like skiers do."

Ms. Oberg’s closest competitor was Becky Benson, an 18-year-old student at BYU, surfing in her first professional contest. Ms. Oberg and Ms. Benson also finished first and second, surfing together in the same preliminary heat.

Ms. Benson, who followed the winner's example of rocking the board for speed, worked her way through a repechage bracket to reach the finals.

Prior to going out into the repechage heat, Ms. Benson seemed more interested in having fun than making money.

"You can learn a lot surfing in a contest," she said. "It's hard for us women to get waves all the time with the guys out there. You can get more waves in a contest than in three or four days of regular surfing."

Whether their motivations be for more money or more surf, both Ms. Oberg and Ms. Benson are equally enthused about the wave of attention now being given to women’s surfing.

"It’s (women’s pro surfing) going to grow for sure. I'm really stoked," said Ms. Oberg. Ms. Benson was even more optimistic: "I think we could have a women’s world circuit. Why not? The men do." she said, referring to a recent report of an upcoming men’s tour.

The site for the competition, which is being filmed for a March showing on CBS "Sports Spectacular", was selected over larger surf at Sunset Beach in deference to the women's surfing preferences.

"When you have smaller waves like these you don’t have to worry so much about making it. You can concentrate on performing," said Ms. Benson.

Preliminary heats for the men’s division were held later in the afternoon also at Haleiwa with final heats scheduled for today, probably at Sunset Beach.

[Other Lancers competitors included Debbie Montgomery. Elaine Davis, Linda Westfall, Laura Blears Ching, Patty Paniccia, and Sharron Weber.]

Excerpt from "The Power Shifts South," by Neil Stebbins, SURFER, May 1976

The Lancers Woman’s Cup was unsurprisingly won by better-than-ever Margo Oberg. What 

 surprising was the quality of the surf and the level of surfing ability. Haleiwa gave the ladies the best performance waves of the contest season, and they loved it. Becky Benson took second, followed by Rella Sunn; but the standout performer was Lynne Boyer, who came in fourth. Although Lynne didn’t catch many waves in the finals, in the semi she was drawing very sharp lines and looked like real competition for Margo. Her low-weight, rotational style caused some Bertleman comparisons from the guys on the beach.

Also impressive were Sally Prang and Linda Davoli. Linda’s cutbacks aren't just "hot for a girl.” All in all, it was good bucks (Margo won $4,000 for first) and good waves.

[On the men's side], Colonel Sanders retreated from sponsoring the World Cup at the last minute, which left Fred Hemmings holding the bag. But Fred's a trooper, and the show went on as scheduled. The winners got paid, and the money—$6,500, total—came from Fred's own pocket. I don't know how Fred felt about seeing the top money go to two more Aussies, but I'm sure he was stoked on the conditions—at least for the first day.

Jack McCoy, who helped judge the event, describes it. . .

Even though the sun was hidden by dark grey clouds, and the ABC crew had retired to the Kuilima Hotel after a busy morning’s filming of the Woman's Cup, Meet Director Fred Hemmings started calling for the first heat of the Men's. The surf was still there, and since he was not restricted to an f/8 television event, it was full speed ahead. After two events this season held at Waimea, and the Masters held in crunchy Pipeline, the 8' to 10' clean Haleiwa was the first contest this year where full-on performance surfing was given the opportunity to surface.

Heat One hit the water on fire. The first wave of the first set introduced Shaun winding his way across a long Haleiwa wall, weighting and unweighting his short Bolt through a series of trims and turns that can only be described as spectacular forward-trim surfing; one foot on the nose, the other near the tail.

Hot on his heels on the next wave was full-speed-trim Terry Fitzgerald, who does his thing all the way across, with a couple of over-the-shoulder cutbacks thrown in for good measure.

Wave Three, and its pint-sized Michael Ho carving familiar ground with total precision. And before Michael gets to the inside, Hawaiian power monster Barry Kanaiaupuni comes through on a good 10-foot wave. Barry was definitely putting on his best performance since the Pro Class Trials.

Just as Barry is pulling out, from way outside comes Wayne Lynch. It was his first contest performance in Hawaii, his first time riding a new board, and his first time at Haleiwa. Still, he did a series of backhand maneuvers that gained him a lot of respect. The first heat was so jammed with explosive surfing that it came and went in what seemed like a flash, but not before Shaun got an amazing tube that closed out at the end. Then, through a small opening in the curtain, out popped our heat winner—Mr. Tomson.

Great surfing took place in the following two prelim heats, but it was clear cut who won. Flu victim Mark Richards took one, and Ian got the other

Everyone retired for the night; so did the surf.

The semifinals and the final were run the next morning at Sunset, with one tube ride being the difference between winner Mark Richards and Fast Fitz. Hakman made it into third, and Shaun, Boobie, and Kanga rounded out the field. Sunset didn’t provide the quality waves of the day before, but then as Hemmings says, "Our playing field is always changing."

One thing is for sure, when the playing field was clean and clear, the playing was fast and furious.”

With only one contest left to go [the Lightning Bolt Pro], all eyes were on Mark Richards, the 18-year-old winner of both the Smirnoff and the Men’s Cup. No one in the history of surfing has won three major contests on the North Shore in one season. In fact, the only other person to have won two is veteran Jeff Hakman.

"World Cup: Aussies Finish First and Second," Mark Osmun, Honolulu Advertiser, Jan 9, 1976

Mark Richards and Terry Fitzgerald continued the recent trend of Australian surfing victories, as the two professionals from Down Under placed first and second in the first men's World Cup Surfing Championship yesterday at Sunset Beach.

Richards, who had earlier been quoted as saying no one was good enough to make a consistent living in professional surfing, got $4,000 for his efforts yesterday to add to his $5,000 winnings in last month's Smirnoff meet.

The six finalists, surfing in windblown, inconsistent, eight-foot surf, split up a $7,500 purse with Fitzgerald getting $1,000; third-place finisher Jeff Hakman, $500; South African Shaun Tomson, $300; James Jones, $200 and Ian Cairns $100.

The waves at Sunset rapidly lost their form during the finals, making good rides as much a matter of being in the right place at the right time as of surfing execution.

"I feel sorry for them,” said Rory Russell, who missed the finals. "This is not championship surf—anyone could win just by being in the right spot."

Richards, who advanced directly into the finals by winning his preliminary heat Wednesday, happened to be in that spot just when one of the day's few hollow waves came through. The 18-year-old Smirnoff champ took off on it and squeaked through with only the second tuberide of the day.

"It's a little hard to say without sounding like a big head," said Richards when asked to explain how he won two big money surf meets within a month's time—contrary to his own predictions.

"I guess it's just the difference in the waves. If I didn't get that tuberide, they tell me Terry (Fitzgerald) would have had it (the win)," he said.

Yesterday's results mark a four-meet famine for local professional surfers, who have been shut out from the first three places in the Smirnoff meet, and have seen Australians win both the Duke meet and the World Cup.

Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

Features

The Sunday Joint

Videos

Contests

Subscribe or Login