FuelTV presents Andy Irons in Costa Mesa

With the sun out again, So Cal was brought back to summer weather and what is more fitting than to have Andy Irons visit?

Surfing the web, I stumbled on a poster that mentioned Fuel TV bringing Andy Irons to an AT&T store in Costa Mesa. Oh how I love FB and Twitter. I've been looking forward all week to Saturday to get the chance to meet Andy.

Shortly after arriving, Andy rocked up to the AT&T store with a friend. After a brief chat with the event organizers and management of At&T, he got straight to work signing autographs and posing for pics with fans.

Those who switched over to At&T U-verse Cable service got one of these autographed boards from Andy for free!!

Andy was just so laid back and relaxed. In the beginning there wasn't a lot of fans so I got a quick Q & A session in with him.


Q: Where is your favorite surf spots?
A: Probably back home in Hawaii or in Australia.
C: Can't beat those waves there.
A: Naw, they're always good.

Q: This year, how did you pick which events to compete in?
A: The sponsor kind of picked them for me. I competed in Tahiti because it was a Billabong event. I then surfed the US Open. So yea, the sponsor mainly picked it for me.

Q: Why did you go to Spain then?
A: Oh I didn't want to go; the waves are never good there. It wouldn't of been fun for me.

Q: Will we see you compete at Pipeline?
A: Of course, it's back home for me and it's one of my favorite competition.

Q: Are you on Twitter?
A: No, I don't do any of that stuff. I don't even have email.

Q: Now that you don't surf competitively what do you do in your free time?
a: I free surf and shoot some surf films, but I'll be returning to the WCT next year. It's just taken me a while to figure out that I like competing. With the new changes made to the Tour more prize money hopefully I can win some contest and then just retire in Hawaii.

Q: Do you think you've got another World Title left in you?
A: Oh yea.

Well there you have it! Can't wait to see you Andy on the 2010 CT'.

ASR Takes Over SD

Bi-annually, members of the action sports industry gather in San Diego for ASR to showcase new products and to full-fill orders for the upcoming winter and spring season. Like everything else in this economy, ASR was the same. Attendance was down, less press members, and overall a scale back. What was different about this year was the introduction of ASR Class; a showing of upscale products.

ASR Class definitely generated more interest and attracted some booth attendees.

Speaking to some guests and hearing word on the street, many attendees felt last year was better. What do they really expect considering the financial situation everyone is in? ASR lost many of the small vendors who just didn't have the budget to attend the event. Of course the big sponsors were still there Quiksilver, Billabong, Rip Curl, and Volcom. What is interesting though is the absence of Nike, Hurley and Converse. With the Hurley Pro only 4 days away, the Hurley staff were probably very occupied tying up loose ends and prepping for the event. The Hurley Pro is the first time Hurley will take on the role as the sole title sponsor of major world tour surf event. As a title sponsor comes high stakes and expectation. Will be see Hurley and Nike in February???

Aussie Mick Fanning Wins the Hurley Pro

The Hurley Pro, 6th stop on the WCT, kicked off on September 13 in San Clemente, California. Contest director Pat O'Connell ran 3 man heats in Round 1 and 2 heats of Round 2 on the first day. In the final minutes of the day, we witness one of the biggest upset as Rob Machado, Hurley's wild card winner edges out Taj Burrow. Sitting with priority, Taj passes on a wave which Machado took off on. It was a tough loss for last year's finalist losing by .33. Needless to say, Taj was pissed and quickly left town. Hopefully the memories of last year's final and this year's early exit will not discourage Taj from coming back to Trestles. Monday and Tuesday, we saw the completion of Round 2 & 3. Evidently Rob was not finished with upsetting the draw by knocking out current world leader Joel Parkinson in Round 3.

The contest was held off for three days due to small waves. This forced Pat to run 15 heats on the last day of the waiting period. As the sun rose into the sky, we just saw glimpses of the south swell pulsing through. With two restarts in the morning during dead high tide, spectators on the beach were in for a long day. Wave selection was key to make it through the inconsistent condition, but Pat had no choice but to push on. Long day, but not uneventful with aerialists Dane Reynolds and Josh Kerr pulling off several 360's and reversals held the crowd's interest.

Not to mention 9x World Champion Kelly Slater was still in the draw before finally bowing out to Mick in the 2nd semi final heat. Surfing against Mick, it appeared Kelly was just not comfortable on this stick; falling off wave after wave trying to snap off the top of the wave. After his quarter final win, Mick was asked what he would do if he won $100,000 at the US Open of Surfing, he jokingly reply was, "I don't know... I'd probably kill myself since I'm going to Vegas the next day." Compared to Kelly's response to what he would do with $105,000, "Pay a lot of taxes." Just ask Brett Simpson, he paid about $47,000 in taxes. As the heats progressed, you could just see the eventual finalists, Dane and Mick, surfing better and with command and authority; nothing was going to stand in their way to getting into the finals.

