What is USA Surfing? Prime, the national championships and Team USA, explained

USA Surfing is the national governing body for surfing in the United States. The International Surfing Association (ISA) recognizes it as the country’s national federation, and in 2026 the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee certified it as the governing body for Olympic and Paralympic surfing. It runs the invite-only Prime Series for the country’s best surfers under 18, holds the USA Surfing Championships every June, and selects the teams that surf for the United States.

For a family, USA Surfing is the step after local contests. A kid does not sign up for it the way she signs up for a WSA or NSSA contest. She earns an invitation by finishing near the top of one of those series. From there, her Prime and championship results decide whether she makes the junior national team.

Most families first meet USA Surfing when an invitation arrives. USA Surfing gives each regional organization a set number of spots, and those organizations fill them from their own results. Its member organizations are the WSA, the NSSA, the Eastern Surfing Association (ESA), the Hawaii Surfing Association (HSA) and the Texas Gulf Surfing Association (TGSA).

Girls’ divisions

Boys have the same age groups, with bigger fields in the older divisions. The June championships in Oceanside also have girls’ longboard divisions (under 14 and under 18 in 2026), women’s shortboard and longboard, para surfing and stand-up paddle.

She surfs her own age group

Local series often let a kid “surf up” into an older division. USA Surfing does not. In Prime she competes in her birth-year division only. For 2026–27 that means surfers born in 2015 or later are not eligible for Prime, even if they earned a spot in a regional ranking by surfing up.

USA Surfing Prime, officially the Prime Series, is an invitation-only contest series for the best surfers under 18 in the country. USA Surfing describes it as “the highest level of junior (under age 18) surfing in the U.S.” There are two tours, West Coast and East Coast, each with four weekend events between October and March. About 230 surfers were invited for the 2026–27 season.

How does a kid get invited to Prime?

• By requalifying. A surfer already in Prime keeps her place by finishing in the top 75% of her birth year, on combined points from the Prime season and the USA Surfing Championships.
• Through a regional series. The spots left over go to the regional organizations. On the West Coast they are split evenly between the WSA and the NSSA. On the East Coast they go to the ESA and the NSSA.
• Each series picks its own way. The WSA uses its season rankings: a surfer’s best six contests plus the West Coast Championships. The NSSA uses final results from its Open Nationals, not regular-season points.
• As an alternate. Surfers who just miss go on an alternate list and can be offered a spot if one opens during the season.

How does a Prime event work?

• Heats are four surfers with priority, the same format as a pro event. Her two best waves count, each scored out of 10.
• The judging panel is a head judge, a priority judge and four scoring judges, drawn from experienced WSL judges.
• Events are broadcast live, which USA Surfing says is partly so surfers and parents can see how the judging criteria are applied.
• A win is worth 3,000 points. Her season ranking is her best three of four events, so one bad weekend can be dropped.
• Registration closes a week before each event, and heat draws come out the Wednesday before.

New to priority? Our guide to how surf contests work explains it.

The 2026–27 West Coast schedule

They are the national championships, held every June in two parts. The USA Surfing Junior Championships at Lower Trestles in San Clemente are for surfers under 18. In 2026 more than 250 surfers aged 10 to 18 competed there over five days, in under-12, under-14, under-16 and under-18 divisions. San Clemente’s Isla Pinto won both Girls U14 and Girls U16.

The USA Surfing Championships in Oceanside, a week or so earlier, cover everyone else: longboard, para surfing, stand-up paddle, and adult and masters shortboard.

How do you qualify for the Junior Championships at Lower Trestles?

• Through Prime. Surfers who finish the Prime season in the top half of their age division, on either coast, are invited.
• Through a regional series. Each regional organization gets a small number of spots. The WSA says first and second place in its Girls and Boys U12 to U18 divisions receive invitations for the 2026–27 season.
• From the wait list. If places are left, USA Surfing can add Prime surfers from below the top-half line.
• As in Prime, a surfer qualifies in her own age division only.

The size of the field depends on how many days and hours State Parks gives the event at Lower Trestles, so the number of spots is not fixed.

Oceanside works differently. For the 2025 event, priority entry went to surfers who had met the minimum number of contests in a regional organization, and anyone else could register for the open spots that were left.

