While the Irish Surfing Association (ISA) is riven over the decision to abandon its bid to host the 2004 World Championships, there appears to be consensus on one vital issue: the resignation of ISA president Brian Britton is a disaster for the sport here.

Yesterday's statement by the Minister for Sport, Dr McDaid, expressly paid tribute to Britton for his contribution to the sport, which has effectively been a labour of love dating back to the foundation of the original Surf club of Ireland since 1967.

His energy and organisational acumen has seen the profile of Ireland's surf stature rise rapidly to such an extent that the northwest coast has been the location of a series of international competitions, including the European Championships in 1997. The World Championships, proposed for Bundoran, was to be the apex; temporarily rendering the Irish coast as the epicentre of the sport.

But it is the potential consequences of this attention, with a predicted influx of hordes of surfers and commercial surf entities such as specialist clothing and gear manufacturers, that has split what has traditionally been a small and fairly harmonious fraternity.

Tiernan Brady, chairman of Bundoran Urban District Council, estimated that the World Championships would have injected about £3£5 million to the local economy and points out that the event would also have been an invaluable showcase for national tourism.

The UDC is due to meet to discuss the twist in events which saw Britton resign in the light of the executive decision not to pursue the tournament despite the fact that a ballot of ISA members was in favour of the championships by a 10 per cent majority.

The spirit of the vote has been the subject of speculation, with suggestions that the ISA membership was bulked up by those with interests more related to business than surfing prior to the vote. But whether that occurred or not is irrelevant; there was a two-week period when anyone was free to join the ISA for a £10 fee. Those who did so were as entitled to their vote as much as the devotee who is to be found in the water.

But there remains a significant minority of ISA members with grave reservations about the prospect of the championships. Their stance is, from afar, hard to fathom in that they appear to be working on a negative principle.

"The ISA is a tiny organisation in comparison to the major surf countries," points out Spike Roulston, the Easkey club delegate who has, from the outset, been against the championship quest. "Our constitution is based around a strategic development of the sport here which will see the sport evolve from grassroots up and at the correct pace. The task of organising the World Championships would mean the ISA would have to shelve that local development.

"And it would effectively mean throwing Irish surfing to the wolves, bringing about a situation whereby sponsors would dictate Irish surfing. We would get bigger grants but Ireland has a small surf community. We don't require big money to develop."

Roulston points out, with some justification, that the inevitable business revenue that the World Championships bring in should not be an ISA concern: "It is a business opportunity, yes, undoubtedly. But so? Do we have an obligation to potentially ruin the nature of Irish surfing in order for people to benefit from the tourism spinoff."

Even Minister McDaid's statement referred to surfing in the context of "new tourism products and niche attractions".

Past experience suggests that the arrival of the world surf carnival irrevocably changes the character of the area. "Ireland would be more exposed but the idea of places like Easkey or Lahinch turning into a Newquay or a Biarritz is not realistic because the climate isn't there," considers Colin Wilson, secretary of the European Surf Federation.

It is an ideological stand-off between development and conservation. Micheal Kelly of Waterford's Tee-bay club, the biggest surf club in Ireland, said that while the majority of their members were in favour, the future looks bleak. A spokesperson for the Bundoran Bay Riders reported that the club returned a 90 per cent positive vote and was satisfied that the World Championships would, in balance, be a positive experience.

Exotic and progressive as Britton's vision of the championships is, it has to be acknowledged that those against the event are driven by motives that also originate from pure principle. Roulston admits that while he has traditionally "been diametrically opposed to Brian Britton on most issues", he has the utmost admiration for his energy and commitment and fears the void he leaves could lead to the collapse of the ISA.

On June 29th, an e.g.m. of the ISA executive is expected to formally abandon the bid. Right now, the division among members is bitter and in danger of causing the organisation to implode. Britton's decision to resign was partially based on that concern.

The folding of the ISA would be a tragedy because the surf community in Ireland has always seemed joyfully enlightened about what it stands for. This impasse threatens a wipe-out far more devastating than anything Ireland's surfers have experienced on the water.