Many of the spectators at Lowers were expecting Kelly Slater to win the Hurley Pro, but with him being comboed in the last 5 minutes of the heat, many fans started for the exit as their champ was exiting the contest. The finals was still exciting enough with Mick coming out charging and getting to solid waves early on. Call it nerves for being in his first ever finals, Dane did not ride his first wave until there was only 15 minutes left in the 35 minutes final. Those of us left on the beach were all rooting for Dane and exasperated every time he fell while the clock wound down making it harder for him to get the two scores he needed. Dane's performance suffered from having to be in so many heats; his body was cramping and he had to be hooked up to an IV in between his heats.

After several attempts at Lowers and the twinge of just being edged out of $100k six weeks earlier, Mick Fanning defeats Dane Reynolds in the finals to win at Lower Trestles in the 2009 Hurley Pro 17.40 to 13.10. Sunburned, exhausted, and drenched in champagne, Mick hoists up the Hurley Pro trophy over his head and accepts the world record 1st place prize check of $105,000US. To cap things off, Mick moves into second place right behind fellow Aussie mate Joel Parkinson in the world rankings.

The Hurley Pro was truly an event about the surfers out in the water and Hurley. There were barely any sponsor tents or other activities down at Lowers. There were large speakers playing music through out the day to entertain everyone while the contest ran. Hurley even handed out numerous Hurley beach umbrellas to keep other brand presence at a minimum. They really wanted to activate the Hurley brand on site. It was just a sea of Hurley umbrellas. It even got so hot that the camera crew on the water craft was driving around with a Hurley umbrella.

The WCT heads to France to start the European leg. First up is the Quiksilver Pro followed by the Billabong Pro in Mundaka and the Rip Curl The Search. Let the World Title race heat up.

A change in the tide

After J-bay and leading up to the US Open of Surfing, the whole surfing world was just buzzing about this New World Tour aka Rebel Tour, ESPN Tour, Kelly's Tour. Many of the top surfers refused to comment on the subject. Although they kept their silence, they certainly are intrigued. From following Mick Fanning on Twitter, he read up on many articles about this new tour and solicited comments and opinions from fans and other surfers. He truly wanted to know what everyone else's opinion was.

Will this World Tour happen?? Probably not. At Rabbit Camp 2009, ASP, stakeholders, and major sponsors met in the Gold Coast this past month and details of "Landmark Improvements" to the WCT are being made public. What is the first blow?? Current event licensees have agreed to continue with their permit for another 9 years. Although there still is no $1 million first place prize, the prize purse has been increased, plus the World Title Winner gets a collective purse too.

The Rebel Tour isn't perfect, but neither is the current WCT. Many fans are angry at Kelly Slater for trying to make surfing mainstream by having surf contest be aired on ESPN. As a person with a marketing/advertising background who also loves surfing, I appreciated many of the key points of the Rebel Tour.

Sure I would of loved to see surf contests on ESPN, but is that what surfing fans out there really want?? Do we really want to wait a week after the competition ended to watch an hour footage of highlights of the contest? I rather watch the live web cast. There is no more suspense or anticipation. By the time the footage aired, we already know who won the contest. Surfing is all about living in that moment, not a week later. Now if ESPN were to broadcast live heats, I would be super stoked. Logistically and economically, that would never work unless they have an ESPN 3 channel dedicated to Surfing, Snowboarding, BMX, and skateboarding. With the way surf contest work with waiting periods and lay days, contest directors cannot guarantee ESPN days competition will run for ESPN to schedule air time and sell commercial slots.

Having ESPN on board this tour will definitely attract more sponsors and advertisers (more money $$$). More money to make surf contest better for surfers and fans. More money to better live web cast.

Quiksilver was the only major surf company to comment on the Rebel Tour, essentially backing up Kelly Slater. In one article, Quiksilver welcomed the idea of companies outside of surfing become head event sponsors and taking over for Quiksilver. Because of Quiksilver financial troubles, the company is looking for ways to minimize expenses such as sponsoring surf events. Quiksilver sponsors 2 WCT and 1 Womens WCT; each sponsorship cost Quik several million dollars. It would definitely financial help Quiksilver out to have a non-competitor company come in and sponsor the event. Unless the sponsor's business is somehow logically connected to surfing, most surfing fans will be confused on why Company X is sponsoring this event, but may not care as long as they set to see their favorite surfers compete. The major consequence of this is the feeling of wasted money by the sponsors who probably won't receive a decent roi and discourage them from renewing their sponsorship.

