Preview: 2010 US Open Of Surfing

This weekend kicks off the return of the US Open Of Surfing at Huntington Beach, one of Southern California most well known surfing contest. The Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) early this year awarded the men's contest with Prime Status due to various factors such as prestige, increase prize purse, web quality, site infrastructure, and more. The Open consists of 5 surfing divisions (men, junior men, women, junior women, sponsor event/demo) spread over 9 days of competition from July 31 - August 8th.

Last year, we saw 25-30 ft sets thanks to an earthquake off the coast of New Zealand and local surfer Brett Simpson win the contest against Australian pro surfer Mick Fanning. What an event it was with thousands of people on the beach for the final day to see Hurley's Brett Simpson take $100,000 prize purse for 1st place.

This year promises to be bigger and better, hopefully a swell comes through to offer spectacular waves for the surfers to show off their skills and aerials. With the new World Ranking system and the folks at Nike continue to offer $100,000 prize for the winner of the US Open of Surfing, we can expect to see more pro surfers in Huntington Beach with their eyes on the prize. Currently, 33 of the 45 WCT surfers are seeded in the contest. World Tour surfers Kelly Slater, Mick Fanning, Taj Burrow, Dane Reynolds and Jordy Smith are just a few of the pro surfers expected to compete in the men's surfing division.

If you can't make it down to Huntington Beach, no worries you are covered with the web cast. This year, there will be a web cast not only for surfing, but also for BMX Pro, Converse skate, Walk the Walk and concerts. This year's music headliners include Weezer, Cobra Starship, Cold War Kids, Switchfoot just to name a few. The Festival Village, sponsor booths, will not open until Thursday. Throughout the week, there will be plenty of autograph signings, surf film premieres, and other events such as the Action Sports Conference and Agenda Trade Show going on in Huntington Beach. Visit HSS, Jack's Surfboards, and Rip Curl for when they will be hosting athletes autograph signings.

To view the web cast and a complete schedule of competition, visit www.usopenofsurfing.com.

Jordy Smith Wins Billabong J-Bay Pro, Ranked #1

Coming into J-bay, Jordy Smith was ranked # 2 in the World Title race and just spent a couple week surfing at home and watching the World Cup. After a two month hiatus, the ASP World Tour came back into action with full force and a pumping Supertubes.

Never had the Billabong Pro at Jeffrey Bay been ran and completed in the first 4 days of the waiting period. On the first day of competition, we saw 4 ft plus waves and everyone pretty much getting barreled. With 3 man heats going on in Round 1, we saw a majority of our top surfers win bypassing the Rd 2. Billabong’s Wild Card local surfer Sean Holmes did not win his heat against Mick Fanning and Roy Powers and was forced to surf Rd 2, but that is only the beginning of this “Giant Killer’s” run at the event.

Looking at the stats and history of Wild Cards in any surf competition, it would be pretty easy to agree that Sean is the most successful Wild Card of surfing. Sure Bruno Santos won the Billabong Pro in Tahiti 2008 as a Wild Card, but we’re talking on a consistent basis over time.



This event was clearly Jordy’s moment; his moment to shine and get his first ASP WCT win. To make it even more sweet, he won it on his home break among a plethora of South Africans blowing their vuvuzelas to support him. Ever since Jordy Smith came on the World Tour, fans of surfing have been closely watching him and Dane Reynolds excepting them to win and dominate the tour with their progressive surfing. Well Jordy Smith dominated this year’s Billabong Pro at Jeffreys Bay; easily advancing through each round until the semi-finals when Australia Bede Durbidge had Jordy Smith combo-ed in the last 4 minutes of the heat. Everyone was holding their breath, would this be it? Is this how Jordy Smith will bow out of the event, being combo-ed and oh so close to reaching the finals at his home break and possibly winning the event???

In the last 4 minutes of semifinal #1, Jordy caught one wave pulled out a Superman and finishing the wave with a few more solid turns, netting a 6.90 from the judges. As the seconds tick away, Bede caught a wave which allowed Jordy to have priority. Jordy took off on a small inside wave and just pulled out some solid turns before doing another air and milking the wave for all it got. It was probably one of the most dramatic wins, but a heart breaking loss for Bede. Jordy would go on to win the event against the underdog and Cinderella story of Australian Adam Melling. Adam came into the event ranked #41, knowing he had to get a good result or risk the chance of getting cut from the World Tour after Tahiti. Needless to say after making the finals, Adam is pretty much safe ranked at #19.

The World Title race in on, but it’s still pretty early with no one clearly leading. Taj Burrow’s solid performance brings him to # 2 ahead of Kelly Slater. There is only 5,000 points that separates #1 – #3 so it’s pretty much still anyone’s game. The WCT will take another break before heading to the crystal clear blue waters of Tahiti. Up next for a lot of our surfers is the US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach starting at the end of July.

$4,000 for a Surfboard??

