Once the counter-culture sport of choice, surfing is set to move further into the mainstream as its international governing body brings in comprehensive drug-testing for the first time.

The Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) will this year roll out a policy for screening competitors and officials for performance- enhancing and recreational drugs.

The move follows the death of triple world champion Andy Irons in November 2010. A post-mortem found that he died from a heart attack and "acute mixed drug ingestion". Traces of methadone, meth- amphetamine, also known as crystal meth, and a metabolite of cocaine were found in his bloodstream.

Irons' death fuelled growing concern that even elite surfing athletes were falling victim to the sport's drug culture.

Matthew Knight, who is on the steering committee for the British Surf Championships and contest director at Croyde Surf Club in North Devon, welcomed the new policy.

He said the move was indicative of the way surfing has gone from being an "underground" sport to a "recognised, legitimate sporting activity".

"It's reflected in the way that younger surfers that we're seeing are treating it much more as serious athletes rather than it being seen as sex and drugs and rock'n'roll," he said.

Mr Knight acknowledged the surfing community encompassed a "diverse group of participants" and that not all would welcome rules clamping down on drug use. But, from a professional point of view he said he could only see it as a positive step and added that surfing had been something of a "dinosaur" in its approach to drug-testing.

"This is surfing catching up with other sports," he said.

Professional surfers compete for prizes of up to £65,000 and testing is already carried out at some European events and in the UK and Ireland.

Andy Sturt, chairman of the English Surfing Federation, the governing body for surfing in England, said it already subscribed to drug-testing through the International Olympic Committee testing agency and carried out random drug-tests at amateur contests.

ASP spokesman Dave Prodan said it saw its new policy as "a natural evolution in enhancing the professionalism of our sport".

He said: "This motion has the full support of the surfers on tour as they want to be taken more professionally, and believe this is a step in the right direction."