Robert Kelly Slater is an American professional surfer, best known for being crowned World Surf League champion a record 11 times. Slater is widely regarded as the greatest professional surfer of all time, and holds 56 Championship Tour victories. He won the Laureus World Action Sportsperson of the Year four-times. Slater is also the oldest surfer still active on the World Surf League, winning his 8th Billabong Pipeline Masters title at age 49.
Rip Curl is an Australian designer, manufacturer, and retailer of surfing sportswear and accompanying products, and a major athletic sponsor. Rip Curl has become one of the largest surfing companies in Australia, Europe, South America, North America and South Africa. Globally, Rip Curl is considered a successful member of the "Big Three", of the surf industry alongside Quiksilver and Billabong.
Vincent Sennen "Sunny" Garcia is an American professional surfer from Waianae, Hawaii. After leaving school he debuted on the 1986 Gotcha Pro at Sandy Beach, Oahu, beating the 1984 champ Tom Carroll.
Thomas Roland Curren is an American former professional surfer, known for being the first American to win the World Surf League Title. He secured three World Titles in 1985, 1986, and 1990, and achieved 33 event wins in his career, the second most of all time, surpassed only by Kelly Slater. Curren is celebrated for his competitive drive and distinctive surfing style. He retired from competitive surfing in the mid-1990s.
North Shore is a 1987 American action drama surf film directed by William Phelps. The film is about Rick Kane, a young surfer from a wave tank in Arizona, who heads to surf the season on the North Shore of Oʻahu to see if he has the skills to cut it as a pro surfer. As he progresses on his journey, he learns the qualities he possesses are not going to pull him through alone.
Christian Surfers is an interdenominational mission movement composed of members who believe in God amongst the global surfing community. It was founded in the late 1970s in Cronulla, Australia.
Michael Eugene Fanning is an Australian professional surfer who was crowned champion of the Association of Surfing Professionals/World Surf League (ASP/WSL)'s World Tour in 2007, 2009 and 2013. In 2015, he survived a shark attack by what is suspected to be a great white shark during the J-Bay Open finals in Jeffreys Bay.
The U.S. Open of Surfing is a week-long surfing competition held annually during the summer in Huntington Beach, California. Generally held on the south side of the Huntington Beach Pier, the U.S. Open is part of the qualification process for the World Surf League and is a WSL QS 10,000 event. It is the largest surfing competition in the world. It has been owned by IMG since 2000.
Wayne "Rabbit" Bartholomew is an Australian world champion surfer, surf sports innovator, community advocate and politician. Bartholomew is the former CEO and president of the Association of Surfing Professionals and the creator of the Dream Tour format of professional competition surfing.
Kolohe Andino is an American surfer. Andino began surfing at a young age and holds the record for winning the most National Scholastic Surfing Association (NSSA) titles of any male competitor, becoming the youngest to win one at age 15 in 2009. His breakthrough happened in 2011 after he won the Vans Pier Classic and the ASP 6-Star Quiksilver Brazil Open of Surfing. In 2019, Andino qualified to represent the United States at the 2020 Summer Olympics in surfing.
Gary Elkerton, known as Kong is an Australian surfer, three time world masters champion, three time world professional runner-up, twice Hawaiian Triple Crown champion and Australian amateur champion (1984). He is regarded as an iconic big-wave rider and is highly respected by his peers for his unique, powerful surfing style. In 2009, Gary was inducted into the Australian Surfing Hall of Fame.
Australia is renowned as one of the world's premier surfing destinations. Surfing underpins an important part of the Australian coastal fabric. It forms part of a lifestyle in which millions participate and which millions more have an interest. Australian surfboard-makers have driven innovation in surfboard design and production since the mid-1960s. The country has launched corporate giants such as Billabong, Rip Curl and Quiksilver.
Adriano "Mineirinho" de Souza is a Brazilian professional surfer and also the 2015 WSL World Champion. He has been competing on the World Surf League Men's World Tour since 2005.
Gabriel Medina Pinto Ferreira is a Brazilian professional surfer. He won the 2014, 2018 and 2021 WSL World Championships, and has the second-most World Titles, behind Kelly Slater. In two appearances at the Olympic surfing tournament, Medina won a bronze medal at the 2024 Olympic Games.
Damien Hardman, known as The Iceman, is an Australian former surfer from Sydney. He won the Rip Curl Pro twice in 1988 and 1993, and was runner-up three times in 1989, 1991 and 1997, and in 1987/88 and 1991 he won the ASP World Tour. In 1999, he was inducted into the Australian Surfing Hall of Fame in 1999.
Cronulla High School is a government-funded co-educational comprehensive and specialist secondary day school that is located in Cronulla, a southern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The school was established in 1961, and has an enrolment of approximately 1,300 students from the grades Year 7 to Year 12.
The So Sri Lanka Pro 2019 was a surfing competition which was held as a part of the World Surfing League Qualifying Series 3000. This was the second edition of the Sri Lanka Pro League and it was also the first such event to be conducted since 2011 after 8 years. It was held from 25 September to 29 September in Arugam Bay coinciding the World Tourism Day on 27 September. The event featured 124 competitors from 24 nations including the retired former world champion Mark Occhilupo. The event was titled as So Sri Lanka which is also used as a slogan to promote tourism industry in Sri Lanka by the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau from 2018. Sri Lankan Airlines is the official airline partner for the series.
Mitch Parkinson is an Australian surfer who competes on the WSL World Tour. On 29 September 2019, he won the So Sri Lanka Pro 2019 title as a part of the World Surf League defeating Indonesia's Oney Anwar in the final. It was also his first career WSL title. His cousin Joel Parkinson is also a professional surfer and a former world champion.
Surfing in Sri Lanka is one of the popular sports in Sri Lanka among foreign tourists despite not being popular among the Sri Lankan locals. Surfing in Sri Lanka dates back to early 1960s. The country has many beaches for surfing, especially in the southern and eastern regions. Places such as Arugam Bay, Hikkaduwa, Weligama, Mirissa and Unawatuna are popular surf spots in Sri Lanka and among tourists. The Tourism in Sri Lanka is also very closely related to the sport of surfing and the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau considers the sport of surfing as one of the measures of attracting tourists.
