Richards, Mark

Mark Richards, (born March 7, 1957, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia), Australian surfer who was a four-time world champion (1979–82) and the first professional surfer to win multiple world titles.

Richards was taken to the beach by his sun-loving parents at an early age and was riding a scaled-down surfboard at age six. By the 1970s he had emerged as one of the best junior surfers in Australia, making the Australian team for the world amateur championship in San Diego in 1972. Although he made little impact in California, the trip honed his skills, and the teenager was immediately seen as an emerging threat to the established surfing stars.

Although a full world pro tour began in 1976, Richards elected to stay home and build up his new surfboard-shaping business rather than spend the entire year traveling. The many victories he accumulated outside the tour did not count in competition for the world title. In 1978 he debuted a new take on the twin-finned surfboard of his own design that was perfect for the gliding, swooping turns that made him famous and that was key to the four straight world titles he won beginning that year.

After his championship run, Richards again left the tour (he had long suffered from back problems) and competed only selectively—mostly in Hawaii—through the 1980s. At the turn of 21st century, he returned to the pro tour in the Masters ranks, winning an age-division world title in 2001 at age 44. Although other surfers would take multiple titles through the 1980s, no one approached his achievements until the emergence of Kelly Slater in the mid-1990s.