On Saturday, July 30, 2011 the US Open of Surfing kicked off with the Nike Junior Pro and the beginning of the biggest week in North American pro surfing. Nineteen-year-old Maxime Huscenot ruled day one with the highest heat total of 15.67.
“Huntington is a really hard wave and this morning I got lucky and got two waves at the beginning and it put me in a good position for the whole heat,” Huscenot said. “My second heat was a bit harder because the tide was high and there were not many waves as well.”
We think by “hard” he means shifty and fickle. But that’s why trying to surf the Huntington Beach pier is so much fun. For more info on day one, follow the jump. For a complete schedule with absolutely everything you need to know click here, or click here for the free US Open iPhone app and be the US Open source of information for all your friends. [click to continue…]
The body of high school surfing coach Daniel Bobis was reportedly found by local fisherman five days after he went missing while surfing out of Sumatra’s Krui Damai surf camp on Sunday, July 24, 2011, according to a story in the Washington Post.
Daniel Bobis apparently hit another surfer’s board after emerging from the barrel of a powerful, 10-foot (3-meter) wave. His leash broke and his board washed to shore. A member of the search and rescue team said Bobis’ body was found about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from where he’d last been seen.
Our thoughts are with Bobis’s family and friends. As Kelly Slater said about Bobis in a Tweet last night: “He was a good man.”
Action Industry veteran Matt Patterson has reportedly signed on as VP of Marketing and Business Development for SponsorMe. Here’s what Matto has to say about his new employer.
“SME is positioned perfectly to assist action sports brands to bridge the gap between their core and non-core audiences seamlessly and with all the credibility and authenticity they are known for,” said Patterson. “We are living in interesting times, very few small brands have survived this recent economic torpor and most of the exciting new developments are coming from the big guys these days. Red Bull, Monster and Nike are the labels kids are in to and we are finding an ever expanding group of influential taste-makers and culture-vultures that are okay with this new twist. It’s no-longer a sin to be successful and the action sports industry needs a platform that can speak with credibility to this group.”
We’ve never been able to figure out exactly what SponsorMe business model is, and Matto’s explanation doesn’t help much. Follow the jump and see if you can figure it out. [click to continue…]
After Kelly Slater famously tweeted that he’d rather surf macking Cloudbreak than meager Billabong Pro J-Bay surf and Bobby Martinez failed to show up, the ASP is reportedly working toward significantly increasing the fines for tour surfers who bail on events, according to a Joli story on ESPN/Action.
From the next event, which is the Billabong Pro in Tahiti, sources close to the ASP have indicated increasing the fine to US $25,000 if the surfer has been in touch with ASP officials but is still a no show (e.g. Slater at J-Bay) or possible US $50,000 for a surfer who has not been in touch with officials (e.g. Martinez) and fails to turn up. Prodan could not verify these numbers.
Increased fines do show that the ASP is serious, but will they actually help hold things together? Or just piss more surfers off? Guess we’ll find out soon enough.
Forgive us for going a little overboard on the surf lately. The world’s largest surf event (The Nike US Open of Surfing) is kicking off this weekend in Huntington Beach, California and it seems that every single brand in surf has a video event coming up. Most will be showing at Newport Beach’s Lido Theatre.
One of the films premiering there next week is Transworld Surf’sSurprise Excitement Party staring Conner and Parker Coffin, Michel Bourez, John Florence, Mark Healey and others. The film debuts on Wednesday, August 3, 2011 at 8:30 PM. The showing is free and open to civilians.
Thanks to all manner of political intrigue (coups, changing laws, etc. . . ) one of the best waves in the world hasn’t hosted the world’s best surfers for the past three years. Now, thanks to the Volcom Fiji Pro Cloudbreak (and/or Restaurants) will be back on the ASP World Tour starting in 2012 and running through at least 2014.
“We are all very excited about the opportunity to host our first ever ASP World Title event in Fiji,” Richard Woolcott, Volcom CEO, said. “Having the competition at Cloudbreak, or even Restaurants, is a perfect fit with Volcom’s long history with Tavarua. This is a major step in our surfing program and it’s great to be able to support the tour and its athletes with an event in world class surf.”
No major label CEO has spent more time shacked and charging Tavarua’s waves than Wooly so this partnership is the perfect fit. Plus, it will be great to see these waves back on tour where they belong. For the official word, follow the jump. [click to continue…]
Nine-time Molokai-2-Oahu paddleboard world champ Jamie Mitchell and fellow paddler Jackson English will not only be racing to Oahu on Sunday, July 31, 2011, they’ll also be raising money for Surfaid during the 32 mile paddle.
English is a schoolteacher at the United World College of SE Asia in Singapore but is originally from the Central Coast of NSW, Australia. In the past six years he has raised close to $400,000 for SurfAid. . . “With three healthy children of my own, it breaks my heart when visiting the Mentawai to see young kids so full of life suffering from very easily preventable diseases,” Jackson said. . . “Competing in the M2O to raise vital funds and awareness for SurfAid and their community based programs is the least I can do for the Mentawai people. Please donate to SurfAid and be part of the change required.”
For more information on the race and how to make a donation to Surfaid, click here or follow the jump all the details. [click to continue…]
After a less that spectacular week at J-Bay and Kelly Slater possibly slipping off into retirement via Cloudbreak that was reportedly “worth quitting your job and leaving your wife for” the ASP has been getting grief for once more fumbling the competitive surfing ball, but writer Nick Carroll doesn’t believe the ASP is the problem, according to a story on Surfling Life, though he thinks they could be handling things a little better:
In the midst of this, the ASP is . . . trying to implement a policy direction that might pay off down the track. But in the meantime, it’s doing a shit job of demonstrating the pluses, while shock jock commentators and angry old white men take potshots at it, and even the true believers are scratching their heads and wondering what the fuck’s going on.
Yep. If you care about competitive surfing, click the link and read the rest.
A South African surfer survived a shark attack on Friday, July 22, 2011, in Cinsta, thanks to fellow surfers according to a story in the Windsor Star.
“A 27-year-old surfer was bitten on his upper left arm and on his right leg by a shark of unknown species,” spokesman Craig Lambinon said. . . Fellow surfers pulled him from the water on his board and raised the alarm for others in the water at the Cinsta East beach, he said. . . By the time rescue services arrived, the man was already on land.
The surfer was in stable condition on arrival at the hospital. Sounds like those “fellow surfers” were the right guys to be out with.
