Bonga Perkins and Kekoa Uemura may be Hawai'i's best longboard surfers, but neither will be a world champion this year.

That's because the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) will not recognize a world championship contest for longboard surfing this year.

The 2005 world championship was supposed to start this week in Biarritz, France, but the title sponsor (Nokia) withdrew a month ago, prompting ASP officials to cancel.

"I'm bummed and shocked about it like a lot of the other guys," Uemura said. "It's basically the one big contest that we have and we train all year for it."

The ASP has crowned a longboarding world champion every year since 1986.

"It all kind of just fell through at the last minute," said Randy Rarick, Hawai'i's representative on the ASP. "You can't run the event without a sponsor, and right now, nothing's on offer."

Uemura finished second at last year's world championship contest; Perkins, who won the world title in 1996, was third last year.

"Of course, I'm not happy with it," Perkins said. "But at the same time, I'm hoping everybody can regroup and come back strong next year — hopefully some sponsors will step up and help us out."

As recently as 2003, a world tour determined the longboarding world champion. But last year, the "tour" was diminished to a single event because of a lack of sponsorship.

"We were doing pretty good for a while as far as getting contests in good (sites)," Perkins said. "But I don't know. Maybe our luck ran out."

Uemura added: "It's been tough to make a living as a pro in longboarding in the last few years. This is definitely a step back."

The 2005 world championship contest was supposed to award a total prize purse of $35,000.

In contrast, the 2005 ASP men's shortboard surfing tour — with competitors like Andy Irons, Kelly Slater and Sunny Garcia — features 12 events, each offering a prize purse of $270,000.

The 2005 women's shortboard surfing tour has nine events, each offering at least $65,000.

"We only have one event, and it's not for that much money, so I don't understand why it's so hard," Perkins said.

A women's longboard world champion was also supposed to be crowned in France this week, but that was also canceled. It would have been the first time that the ASP recognized a female longboarding world champion.

Joy Magelssen of 'Aina Haina would have been one of Hawai'i's top contenders.

"It's not so much that the longboard industry is doing bad," Rarick said. "I think there's just more appeal in the shortboard events."

In longboard surfing contests, all competitors must ride surfboards at least 9 feet long.

"I think the level of longboarding has really improved, so it's really disappointing not to get the support," Uemura said.

Instead of traveling to France this week, Uemura opted for Las Vegas.

"Hopefully I can win something, but there's nothing like a world championship," he said.