Everyone appearing at the World Tour event on the Gold Coast next month will be subject to testing for drugs, including recreational drugs, for the first time after the Association of Surfing Professionals adopted a new anti-drugs policy.
Some had hoped the policy would limit itself to performance-enhancing drugs but local hero and surfer representative Kieren Perrow says that is unlikely to be the case.
He told ABC radio this morning ‘once you have a drug testing policy in place then really you have to test for them across the board. It’s not just about performance enhancing. In surfing I’d be surprised if there were many instances, if any, of people using performance enhancing [drugs]. But the test will be for a wide range of substances.’
Image: Kieren Perrow with wife his Danielle and 100 of his Byron friends celebrating his recent win at Hawaii’s Pipeline at the Suffolk Park Pub. Photo Ishka Folkwell.