CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD : Atop Surfing World Are Curren and Whole Wave of Australians

As Tom Curren made his way to the water during last week’s pro surfing competition in Oceanside, the crowd along the shoreline began to pay attention.

The onlookers wanted to watch the young American surfer match his skill against Todd Martin’s in his first heat.

The waves were small, one to three feet, and kind of mushy.

Curren caught a wave and worked it over with precision all the way to the beach, performing difficult maneuvers along the way with what appeared to be the greatest of ease.

“Look at the way he flows,” said Wayne (Rabbit) Bartholomew, a former world-class surfer, commenting over the public address system.

“He’s so solid these days, smooth as silk. With moves like that, it’s no wonder he’s champion.”

The crowd, perhaps somewhat unobjective in their observations, agreed with Bartholomew and applauded Curren after each wave, all of which he seemed to master.

Young surfers seeking autographs swarmed around the quiet Californian as he made his way back up the beach after the heat. The 23-year-old had surfed extremely well, as expected.

Martin had surfed well, too, and was in good spirits even after the the judges’ nod had gone to Curren. He had done his best and felt good about it.

“If anyone was going to beat me it was going to be him,” Martin said.

Two days later, Curren was in the final, surfing against Australia’s Mark Occhilupo, something of a nemesis for Curren in recent years.

Not this time, though. The surf had risen to a consistent four to six feet and Curren disposed of Occhilupo, again riding the surf to near perfection and winning his second tournament in three tries this season. He also squared his personal series with Occhilupo at seven victories apiece.

It was business as usual for the only world champion surfer America has produced.

The victory moved him into fifth place in the current Assn. of Surfing Professionals’ tour rankings, behind four Australians. He figures to improve on that this weekend at the Ocean Pacific Pro contest at Huntington Beach, known as the super bowl of surfing and counting double in ASP points.

Had Curren surfed in the two contests on the South African leg of the tour, which several of the top surfers boycott for political reasons, he most likely would be in first place.

“That’s why other surfers go (to gain an advantage), because there really isn’t much money (to be won there) and the air fare is so heavy,” Curren said. “The top five surfers weren’t there so that leaves a pretty big hole.”

Curren, however, filled that hole last year and figures to improve on his already impressive achievements.

Only Curren seems to stand in the way of a return to Australian domination so prevalent in the decade before his rise to the top.

He became the first American to win the world championship during the 1985-86 ASP tour, in which he upstaged a field composed mostly of Australians.

Curren, of Santa Barbara, surfed his way to the top again in 1986-87 and with the growing prize money--it has gone from $73,000 in 1976 to $1 million now--his future looks bright, as his statistics indicate.

The two-time champion he dethroned, Australian Tom Carroll, has been hot on Curren’s trail ever since, finishing second in each of the last two years. A host of his countrymen are close behind.

In just four years on the ASP tour, though, Curren has accomplished more than most of his contemporaries combined.

His 20 victories make him the sport’s all-time winningest performer. His 23 consecutive heat victories last year set a record.

He has won more than 80% of his man-on-man heats, an all-time high.

His five tour victories in 1986-87, plus the Katin Memorial Pro-Am crown, are a single-season record.

His earnings--including eight cars--are in the $200,000 neighborhood.

Curren has been surfing most of his life, starting when he was 6 years old. His father, Pat Curren, was a big-wave star of the 1950s and ‘60s. In a sense, he paved the way for his son’s success.

“He took me out in some real big surf sometimes when I was really young, about 10 years old,” Curren said. “He kept an eye on me and let me go on my own a little bit. I think I learned a lot from those days.”

But he became avidly involved in the sport while growing up in Santa Barbara, surfing the local beaches before and after school, developing his own style, getting in as much time as he could.

At 14, he decided he was ready for competition and quickly made his presence felt among such surfing stars as Mark Richards and Bartholomew, two of his childhood favorites.

“I wanted to do as much as I could as an amateur,” he said. “I went to the state and national championships and went to the World Championships in 1980, where I won the junior division. Then I decided that after high school I would turn pro.”

In 1982, Curren capped a brilliant amateur career by winning the World Amateur Championships in Australia.

“He certainly has the potential to be in the top 10,” former surfer Ian Cairns said at the time.

He was right.

In 1982, Curren’s first year as a pro, he finished 19th, second among Californians. In his second year, he finished eighth and by his third year was up to fourth.

With two more world championships, Curren will tie Richards’ record of four straight years atop the heap, but he was quick to dispel that as his primary goal.

“That’s not my main objective, not by a long shot,” he said. “I just want to compete as long as I enjoy it. I’m going to try to put my bag of tricks together and go after the world title again this year. Then I’ll take things from there.”