Chuck Allen, an avid surfer and snowboarder who worked tirelessly to promote the board sports, has passed away from complications from a lung illness. He was known from coast to coast as the co-founder of the National
Scholastic Surfing Association, or NSSA, in 1978 and founder of the
United States Amateur Snowboard Association, or USASA, in 1988.
He was 74. He most recently worked as the special events manager at Mountain High Resort in Wrightwood. He was 74.
Allen, a banker by profession, became the volunteer surfing coach at El Toro High School in
Lake Forest, Calif., after two of his sons took up the sport in the
1970s. He disliked surfingâ€s dropout image, so in 1978 he founded the NSSA with four other coaches to unite its disparate competitive bodies, according to an OBIT in the New York Times.
The NSSA requires athletes to stay
in school and maintain at least a 2.0 grade point average to compete. It also provides added incentives like scholarships and opportunities for corporate sponsorship.
In the late eighties, he organized the USASA at a time when snowboarding was banned at most ski resorts. By
1998, it had become an Olympic sport.
