Tour de Force: The ASP Turns 20

1991:
1/91 - Ian Cairns moves back to California from West Oz and takes command of the Bud Pro Tour, which will now be key part of WQS.

10/91 - Aussie pro and 88' Pipe Master Rob Page gets caught at Japan's Narita Airport in possession of a small amount of LSD, where before being released he spends two months in solitary confinement. The good-natured Page subsequently receives a year's suspension form ASP competition.

11/91 - Tom Curren finally wins an event in Hawaii, the Wyland Gallery Pro, held at Ali'I Beach in Haleiwa. He does so, however with no logos on his board, however, a much-debated statement that eventually costs the world champ his Op sponsorship.

12/91 - ASP director Graham Cassidy announces the formation of the two-tiered system, featuring the new WQS (World Qualifying Series) to replace trials. Surfers with designs on the WCT (World Championship Tour) are told they must make the Top 44 in 1991, or hit the 'QS. Florida's Kelly Slater joins the tour on a qualifying campaign.

12/91 - Tom Carroll wins his third Pipe Masters with one of the most electrifying performances ever seen in professional competition. One maneuver, which will be known in later years simply as "The Snap" is considered to be perhaps the single greatest turn in ASP history.

12/91 - Steady, steady Damien Hardman nabs the title over second-place Brad Gerlach from Encinitas. Rookie Kelly Slater finishes 43rd, enough to sneak onto the new WCT.

1992:
3/92 - Cantankerous Californian Richie Collins wins at Bells despite being carried off the beach on a stretcher after suffering a back injury halfway through the Final.

8/92 - Slater wins his first WCT event at the Rip Curl Pro in France.

8/92 - The bottom falls out of the U.S. surfwear market. Sign of the times? The venerable Op Pro drops off the ASP schedule, re-inventing itself as a non-rated, tag team event.

9/92 - A new wave of U.S. surfers tears through the WQS, taking advantage of the thriving Bud Tour. The list includes Chris Brown, Shane Beschen, Rob Machado and Taylor Knox. Tom Curren, meanwhile, drops off the tour and goes on The Search.

12/92 - The New School in session: Slater wins his first Pipe Masters and after only his first full year on tour is crowned world champion.

1993:
7/93 - For a second year in a row no WCT events are scheduled for the U.S. mainland, still suffering from economic recession. Despite Slater's rise, American interest in ASP seems stalled.

11/93 - Bad surf arisin': Nine WCT events in a row are held in sub-par surf conditions, a dire situation that dominates member's minds during the annual ASP board meetings in Hawaii.

12/93 - Tour veteran Derek Ho becomes the first Hawaiian to become World Champion, winning the season ender at Pipeline.

1994:
6/94 - Billabong holds their first Billabong Challenge in perfect barrels at Gnarloo, in Western Australia. Rob Machado wins the un-rated, unsanctioned made-for-video event, which marks the beginning of a push for better venues on tour.

11/94 - The Hawaiian Triple Crown of Surfing is held in marginal November surf On the North Shore. Slater wins the "Ehukai Masters", while Californian hotdogger Chris Brown clinches the Triple Crown.

12/94 - ASP President Graham Cassidy signs an umbrella sponsorship arrangement with Coca Cola Australia. One of the provisions, however, is that the tour finale take place Down Under. Surf industry companies are cool toward the arrangement, as with the heavy marketing and TV restrictions that come with it.