Global surfwear label Rip Curl has ridden a wave of improving trading conditions across its key markets of North America, Australia, Indonesia and South Africa as well as the benefits from a restructure in 2012 to swing back to profitability, reporting an after-tax profit of $14.12 million for fiscal 2013.

Although revenues declined slightly for the year, the surfwear group founded in the Victorian seaside town of Torquay nearly 45 years ago did manage a robust 41 per cent boost in pre-tax earnings with favourable currency movements bolstering its offshore business.

The rebound for Rip Curl comes at a tough times for most retailers, especially those involved in surfwear, with Billabong racking up billions of dollars in losses over the past few years and Quiksilver - which was also founded in Torquay and now listed on the New York Stock Exchange - posting four years of successive losses.

In September, BusinessDay reported that the founders of Rip Curl, Doug "Claw" Warbrick and Brian "Sing Ding" Singer had stepped down from the company they created in the late 1960s in a garage with a pre-World War II sewing machine. The duo retain a 72 per cent stake in the company.

Rip Curl's earnings turnaround in 2013 is from a loss of $4.056 million in 2012 when retail trading conditions soured and its accounts were drenched in red ink when the privately owned surf and snow apparel, wetsuits and footwear group was forced to also swallow $4.5 million of costs for a restructure as well as incurring substantial acquisition accounting charges.

But Rip Curl, which is chaired by former NAB senior executive and current Australia Post chairman Ahmed Fahour, said its 2013 result had shown a "significant improvement" on the previous year.

In Rip Curl financial data obtained by BusinessDay, the surfwear retailer said most of its regions had reported better trading conditions during fiscal 2013.

"Whilst our European business continued to feel the effects of the tough economic conditions in the region, our Australian, North American, Indonesian, and South African businesses all performed strongly and in line with management expectations."

Revenue for the year ending June 30, 2013, fell from $412.53 million to $398.34 million, but pre-tax earnings remained strong.

"Despite consolidated revenues declining 3.4 per cent this year due to expense rationalisation across the business and a significant reduction in abnormal items this year the group has recorded a 41 per cent growth in EBITDA."

Rip Curl said its restructure activities were complete and the costs to date had been covered by provisions raised in the prior year.

The retailer recently abandoned a planned $400 million sale due to tough market conditions.