Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP)
Governing body of the world professional surfing tour, founded in 1982 by former world tour runner-up Ian Cairns of Australia as a replacement for International Professional Surfers (IPS). The IPS brought together a mostly rag-tag group of contests in 1976 to create the original international pro circuit, and over the next five years the tour made modest but steady gains as measured by prize money, media coverage, and sports-world stature. But competing surfers as well as contest sponsors wer...