The Austrian Surfing Federation was founded in Graz in 1997. It aimed at giving Austrian surfers the opportunity to compete in national and international amateur competitions. From 1997 to 2003, seven Austrian Championships were carried out and the best surfers had the chance to represent their country in two European Surfing Championships as well as two World Surfing Games.

We hereby wish to honor the following persons that contributed to the association’s foundation and the successful realization of the championships, thus deserving a position in Austrian Surfing’s hall of fame: Dr. Dieter Meereis, Mag. Holger Hassenpflug, Morgan O’Brien, Martin Roll, Philipp Lamprecht and Rudi Hajek. Thanx and respect! Despite the ASF team’s efforts, however, Austrian Championships could not be organized in 2004 and 2005. Thereupon, the association was put on hold.

A new era of Austrian surfing began at the end of 2005 as a new crew of surfers sought to build upon earlier achievements as well as realize their own ideas and concepts, thus creating a new individual nature of Austrian surfing. To begin with, the association’s name was changed to Austrian Surfing (AS), its base was moved to Innsbruck, a new homepage was launched and a new and comprehensive concept was designed in 2006. In June 2007 a new round of Austrian Championships were held (in France) while, at the same time, the first Surf Instructor Level 1 course was taking place.

Ever since, the Austrian Championships have been held once a year. Meanwhile, the Surf Instructor courses (incl. ISA accreditation) have evolved and are now considered to be among the best in the world – in 2010 alone, a total of 90 surfers completed the course!

With THE AS GREEN ROOM, we integrated an aspect into our work that is to remind us of our responsibility for the environment – at AS, sustainability is not just a catch phrase, it is an integral part of our philosophy.

We are looking forward to witnessing the future developments in Austrian Surfing!