That fall," wrote Mike Doyle of the contest, "from September 26 through October 2, the third World Surfing Championships were held in San Diego, at Ocean Beach. It was the biggest surf contest ever held on the mainland, with 80,000 spectators. More important, though, it was the first time the U.S. media covered surfing as a serious sport, rather than just a wacky California fad."

"That world contest shook up California surfing," Doyle recalled. "At the time we were all riding 10-foot surfboards with trash-can noses, and we were still into an old-fashioned style of surfing there you stomp on the tail to kick the nose up, let the wave build-up go in front of you, then you either run forward and crouch down inside the tube, or else you stand on the nose and arch back in a kind of pose. We had all these stock poses we did over and over - el Spontaneo, Quasimodo, Nose Tweaking, Bell Ringing. They had originated back in the goofy Malibu days and had been a lot of fun over the years. But they had also stifled the creation of new styles. It was time to move on to other things."

"When the contest began at Ocean Beach Pier," wrote Phil Jarratt, "it soon became obvious that it would be a duel between two completely different approaches to wave riding· The California cruise, best exemplified by the surfing of Nuuhiwa and acolytes like Dru Harrison, used the surfboard as a platform for manoeuvres, some of them quite spectacular, like Nuuhiwa's ten second nose rides. The Australian power style of Nat Young and Queensland surfer Peter Drouyn used the surfboard to attack the wave, riding in parts of it that had never before been utilized."