Julian Wilson couldn’t believe his week at the 2012 US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach, California. Especially the part about edging Slater Slayer Miguel Pupo in the final on Sunday, August, 5, 2012.
“I felt like I was just building house the whole event,” Wilson said. “I really had to fight for it every heat in the dying minutes and those heats always feel good. I wouldn’t say I peaked in the final but I got a good start and got two good waves.” . . . “I’m over the moon,” Wilson said. “I got a really good start and my hat goes off to Miguel (Pupo) he’s deadly. I knew he was going to be hunting those lefts the whole heat and I just tried to apply a bit of pressure on him. He got that 8.93 and was right back in the heat with plenty of time left. There weren’t that many opportunities out there but it came down to the last minute and I had to just pray there wasn’t one behind it.”
On the women’s side 17-year-old Lakey Peterson, stayed on her dominating ways all week to edge former world champion Carissa Moore.
“I don’t even know what to say – I’m speechless,” Peterson said. “The Final was really slow and I was pretty bummed because I wish we both could have got some really good waves. I’m so stoked and I really wanted to win on a high note.”
For the complete results and official word from the ASP follow the jump. [click to continue…]
Thanks to some nice work by 2012 US Open of Surfing security and the kind, loving people of Southern California, this little scuffle at the TV On The Radio show on August 3, 2012 didn’t get out of hand, exactly.
It seemed the Brazilians could do no wrong today (August 2, 2012) at the Nike US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach, California. A quick run down the results list shows shows that out of the eight mens heats run today Nathaniel Curran, John John Florence, and Julian Wilson were the only non-Brazilians to win a heat.
Gabriel Medina (BRA), 18, continued his unstoppable tear on the competition today and was nearly flawless in his Round of 24 heat. The high flying Brazilian relied on his signature aerial game to launch the highest score of Nike US Open of Surfing competition, a 9.93, on the way to a 19.03 out of 20 heat total. . . “I just tried to have fun,” Medina said. “Today’s waves are better than the other day and I just tried to do my airs and make the heat, so I’m stoked.”
On the women’s side Ventura, California’s Sage Erickson stunned the crowd by defeating 5-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore in Round 4.
“Coming up against Steph (Gilmore) there were so many things going into the heat because she’s an amazing surfer,” Erickson said. “It feels surreal because I’ve struggled on tour this year and to have the monkey off of your back and feels really good going into the latter part of the QS. WT level is another bar and level is so good, to out perform any of the girls is an honor and to get in the final and be carried up the beach in front of my hometown crowd would be surreal, but obviously the next goal is the Quarterfinals.”
For the official word from the ASP and complete results follow the jump. [click to continue…]
For the past two days (August 1 – 2, 2012) the Agenda Show has packed buyers, brands, and the media into the Long Beach California Convention Center and dazzled them with a wild array of clothing, accessories, surfboards, and skateboards.
Because of its growing size it seemed like more than a few industry veterans still couldn’t help comparing the Agenda Show to the long defunct ASR Show. With the exception of a small area of tables (the Agenda Cafe) on the South East end of the center, the entire 224,000 square feet of floor space was filled.
Everything felt bigger. We had to park farther away. We walked in large groups from the parking garage. Inside on the Berrics Agenda skateboarding end of the show it was often difficult to walk down an aisle without having to say excuse me several times. It seemed too busy writing orders to even look up. And that played into the feeling of bigness even more.
“It’s really not that much bigger,” Agenda Co-founder Aaron Levant said. “We have about 50 new brands, but we also had a few brands that wanted to increase the size of their booths.”
Even with those increases, however, at least one of the brands who took more space this year believed they could have used even more. “We’ve been writing orders all day,” said a partner at one clothing brand. “And our sales manager came back to me and said if we had more room to show the line we could have written more orders.”
With that kind of thinking Agenda can only get bigger. But one thing is for sure: the Agenda Show is still virtually free of the bikini models that seemed to get so much play back in the day. “We did let one exhibitor have a model,” Levant said. “But that’s because they’re a clothing company that makes bikinis and buyers need to see how they fit.”
Beer is a pretty popular thing these days. We personally haven’t seen much good come from the mass consumption of alcohol in general, but hey, if O’Neill want to sell some surf gear to guys who have a Pavlovian response to the old blue ribbons logo, then why not go for it.
“This season, we stayed true to our roots and designed with the American heritage in mind. The collaboration with PBR is a great way to celebrate the legacy of two American brands,” says Shawn Peterson, Vice President of O’Neill Men’s Design.
Really, what beer drinking surfer doesn’t want a shirt with a keg of Pabst on it? Drink up, O’Neill. Have another beer. This entire collection will be available at select retailers nationwide. Probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to put it in a couple truck stops, mini-markets, and retro, hipster biker bars while they’re at it.
We keep thinking we’ll eventually reach the point where Gary Rogers stops making us laugh. Each week we expect it to be next week. But the kid keeps on coming up. This episode it was his opinions on girls who skate that got us wheezing. Watch and you’ll see what we mean.
The action fashion and skate worlds convene in Long Beach, California beginning tomorrow (August 1, 2012) as Agenda and The Berrics Agenda show kicks off in the Long Beach Convention Center. Stay tuned here for full coverage (follow us on Instagram or Twitter @boardistan) or click the link for more info from Agenda.
On Thursday, August 2, 2012, Vans and Captain Fin Co. are celebrating the launch of the new Tanner Gudauskas Rata Mid Surf Sider with a party at Thalia Surf Shop in Laguna Beach, California.
Tanner Gudauskas x Captain Fin Co. color way designed by Vans Surf team rider Tanner Gudauskas and Captain Fin founder Mitch Abshere. Captain Fin Co. fuses art, music and performance to create unique surfboard fins and is well-known for embracing and supporting the creativity of its riders, including our very own Tanner Gudauskas.