USA Surfing names two junior teams each summer. The Junior National Team is for surfers ready to contend at the world juniors. The Junior Development Team is for younger surfers coming up behind them.

• Surfers are taken in ranking order. The ranking adds her best three West Coast Prime results (best two on the East Coast) to her result at the Junior Championships.
• At least 25% of each team comes from the East Coast.
• The 2026–27 teams were announced on July 16, 2026. Unfilled spots can be added mid-season, by December 15, 2026, from the first two Prime events.
• She has to be a USA Surfing member and a US national, and sign the code of conduct. She and her parents also take SafeSport training.

From the national team to the ISA World Juniors

The team that travels to the ISA World Junior Surfing Championship is smaller: 12 surfers, with three girls and three boys in each of under 16 and under 18. Under the 2027 procedures, only Junior National and Development Team members are eligible. The top three from each coast in each division surf a one-day trials event, and the top three finishers there make the team. The trials are set for April 5–8 or June 21–24, 2027, depending on when the ISA announces the event.

• Prime Competitor membership: $135 a year (2026–27).
• Prime entry fee: $180 an event (2026–27), so $720 for all four stops.
• Late registration: a $30 fee, and very late entries may not be accepted.
• Junior Championships entry: listed at $299 on LiveHeats for the 2026 event.

Entering is two steps. First buy the membership through USA Surfing’s membership page. Then register for each event on LiveHeats, where surfers also declare the country they surf for. USA Surfing raised both fees modestly for 2026–27, citing higher event and permit costs.

The fees are the small part. The West Coast tour runs from Santa Cruz to Oceanside, so most families are paying for travel and hotels on several of the four weekends.

• The ISA World Junior Surfing Championship. National teams of under-16 and under-18 surfers. In 2026 it was held in El Salvador with 420 surfers from 56 national teams. Team USA took silver, and San Diego’s Zoë Panettiere won silver in Girls U16. USA Surfing notes that 62 of the 71 surfers who have competed at the Olympics surfed this event first.
• The Olympics. Surfing at the 2028 Games is at Lower Trestles, July 15–18, with 24 women and 24 men. A country can earn two places per gender, and a third if its team wins the ISA World Surfing Games in 2026 or 2027.
• Other US teams. USA Surfing also sends teams to the ISA World Surfing Games and to the longboard, para surfing and stand-up paddle world championships.
• Pro surfing. The WSL is a separate organization, but USA Surfing picks Prime locations to mirror the WSL’s qualifying events. Caroline Marks, Caity Simmers and Griffin Colapinto all surfed Prime.

How Olympic spots are earned

Under the qualification system updated in June 2026, American surfers can earn an Olympic place through the WSL Championship Tour rankings between August 2027 and June 2028, the 2028 ISA World Surfing Games, or the 2027 Pan American Games. As host, the US is guaranteed one place per gender if no American qualifies another way. USA Surfing has published a preliminary notice for 2028. The full selection procedures were still waiting on approval as of August 2026.

The whole path, from a first local heat to the top, is in our guide, So you want to compete in surfing.

In 2004 the ISA approved an organization called Surfing America as the national governing body for the United States. It replaced the United States Surfing Federation, which had been an ISA member since 1976. Surfing America is now called USA Surfing. The Prime Series marked its tenth year in 2018.

After the Tokyo Games in 2021, USA Surfing voluntarily gave up its certification with the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee when audits found governance and financial problems. The committee managed the Olympic team in the meantime. USA Surfing stayed the ISA’s recognized federation and kept running Prime and the championships.

A rival bid from U.S. Ski & Snowboard to govern Olympic surfing was withdrawn, and on April 15, 2026 the committee certified USA Surfing again, with conditions, effective June 1, 2026. That puts it in charge of the American team for a home Olympics at Lower Trestles.

Yes. Prime stops are at well-known breaks such as the Huntington Beach Pier and Oceanside Pier, so you can watch from the sand. There are girls’ heats in all three age groups at every stop. It is a good way to show a kid in the WSA or NSSA what the next level looks like.

You can also watch from home. Events are streamed on USA Surfing’s YouTube channel, and heat draws and live scores are on LiveHeats. Upcoming stops are on our events page.