Commanding pro surfer and surf contest organizer/promoter from Perth, Western Australia, Ian “Kanga” Cairns was world-ranked #2 in 1976 and the founder of the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP). Cairns began surfing at age 12 and has won six Western Australia state titles, three in the juniors division (1967–69), three in men's (1970–72), and competed in the World Surfing Championships in 1970 and 1972. As a surf contest organizer, Cairns served as the executive director of the Professional Surfing Association of America and of ASP North America, then as founder of the U.S. Open of Surfing in Huntington, and owner of U.S. Surfing. Cairns further aligned himself with American surfing by signing on as the head coach for the National Scholastic Surfing Association (NSSA), and helping the group's top surfers to victory in both the 1980 and 1984 World Amateur Surfing Championships. Cairns was inducted into the Western Australian Sporting Hall of Fame in 1985, the Australian Surfing Hall of Fame in 1993, and the Huntington Beach Walk of Fame in 2010. He appeared in more than two dozen surf movies and has also worked as a stunt surfer.
