This article ran in the Winter 1995 issue of Surfer's Journal. It has been slightly shortened and edited.

The revitalized International Surfing Association (ISA) has been marketing its new membership drive in print ads that cry out, “Join and Help Us Make Surfing an Olympic Sport.”

Pardon me, but I think this is a dose of misplaced zeal.

There are plenty of good reasons to join ISA but not that one. The reality is that there is little or no chance for surfing to even be an Olympic demonstration sport ever, anywhere. So says Terry MacCann, President of Surfrider and member of the U.S. Olympic Committee.

And my response to that reality check is, “Thank God.”

1. Surfing can't be shrink-wrapped and taken to market without losing its character, spontaneity and appeal.

2. The Olympics can be a harsh and politically corrupt arena, rife with all the crap we go surfing to escape, so why bend surfing to fit into their mold for the “good of the sport?” Haven’t we tapped the source enough in our lifetimes? Can’t we leave a little vestige of the soul intact?

3. Unless we want to be seen and thought of as a wave-pool activity, Olympic-caliber waves will never come on schedule to Olympic venues around the world. So aside from being undesirable, just how practical is this aspiration anyway?

But here’s the positive side of my tirade. Let’s work to promote paddleboard racing into the Olympics! It is the single component of traditional surfing skills that would make a great Olympic sport. The venues already exist at each Summer Games because of the rowing sports. Is not paddleboard racing similar to rowing in the same way windsurfing is to sailing? Also, paddleboarding is an objective results situation. Can you imagine the potential judging controversies that would come with an Olympic surfing event? Paddling is an economic, even democratic endeavor. Everyone can do it. Even those in landlocked countries can develop paddling proficiency.

So let’s stop kidding ourselves and work towards something that works for us and that might actually happen one day.

"SURFING AND THE OLYMPICS," BY STEVE PEZMAN (1995)

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