Sadly, The Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau will not run today (Thursday, January 20, 2011) because the swell, though occasionally delivering waves over the 20 foot mark, was not consistent enough for the contest to run.
“This was just not an Eddie day,” said co-contest director Glen Moncata. “When Eddie wants us to run, the waves will come.”
It would be so easy for Quiksilver to force the event because of all the effort they put into almost making this happen, but they did an amazingly honorable thing in not running the contest and keeping The Eddie alive for another epic day at Waimea. You have to respect that.
There are still six weeks left in the window, so it’s definitely not over yet.
Kalani Chapman picked up a wildcard spot in the round of 64 of the 2011 Volcom Pipe Pro when legends Gerry Lopez, Derek and Michael Ho threw in the final votes after viewing this video of Chapman’s best five waves at Pipeline this winter. Did you really think he wouldn’t make it?
Laguna Beach, California’s Thalia Surf Shop scored a perfect viral 10 with their “20% Off all Black items” Martin Luther King, Jr. Day sale featuring the civil rights leader in a wetsuit carrying a surfboard, according to stories on media outlets around the world.
“This cheap attempt on the part of a business to make money off of Dr. King continues the pattern of disrespect and ignorance of and that far too many businesses and business owners have for the monumental work of Dr. King.” . . Hutchinson demanded the surf shop stop the MLK sale and provide a public apology.
Thalia owner Nick Cocores says he meant no harm by the email, according to KABC.com.
“In no way did we intend to hurt or offend anyone,” Cocores said. “For those that took offense or disrespect, we truly are sorry. We took down the ad for our sale to hopefully calm the waters and in the future will be more careful in our selection of promotions.”
Click here to read Cocores’ apologygot so much traffic that they had to remove their entire blog from the website as well. [Our link was wrong. Thanks to a kind commenter for pointing out our assumptive error.]
Leave it to a bunch of peace loving hippies from Laguna Beach to misread the national holiday completely. Follow the jump for the evening news video.
Marc Lacomare, the 20-year-old surfer from France sneaked in an ASP World Junior Championship over the US’s Nat Young in the Billabong ASP World Junior Championships Saturday, January 15, 2011 in North Narrabeen, Australia. And he did it wearing a bonnet de bain.
“I feel great,” Lacomare said. “It’s been a great event for me. Congrats to Nat (Young) and Jack (Freestone). “It was a great trip to Australia and thanks to the locals too for sharing their break.”
Australian Jack Freestone won the ASP World Junior Tour with a equal 9th. Follow the jump for all the ASP details. [click to continue…]
Robert Rizzo the former $800,000 a year manager of the city of Bell, California a.k.a “America’s Most Corrupt City Official” is reportedly now working as a parking lot attendant at Huntington Beach, California’s International Surfing Museum, according to a Steve Lopez story in the LA Times.
Gary Sahagen, the volunteer manager of the nonprofit museum, said Rizzo began working there last week, and that others have done service there to satisfy court requirements. But he wasn’t sure if that was the case with Rizzo. . . Well, I guess it’s possible that Rizzo, anticipating a tough time in court somewhere down the line, is trying to establish that he’s really just a misunderstood guy who loves public service so much, he’ll do it for free. . . Then again, maybe he’s a surfer.
And now for the old news department: Yes, the rumor we’ve been sitting on for nearly a month is true: The La Jolla Group has handed the . . . Lost clothing license back to co-owners Matt Biolos and Joel Cooper, according to a story on ApparelNews.net.
“There was a disparity between the clothing and the boards,” Biolos told the trade publication. “The two parts of the business didn’t relate to each other. Taking the apparel back [in-house] gives us a chance to do our own thing. We want our vibe to be consistent.”
“Disparity” is such a nice way of saying it. We’re pretty sure there is no great love lost between the “edgy” surf brand and the main stream fashion licensing corporation. It will be good to see Biolos and crew back to creating some authentic surf/skate fashion on their own with no apologies.
We didn’t pay attention enough to understand how the four-man scoring worked at the Katin Pro-Am held on the North side of the Huntington Beach Pier this weekend (January 7-8, 2011), but apparently Timmy Curran did.
Curran lived up to his reputation as one of the game’s top aerial specialists, launching the event’s most progressive maneuvers in the Final to notch the highest single-wave score of a near-perfect 9.77 out of 10 for a massive frontside air-reverse on a lefthand ramp on the way to earning the event’s highest heat-total, 18.50 out of 20, to leave fellow finalists Chris Waring (Seal Beach, CA), 23, Micah Byrne (Huntington Beach, CA), 29, and Tanner Gudauskas (San Clemente, CA), 22, in need of two scores to overtake the high-flying goofy-footer.
Those who thought the death of the ASR Show signaled the death of action sports trade shows in general were proven grossly wrong during day one of the Agenda Show in Anaheim, California January 6, 2011. All three halls were packed to the point of making it difficult to cruise the aisles. And it wasn’t people just hanging out. Lines were being shown and in many cases orders were being written.
While some brands we spoke to seemed relieved that they didn’t have to be at ASR this year, others mentioned missing the old days when Agenda was just a small show for the cool kids. Agenda has definitely kicked it up a level this year and nearly everyone seems happy about it. Even those who seem nostalgic for the past.
