US Surfing Gets Certified, Again
Last week, an intriguing episode of surf administration was finally resolved. USA Surfing took control of surfing in the USA - at least the organised aspect of it.
It may not sound like much yet at one point US Ski & Snowboard (USSS) - the governing body for US winter sports - made a play to run comp surfing in the US. If successful it would’ve meant that, with the Olympics travelling to LA in 2028, and the surfing happening at Trestles, the office for the US surf team would’ve been in mountainous Utah - 1,000 kms from the coast.
It was a peculiar state of affairs, especially viewed from this side of the Pacific, where surfing is mainstream and eagerly funded. The tale contrasts the cultural differences between our countries.
Caroline Marks winning gold at the 2020 Paris Olympics
The story starts in 2021, which is the same year surfing made its COVID-delayed Olympic debut in Tokyo. In December of that year, USA Surfing voluntarily agreed to decertify as the National Governing Body for Olympic surfing. This followed an audit by the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) that had turned up "many negative findings" relating to its finances.
The timing was extraordinary in the worst way: After a long and winding road, surfing had finally arrived at the Olympics with Carissa Moore winning gold for the country. Yet just three months later, America’s governing body stepped off the podium and handed in its badge.
For the next several years, USA Surfing operated in a kind of bureaucratic grey zone. They ran athlete development programs, sent teams to ISA championships, but, unlike most other surfing nations, the US couldn’t tap Olympic funding, sponsorship capacity, and the full weight of institutional legitimacy.
Instead of waking middle America, USA Surfing had gone to sleep.
Then, in early 2025, it got strange.
U.S. Ski & Snowboard submitted an application to the USOPC to become the governing body for Olympic surfing. A winter sports federation, with no surf coaches, no competition infrastructure, and no apparent connection to the ocean, had applied to run the US Olympic surf team.
The move only made sense when you looked at who was driving it. Sophie Goldschmidt was the WSL CEO for three years from 2017 to 2020, before she left and was appointed President and CEO of US Ski & Snowboard.
Goldschmidt knew pro surfing, and with Lower Trestles locked in as the LA28 venue what she may have seen was not just a sport needing help but a commercial bonanza: the available funding, broadcast deals, and all the apparatus that comes with running an Olympic program at potentially the most viewed surf competition in history.
Whether it was an altruistic pitch or an opportunistic land grab depends on who you ask, and as USSS wasn't exactly forthcoming about its rationale it only added to the suspicion.
Sophie Goldschmidt: President of U.S. Ski & Snowboard and surfing turncoat (WSL)
It’s worth noting that, unlike Surfing Australia, which formed in 1963 and has been in continual operation, US surfing administrations have come and gone. The difference is arguably a reflection of surfing’s cultural standing in each country: mainstream in Australia, outsider in the US. Despite winning more world titles than any other country, surfing in the US is still seen as a non-organised sport.
That said, the US surf community's response was swift and, by surf industry standards, remarkably organised. The ISA backed USA Surfing. So did the WSL, who pitted current CEO against former CEO making for the kind of controversy the League typically avoids.
American pro surfers signed a joint statement: Caroline Marks, Carissa Moore, Griffin Colapinto, Caity Simmers, and Kolohe Andino all went on record saying it was "of utmost importance for surfers to be represented by the organization that knows us and our sport." The Surf Industry Members Association and a bipartisan parade of California politicians - where surfing is the state sport - lined up behind USA Surfing.
The optics for USSS were never great - snow and surfing? While USA Surfing, to its credit, had quietly got its own house in order with new leadership, a multimillion-dollar endowment (secured from a housing development company and a resin company), and an investment framework built around the athletes it planned to carry through to LA28.
The financial mess that had caused the original decertification was being methodically addressed.
In November 2025, USSS withdrew its application. In a parting shot that hinted at their original motive, the organisation said USA Surfing had "chosen public attacks and uninformed legal threats instead of constructive dialogue and engagement.” The field was clear.
On April 15, 2026, the USOPC formally certified USA Surfing as the National Governing Body for Olympic surfing, effective June 1. The certification comes with conditions - standard practice when receiving largesse - but the outcome is unambiguous. Two years out from LA28, with Gabriela Bryan ranked number one on the CT, American surfing is again governed by surfers not skiers.
The whole episode is worth reflecting on, because it reveals something about where pro surfing now sits. After decades being funded solely by clothing companies, that era of competitive surfing is well and truly over. Though it only comes around once every four years, the Olympics is increasingly seen as the cash cow for competitive surfing. The WSL might have the structure and prize money but Olympic legitimacy opens many other revenue streams.
So lucrative are those streams that even organisations that have nothing to do with surfing will try and shoehorn their way aboard.
