Ian Cairns Named as New Head Coach for The Pacsun USA
June 26, 2009 – 7:00 pm PT by MeTags: Ian Cairns, Joey BUran, Pacsun USA —
When I was in high school I wasn’t what you would call an “athlete”. I spent most of my time in PE trying to chat up girls and goofing around with my friends. I figured as long as I stood there and kind of acted like I was doing something, I would kind of blend in; Mr. Leung had another idea. Coach Leung was my high school gym teacher, for some reason he didn’t like me and let it be known.
One day Coach Leung pulled me in front of the class to have me demonstrate how to hit a tennis ball correctly with a racket. Of course I hit the ball and it when it went flying into the school swimming pool, he then decided to berate in front of the whole class; informing me “that if I was his kid, he would have beat me every day”. Yeah, he was a real awesome guy. I later found out that he did it to someone else in my graduating class except they got him suspended without pay for 2 weeks. I hope he walks out his front door and trips and hits his knee.
Hopefully the new Coach for the US surfing team is as mean as old Leung was:
Surfing America, the National Governing Body (NGB) for Surfing in the United States, announced today that Ian Cairns has been appointed as Head Coach of the PacSun USA Surf Team.
Cairns appointment comes after the resignation of former Coach Joey Buran who held the position for the past two years. Buran left the position in good standing to pursue a worldwide tour and ministry for his new documentary film Beyond the Dream: the Joey Buran Story.
“Ian Cairns is a powerhouse coach and Surfing America is extremely fortunate to have someone of his caliber step into the role,” said Mike Gerard, Surfing America’s executive director. “Not only does Ian bring a wealth of experience to the position, but he also has some incredible new ideas and concepts that will surely help lift the USA Team program to new heights. I expect we’ll see some tremendous developments in the very near future.”
In a surfing career of over 40 years, Ian Cairns twice represented Australia on their National Team and won 6 WCT level events, usually in the big waves of Hawaii. Also, he was 2nd in the world in the first year of organized rankings in 1976. Changing gears, Ian moved onto event production and founded the Op Pro which led to founding the Association of Surfing Professionals in 1983. Following a sabbatical in Australia, he returned to the United States in 1991 and took over the reins of the PSAA leading to the launch of the US Open of Surfing and a resurgence of American surfing. For the past two years Ian Cairns has been focused primarily on coaching-and is working with many of the top American athletes on the Association of Surfing Professionals’ World Qualifying Series.
“I have never been the USA Team coach,” said Cairns. “So am looking forward to the challenge of helping the terrific young USA talent improve their surfing skills and again be extremely competitive with the Australians, Hawaiians and Brazilians.”
“Ian will commence in his new role effective immediately and will hit the ground running,” added Gerard. “Surfing America’s PacSun USA Surf Team for the open divisions of Men, Women, and Longboard will complete in just over a month at the 2009 Billabong ISA World Surfing Games at Playa Hermosa in Costa Rica.”
The soon-to-be-announced competing squad for the World Games will be made up of some of the brightest stars in American surfing today. The Billabong ISA World Surfing Games runs from August 1-8. Watch for the Team announcement soon and be sure to watch the live webcast of the event be following the link on SurfingAmerica.org.
The 2010 PacSun USA Surf Team for under 18-year-olds will be selected under Ian’s leadership after the SIMA Surfing America USA Championships presented by Verizon Wireless-to be held at Huntington Beach Pier in late August.
