Text + photos: Tim Hain

According to the ITSA (International Tandem Surfing Association) website, tandem surfing started long ago in Hawaii as the natives played around in the water on their early surfboards, perhaps figuring that if more than one could ride the same wave, more than one on a board can work as well! Share the stoke, right? The first photos on record of tandem surfing were taken in the 1930’s, as tourists started coming to Waikiki Beach and the beach boys would paddle out with the tourist women out on their surfboards and ride the gently rolling waves together. Of course the braver ones had to show off, and thus the departure from straight up riding and straight into the realm of the gymnastics. Today, the sport is a highly athletic one that demonstrates style, grace and skill – like couples dancing or figure skating only on the waves. A team consists of a man and a woman, with the woman being lifted up to perform a series of intricate poses on each ride while her partner maneuvers the board and rides the waves to shore.

Tandem surfing as a sport really developed in California, after Pete Peterson and Loren Harrison went to Waikiki in 1932 and learned from the Hawaiian beach boys. They brought this knowledge back to Southern California where they slowly integrated the sport into their surfing club contests. But it wasn’t until 1954 that the first big tandem contest was held in Makaha Hawaii. Since then, though tandem surfing has had its ups and downs through the years, today it is growing rapidly to a whole new level, thanks to guys like Rico Leroy, who has invented some of the most popular lifts used today and was the creator of the ITSA. He has also developed new rules, a computerized scoring system and coordinated a pro tandem tour (WTT) in many different countries. The ITSA now havs 17 stops on their tour, at locations in Australia, Hawaii, California, Florida , and France.
Rico and his partner Sarah Burel, along with his first partner Claire Dereux, spend a week in Bali a couple of months ago on their way back to France, after winning the second tour event of the season at Noosa in Australia. He and Sarah are currently Number 1 in the rankings.
Check out SURF TIME MAGAZINE for full story