The seed was planted way back in 2001 with a meeting at Jeffreys Bay when the Surfers on tour decided to form their own union to provide a single voice, the WPS (World Professional Surfers).

It certainly wasn't a secret society of wife-swapping stonemasons who howled at the moon every three months, nor was it simply another excuse to start another bloody three-

Their biggest supporter over the past 10years has been Greville Mitchell and his Mitchell Surfing Foundation (MSF). Greville, a man noted for his passion and constant support of the Surfers, has been an advisor to the Board of the ASP for the past decade and is often referred to by the Pros as "our patron saint".

The goal was always to advance the WPS initiative and Greville sat in extensive meetings over the years with the Surfer Reps including Jake Paterson, Barton Lynch, Sunny Garcia, Taylor Knox, Pat Oconnell, Luke Egan, Flavio Padaratz, Peterson Rosa, Damien Hobgood, Phil MacDonald, Pancho Sullivan, Kieren Perrow and Paulo Moura. It was determined during the course of these meetings there should be a single voice to represent the Surfers—the WPS—which would also provide the perfect vehicle to bring, direct from them, what they all do to the attention of the surfing globe.

A number of objectives were subsequently put in place,

Five years after setting up the WPS and after the first web discussions at Jeffreys Bay followed by their meeting on the Gold Coast in February this year, the top 45 are all huddled together among the mushroom houses of Jeffreys Bay yet again ... this time they're looking at an updated version of the site. They're stoked, hoots go up around the room, but they wanted more !.

A few final elements were added including inviting the photographers on board. This will enable the WPS to showcase all those photographers who have supported them over the years and provide a gallery for the best surf photographs

As the site kept growing, it remained shrouded in secrecy - "We don't want it going live until it's the best!" - the Surfers said in J-Bay, continuing to get even more hands-on; interacting with the growing site, working on blogs and getting involved with extra footage analysis.

There was one more piece of the jigsaw that had to be slotted in. When Paulo Moura stood up on the Gold Coast and said: "Every WCT and WQS surfer should be a member" it was obvious the guys on the elite tour also wished to have the hundreds of surfers snapping at their heels on the qualifying series to join them.