Greatest Surfers of All Time

Defining greatness in most sports is based on stats. But surfing is about much more than who racks up wins in competitions. 

When it comes to pure excellence navigating the world’s most challenging waves, surfing has a long, proud history of soulful icons and fearless daredevils.

These pioneers, innovators and legends have transformed and elevated the sport into the cultural phenomenon it is today. They are the greatest surfers of all time.

Birthdate: Jan. 19, 1941

Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, United States

Nationality: American

Kathy Kohner is surfing’s cultural icon. Before Sally Field and Sandre Dee turned the iconic California surfer girl into a TV and movie celebrity,  the real “Gidget” made surfing synonymous with California culture.

Kohner spent much of her childhood on the beaches of Malibu, where she started surfing at the age of 15.

Her father turned her journal documenting her surfing adventures into a best-selling novel, “Gidget: The Little Girl With Big Ideas,” which sold more than 500,000 copies and was translated into Japanese, Spanish, and Yiddish, among other languages.

Both the fictional and real “Gidget,” as much as The Beach Boys or anyone else, helped put surfing on the map.

Birthdate: June 16, 1966

Birthplace: Kurnell, New South Wales, Australia

Nationality: Australian

Call Mark Occhilupo the comeback kid. The Aussie boasts the greatest comeback story in the history of the sport.

After bursting to the top of the Association of Surfing Professionals rankings as a 17-year-old in the mid-1980s, “Occy” disappeared from the competitive scene for a decade, before rising to prominence again a decade later. 

In 1999, he shocked the sport by winning the ASP world championship at age 33, ending the legendary Kelly Slater’s streak of five consecutive titles.