‍Athletes, high-performance leaders, investors, and ISA affirm USA Surfing is compliant, capable, and ready for a stronger future for American surfers

San Clemente, CA (November 18, 2025) – Today, USA Surfing delivered its final public-hearing testimony to the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee’s NGB Certification Review Group, presenting a surfer-first plan that is globally aligned, fully resourced, and designed to deliver medal success and long-term athlete development.

USA Surfing CEO Becky Fleischauer focused the presentation on two central questions: whether USA Surfing is ready to serve as a compliant, athlete-centered NGB, and whether doing so best supports U.S. Olympic surfing now and into the future. She affirmed that USA Surfing has taken comprehensive steps to meet all requirements and protect the sport’s long-term health and podium success for LA28 and beyond.

“Surfing by its nature teaches humility, responsiveness, and respect,” Fleischauer said. “That mindset guides our approach to governance: listen, understand conditions, and take action that supports surfers. We’ve listened to the USOPC, to surfers, to the ISA, and leaders across our community, and we’ve aligned our organization with what surfers need for podium success. The unique opportunity of an Olympic Games at our home break should be fully realized in 2028 and then reinvested into the long-term strength of the sport.”

Testimony came from a broad lineup of USA Surfing leaders and partners, including Athletes’ Commission representative Candice Appleby, Chief Legal & Compliance Officer Sara Pflipsen, Treasurer Laura Bren, investor alliance leader Kip Sheppard, High-Performance Director Tracy Axel, Olympic coach Brett Simpson, and ISA Executive Director Bob Fasulo. Together, they delivered a unified message: USA Surfing is compliant, capable, and firmly rooted in the community it serves.

Pflipsen and Bren detailed the organization’s governance and financial transformation. USA Surfing has addressed audit findings and modernized bylaws, policies, committees, and controls to meet USOPC standards and strengthen athlete support. ““I have personally witnessed not only athlete-focused and compliant operational, managerial and financial capabilities, but also a cultural shift that gives me, a person who used to be in your very seat, the confidence to know that this isn’t the organization that was de-certified many years ago,” said Chief Legal & Compliance Officer Sara Pflipsen.

Athlete voices were central to the hearing. “I am here because athletes matter, and because their trust, safety, and performance depend on the decisions made in these proceedings,” said Appleby, who rose through USA Surfing’s development system, stressed the importance of unified leadership across all disciplines and stages of progression. “As surfers, we know the organization that has been with us from youth contests to ISA World Championships to the Olympic podium—and that organization is USA Surfing. Those relationships build confidence, stability, and trust. It is a proven formula: USA Surfing plus U.S. surfing athletes equals medals.”

Axel and Simpson outlined a high-performance program already producing results, including back-to-back Olympic Gold Medals and rapidly scaling for LA28. The integrated system includes ocean and wave-pool training, sports medicine and mental-performance support, AI-enhanced video analysis, and coach-inclusive camps across all ISA disciplines. With new multi-year funding, USA Surfing plans to more than triple the high-performance support spent on the 2024 Olympic Games.

Surfing's first Olympic coach, former WSL Championship Tour surfer Brett Simpson added, “Every Olympic medal U.S. surfers have won so far has come through USA Surfing's pipeline and this coaching culture. With new resources coming in, we’re not starting from scratch – we’re leveling up a system surfers already trust.”

Simpson, a pro surfer himself, leaned in on the trust that has been built overtime, “That kind of trust comes from years in the water and on the sand together, not just showing up every four years. To ignore that, or hand surfing over to a group with no real connection to the sport, would break trust—and we may not get it back.”

Sheppard described growing multi-year, multi-million-dollar investor commitments and an emerging endowment strategy aimed at sustaining athlete support long after LA28. “Our investor group is here because we believe the Olympic lift should be reinvested back into the sport and the communities that created it,” he said. “USA Surfing has the leadership, ethics, and surf-centered mission that give us confidence to commit for the long haul.”

Several speakers called out the harm caused by a protracted process - harm in securing sponsorships and donors and lost time preparing for LA28. "Our alliance is committed through LA28," said Sheppard. "The business case—and moral case—both favor a lawful, sport-specific NGB with universal protections and an athlete-first approach. I say this will all respect – this has been an uncertain and protracted process. In the business world, uncertainty causes investors to delay decisions. The USOPC can remove any uncertainty surrounding US surfing by certifying USA Surfing as the National Governing Body.    

The ISA’s Robert Fasulo underscored USA Surfing’s alignment with the Olympic Charter, noting that Rule 29 requires each nation’s surfing federation to steward the entire sport. He affirmed that USA Surfing is the only U.S. organization that meets those requirements. “As the IOC-Recognized International Federation for the sport of surfing, we have already gone on record to state that there is currently only one organization that fulfills the requirements, according to Rule 29 of the Olympic Charter, to operate as the NGB for surfing in the United States –and that organization is the ISA recognized member -- USA Surfing. With all due respect to this process, the framework of recognition of a sole NGB that serves the interests of all the athletes, and all levels of the sport cannot be modified outside the structure mandated by the Olympic Movement,” said Fasulo.

Fleischauer closed by highlighting USA Surfing’s modernized governance, increased financial capacity, scaling high-performance system, end-to-end pathways across all ISA disciplines, and broad support from surfers, families, industry, investors, and the ISA.

“USA Surfing stands ready to serve as a strong, collaborative, surf-centered NGB with proven resources and expertise,” she said. “NGB certification would secure a trusted partner for LA28, strengthen a fully funded pathway built around surfers’ needs, and align U.S. surfing with the ISA and the Olympic Charter. We are ready to deliver on the responsibility we hope the USOPC entrusts to us—and reinvest in the future of our sport.”

To have surfing’s back, email the USOPC NGB Certification Review Group representative — Mark Storey at mark.storey@usopc.org. Subject: Keep Surf in Surfing — Certify USA Surfing (LA28).

About USA Surfing

USA Surfing is the only U.S. organization recognized by the International Surfing Association to govern all surfing disciplines — shortboard, longboard, SUP, and para surfing. Headquartered at Lower Trestles, the LA28 Olympic surfing venue, USA Surfing has developed nearly every U.S. Olympic surfer to date and remains committed to a surfer-first, community-driven approach to the sport.

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