At the end of 1967, the United States Surfing Association split into four separate entities, one for the West Coast (Western Surfing Association, or WSA), the East Coast (ESA), the Gulf Coast (GSA), and Hawaii (HSA). Contests for each association were further split into four divisions, starting with A for entry-level competitors, then AA for those who had won at the A level, then AAA. At the top was the AAAA division, described by Drew Kampion as the most "professional classification a surfer can find himself in." The various regional surfing organizations themselves carried on for years (some are still going today), but the AAAA lost power in the early '70s and was decommissioned in 1975.

EOS is in the midst of compiling results from all AAAA-rated contests, and you'll find a set of links below to individual events below. Reporting on some of the later AAAA events was pretty much non-existent, so it could be a while before we have anything like a final accounting. I'm guessing there were something like 50 AAAA contests altogether. Most were run-of-the-mill, thanks almost entirely to events having to take place on specific breaks on specific weekends, surf or no surf. A handful were good.

Just two AAAA contests, in my opinion, were really noteworthy. 

 held in early Spring of 1968, had above-average surf and took place just as California surfers were getting comfortable on the still-new (to Americans, anyway) short surfboards. The event itself was low-key in its presentation—clipboards, a dozen folding chairs, a megaphone and a boxful of damp jerseys; first heat, get ready—but the excitement of a new almost-professional contest circuit combined with the DIY buzz of the new equipment gave the '68 Santa Cruz AAAA contest a real New Era feeling, and nobody had a bad word to say about it.

But the best AAAA contest, by a longshot, took place at Malibu in the summer of 1969.

 Best waves, best beach vibe, best starting field (Jock Sutherland and Jeff Hakman were both over from Hawaii), and best performances. Seventeen-year-old Rolf Aurness won—it was his third straight AAAA victory in a row—and gave notice that he'd be a prime contender for the 1970 World Championships, but all of the finalists rode at the top of their ability, and that includes the women, where 16-year-old reigning world champ Margo Godfrey beat two-time previous world champ Joyce Hoffman for the win. Fourth-place finisher Dru Harrison, writing for Surfing magazine, added up all his water time at Malibu that day. "Ninety-six [minutes] altogether. Fourth place? Who cares. For an hour and 36 minutes, I owned a share in paradise."

SURFER Magazine photographer Brad Barrett was there that day 

(as he was at the Santa Cruz AAAA the year before),

 and it was eventful for him as well, giving him his first and only SURFER cover. Virtually all of the photos below were unpublished and are being seen here in public for the first time. Brad sent a few paragraphs along with the photos.

The Malibu 4A Invitational, July 1969. I remember it clearly. Except I don’t. I remember being there along with every able-bodied SURFER staffer who could hold a camera except maybe Art Brewer: Ron Stoner was shooting through the Century 385mm telephoto, Drew Kampion was walking around armed with a 135, and there was me manning the 650mm Century. No need for the big boy Century 1,000. Well, it’s Malibu, right? Plus Greg MacGillivray, Spyder Wills, LeRoy Grannis, Rich Wilken, and more. In our Brave New Shortboard World, Malibu was arguably past its prime as a high-performance surf break—but it was still a big deal.

Visual highlights: Dru Harrison, in full 

 mode, got his mug nearly life-size on a two-page SURFER spread along with his own musings about the ’69 contest scene. And Dick Graham of International Surfing disguised himself as 

 but um, Dick, you forgot the mustache. Candy Calhoun surfed her heats on a kneeboard, then hung out on the beach with Spyder Wills. Then there was the hairy guy with a clip-on bow tie wandering around. It just goes on and on.

I recall that Jock Sutherland surfed his way into second place without wearing a jersey, perhaps in tribute to John (Professionalism is Black) Scott. And let’s not forget the homecoming king and queen, Rolf Aurness and Margo Godfrey, both having a very good year.

The late July weather was your typical coastal SoCal soupy, heavy marine layer, so grey I shot mostly in black-and-white with fast but grainy Tri-X film, pretty much a no-no for surf photography. The haze lifted by finals time and the Tri-X was replaced by Kodachrome II color slide film. It was at the Malibu AAAA that I got my first and only SURFER cover, of hot young goofyfooter Brad McCaul. Somewhere buried inside the magazine's 50th-anniversary issue, Ben Marcus called it the “first real shortboard maneuver cover.” Ten years later, for SURFER’s 60th, editor Todd Prodanovich compiled “The Weirdest Covers in SURFER’s 60-Year History,” and asked of the McCaul cover, “Was this what ripping looked like in 1969?”

To paraphrase Dinah Washington: “What a diff’rence a decade makes.”

BRAD BARRETT PRESENTS THE 1969 MALIBU AAAA

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