With 2010 just around the corner and no new updates about this tour, it doesn't look like it's happening.

Well deserved 6 Stars for the Hurley US Open of Surfing

This was the the 50th anniverary of the US Open Of Surfing. With Hurley as the title sponsor, it marked the return of the event's surfing roots, and boy did Hurley go big. It was almost like a coming out party to say Hurley has arrived. You saw Hurley's name everywhere, from the retailers' large window displays on PCH, to Hurley buoys, event merchandise, banners alongside the Pier, Hurley beach umbrella stuck in the beach, and large surf event flags. Nike, Hurley's and Converse's parent company, just took over the event by putting in the Nike 6.0 BMX arena and the Converse skate bowl.




I spent some time with the locals at Huntington Beach, the workers at Jack's Surfboards and HSS, and guests to get their impression. Overall almost everyone agreed that this year, the event was bigger and better than years before. There were more stands in Surf Stadium, the nice touch of a live screen on the Pier, walkways, more space and organization. Unaminously, the locals agreed this year had the biggest crowd. It drove foot traffic into the stores with high conversion to sales. HSS had a record breaking volume of sales with the majority of men buying exclusively Hurley products. In addition this year's guests really enjoy having the top world class surfers, Kelly Slater, Andy Irons, Mick Fanning, Rob Machado and others, coming out and competiting in the Men's bracket. Course, their appearance probably had to do something with largest surfing 1st place cash prize of $100,000. The stars aligned for the event: massive triple overhead swell, $100,000 first place cash prize, top surfers, a major surf brand as the title sponsor. To cap it off, a local surfer and Hurley team rider, Brett Simpson won First Prize!




Generally, the locals and surfers were overjoyed to see the event has a surf- related title sponsor. It made more sens because Bob Hurley, founder of Hurley, started as a shaper before working with Billabong to bring the brand here in the US. He knows surfing and the industry. Further, this year's event merchandise felt more special with t-shirts design of the HB Pier. Hurley went to bank with advertisment this year with event posters, programs, and Hurley Girls passing out giveways such as hats, sunglasses, and beach umbrellas.



Even though the US Open of Surfing ended a few weeks ago, the memories of it are still fresh. As a volunteer, I spent a lot of the time behind the scenes. Throughout the 9 days, I sometimes was at Info Desk at the Welcome Center and got plenty of positive feedback from guests. Comments ranged from "Wow this is great! Thank you so much for putting this one" followed by a handshake. "Hurley really went big this year." "You guys did a great job. Can't wait for next year." Guests seemed to really enjoy themselves and were very impressed of the grand scale. One VIP guest commented, "This year, the VIP area was much better. We were treated like VIPs. There were drinks and food available, not like years before where there was nothing except the higher view."



Also, the Open's webcast was a great success. Users did not have any problems watching the main event. However, many did note that they would of like to see the webcast of the Juniors draw in the early days of the event. The US Open of Surfing website was very user friendly and had a cool look to it. Online users were also kept updated via Twitter and Facebook.

While there were plenty of positives, there were a few negatives. Guests noticed there were less booths and give-aways this year. In addition, there was no Motorcross which was a very popular attraction the previous year. One big criticism was the situation with trash. One local commented, "There should of been more police force issuing citations for littering. There were just so many trash and flyers everywhere, completely covering this parking lot. They needed more trash bins. They should have volunteers picking up trash. In weeks to come, it will just all get blown into the ocean thus polluting it even more and adding to the problem." From working the event, I know this local was referring to The Strand and Main Street area. The beach was kept as clean as possible; Rainbow Disposable had a large crew on the beach. There is some validity to this point though. Huntington Beach is just a small portion of California's 900 mile coast line that sits on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. All the trash not picked up will eventually end up in the ocean. In nine months time, through the trade winds and currents the trash will end up in the Pacific Garbage Patch. The Patch, for short, is a surface area about size of the United States of trash just floating on top of the surface right in the middle of the Pacific. If you can wrap your mind around that size, you can then only imagine the range of environmental issues and the difficulty of trying to get rid of it.

So how can the US Open of Surfing get better next year aside from addressing the two issues above?? One suggestion was more prize money, but I think Hurley can pull some strings and get Bar Rafaeli to make an appearance. She is the practically the female face of Hurley. Can't wait to see what Hurley brews up for the Hurley Pro in September.

Contributions by:

Employees of Jack's Surfboards, Terry
Employees of HSS, Keaton
Huntington Beach Vistors Center
Locals of Huntington Beach