Ian Cairns (July 24, 1952- )

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No one can claim to have been more involved with professional surfing since its inception than Ian Cairns. From creator to competitor to coach to director to promoter, the big fellow known as Kanga has spent decades striving to legitimize the sport, using his strength for the common good. But before assuming the controls behind the scenes, he was already famous for his force. During the mid-seventies, his surfing on the North Shore and at other big-wave venues was unrivalled for its power.

The youngest of three children born to Walter, a mechanical engineer, and Mary, from a New South Wales dairy farm, Walter Ian Cairns entered the world in Kew, Australia, located in Victoria. Following in the path of his father, a skillful athlete, Ian gravitated to Avalon Beach where he enjoyed bodysurfing and kneeboarding before receiving his first surfboard for Christmas in 1965. Before he had time to acclimate, the family set off for Perth, Western Australia, where the formidable surf would dictate his future style.

Riding boards shaped by Midget Farrelly, Ian captured the 1966 West Oz title, the first of at least six such awards. Despite a rebellious attitude, he finished high school in 1969 and began shaping surfboards (he would make around a thousand in all during the early '70s). His higher education consisted of a surfing apprenticeship. Influenced by Nat Young's powerful, committed approach, Ian earned a spot on the Australian team for the '70 and '72 World Contests. Following the second event, he made his initial trip to Oahu's North Shore, which would prove the ultimate playground for this overgrown kid.

At 6'2" and 190 pounds, Ian needed a wave of equal standing in order to reach his potential. In Hawaii, he quickly established himself as a force in larger surf by taking out the 1973 Smirnoff over Jeff Hakman at 10' Laniakea. "Me and Hakman were the only one's sitting out the back, and that's when I realized I can win," he recalls. "Suddenly I discovered the secret of competition. I knew then that going into Hawaii each year I would win or place highly. There was no question." He went on to take the Duke Kahanamoku Classic and twice won the World Cup, the second time in 1980 as the oldest competitor in the event at 28. At 12' Haleiwa, age was inconsequential; power was everything.

As Fred Hemmings and Randy Rarick were organizing the original pro tour in 1975 known as the IPS, Ian and Aussie comrade Peter Townend devised a rating system. Having launched the Australian Professional Surfing Association the same year, Cairns drew on his love of Formula One racing to come up with a scoring scheme for surfing. When the first IPS tour wrapped up in Hawaii at the end of 1976, Townend was the world champ, followed by Cairns. The duo helped form a team called the Bronzed Aussies in hopes of raising the financial stakes and increasing media awareness of surfing. The all-for-one concept went against the sport's inherent individualism and the venture ultimately failed.

Cairns took some time away from the tour to work with Townend and others on the 1978 movie Big Wednesday in which he performed the surfing scenes for Gary Busey's character, Leroy "The Masochist". During filming, he realized he would have to leave home for good in order to accomplish his ultimate goals. "It's a lot easier to do things in America," he reasons. "They're really positive, where as in Australia people tell you what you can't do."

Cairns relocated to California in 1979, and two years later launched the NSSA, again with Townend. As co-directors and coaches, they immediately turned the tables for American surfing, producing a bumper crop of future stars led by two-time amateur and three-time professional world champion Tom Curren. "Great adult surfers start as stoked groms with direction," he insists. "If there's a clear path to follow, kids develop." Under Cairns and Townend, the path was never clearer.

In 1983, Cairns shifted his focus from amateur to professional, becoming the first director of the ASP as it wrestled control from the IPS. It was his idea to approach clothing giant Ocean Pacific concerning a major professional event in Huntington Beach. Under Cairns' direction, the Op Pro grew right out of its shoes, producing some of the most memorable clashes in surfing history and culminating in the disgraceful riot of 1986, at which point he had seen enough and returned to Australia.

He tried his hand at farming near Margaret River, but the vineyard he planted was completely devoured by grasshoppers, sending back to America for another go.

In 1991, Cairns became director of the Bud Tour, helping it obtain extensive television coverage and jump-starting the careers of a whole new group of Americans, notably Kelly Slater, Rob Machado, Shane Beschen, Taylor Knox and Pat O'Connell. Cairns was influential in linking the Bud Tour to the newly formed World Qualifying Series in 1993, providing these youngsters the opportunity to earn valuable ratings points at home.

In 1996, Ian moved to Laguna Beach with Alisa Schwarzstein Cairns, a graduate of his NSSA class of 1984 and former Top 8 ASP competitor. (He has four children; two children from a previous marriage.) In 1997, he was in charge of no less than the PSAA, ASP North America and the US Open of Surfing. The early 2000s dot-com craze stole his attention and he helped found one of the first action sports websites, Bluetorch. When it popped with the rest of the "internet bubble," Cairns slipped out of the sport for four full years.

But he couldn't keep quiet long. In June of 2009, Ian returned to his roots by accepting the job as Head Coach for Surfing America, saying "I am looking forward to the challenge of helping the terrific young USA talent improve their surfing skills and again be extremely competitive with the Australians, Hawaiians and Brazilians."

As usual, he answered the challenge: that August, the US Team won its first gold medal since 1996.

-- Jason Borte (updated, December 2009)