Ian Cairns

Ian Cairns is a former champion surfer, born on 24 July 1952 in Kew, Victoria, who grew up in Sydney and Perth and was described as the premier power surfer of the mid to late 1970s on Hawaii's North Shore. He joined the Australian team at the 1970 and 1972 World Surfing Championships, won the Smirnoff Pro at Sunset Beach in 1973, and won the Duke Kahanamoku Invitational in 1975 and World Cup events in 1976 and 1980. With fellow Australian Peter Townend he devised a rating and scoring system for surfing events in 1975 and helped form the National Scholastic Surfing Association in 1979. In 1983 he became the first director of the Association of Surfing Professionals. He is head coach of the PacSun USA Surf Team and is in the Surfers' Hall of Fame.