So I'm going to pull out "I'm a Girl" card and was reading Perez Hilton's fashion blog, cocoperez.com, when I stumble upon his post about luxury brands Chanel and Marc Jacobs coming out with their own line of surfboards.


Surfboards designed by Chanel

What's the sticker price you ask... try $4,000. Seriously??? $4,000 for a surfboard made by a French luxury clothing fashion brand??? The Chanel surfboards are shaped in monochrome carbon fiber, polyurethane and fiberglass and are delivered with a Chanel signature traveling case. There is about 4,000 other and probably better ways to drop $4K like a trip to Indonesia, a weeks stay at Tavarua Resort in Fiji, 4 Rip Curl's H Bomb wetsuits, a car, and the list just goes on.


Designed by Marc Jacobs

I'd doubt we'll be seeing one of these ridden by Stephanie Gilmore, Coco Ho or any of the guys. Although, I think it'd be pretty funny to read someone at Surfer or Surfing demo one of these boards and put it into their "Surfboard Buying Guide." These surfboards actually look like what one of those VH1's "You're Cut Off" princesses would buy if they suddenly have the urge to learn how to surf. Well at least the Chanel ones, I don't know what's going on with the Marc Jacob's design. What's next?? An 18 karat gold plated Swarovski covered skateboard?? However, I do have to say, the red Chanel one looks pretty cool but doesn't justify the $4k price tag. Hell I'll just create a Chanel sticker and just tack it on to any board.

Joel Parkinson vs David Beckham

Which injury is worse David Beckham's torn Achilles Tendon or Joel Parkinson's sliced heel??

To not stun my unprepared or sensitive viewers with those graphic bloody images, I’ve provided the links below for those who want to view:

David Beckham: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1270269/David-Beckham-reveals-gruesome-shot-surgery-performed-Achilles-heel.html

Joel Parkinson: http://joelparko.com/photos/turn-away-now/

If you haven’t gone for a surf lately, then you should probably know that the water has significant warmed up. It’s in the mid 60′s right now and there really is no need for a full 3/2 wetsuit. I never thought I would be able to surf the waters of California in a pair of board shorts, but the day has come.

However with warm waters comes a little nuisance for surfers: stingrays.

After I finished watching the World Cup match, I was desperate for a surf session even though I knew it was pretty flat. I decided to surf at Tower 16 of Bolsa Chica. I had just bail on a wave on the inside and was getting back on my board when… bam a quick stab on the bottom of my foot.

I quickly jump on my board, while come to a realization of “Oh so this is what being stung by a stingray feels like… Or was it that fisherman’s hook that got me??” I look down and my foot is bleeding and I’m trying to paddle in. Once I made it to shore, I started feeling my foot swelling started hopping to try to get some help. Luckily there were these two guys who helped me to the lifeguard tower to get some treatment. The venom from the stingray acts pretty quickly. In less than 5 minutes, I could feel the venom cramping up my leg near my hip. It just feels like you’re being compressed and this throbbing, stinging pain.

When we got to the life guard tower, they told me to soak my foot in hot water, as hot as I can stand. Instant relief came when my foot hit the searing hot water as the heat began to immediately break down the poison from the stingray. I went from being not being able to talk to having a coherent conversation.

After two hours of soaking my foot in hot water, the pain was bearable for me to drive home.



What to Do if You’ve Been Stung

1. Immediately submerge wherever you’ve been stung under HOT Water, as hot as you can stand it. Keep replenishing the hot water once as it begins to cool (Peeing on it will do absolutely nothing)

2. Check to see if the barb is still in the wound. If so, remove it and clean the wound so it would get infected.

3. The area around the wound will feel sore and bruised for a couple of days. You can soak your wound hot water when you get home.

4. Don’t forget to regularly to change band-aids or dressing of the wound to prevent infection.

5. You can visit a doctor if you have concerns or are allergic to stings (bees, jellyfish, etc)

Surf 24

What an eventful Fathers Day weekend. Sunday June 20th, Fathers Day, just also happens to be International Surfing Day. In celebration of ISD, there were several events going on along the coast of Southern California.

I went to the Surf 24 event by the Huntington Beach pier, and boy was it jam packed full with stuff to do. On Main St., there was a Chili Cookoff contest going, Hurley had a skateboard ramp demo set up, and just south of the Pier was the event site for Surf 24.


Surf 24 was hosted by Pro Surfer Peter Townsend, Tanna Freddrick and Project Save our Earth. There were team of surfers who had to have a member in the water for the 24 hour surf-a-thon to help protect our surf. There were are few celebrities who came out and got went to help raise awareness such as actors Sam Trammell (True Blood), Chad Lowe (Drop Dead Diva), Eric Balfour 24), and many more. Many of the sponsors had their riders down at the event to compete in several heats. In the end, Team Billabong posted the highest score tally over 24 hours and won the event.



Actor Sam Trammell from True Blood getting interview by Fuel's Pat Parnell

Other participating surfers was 2009 US Open of Surfing winner Courtney Conlogue, Tom Curren, Cody and Evan Thompson just to name a few. Surf 24 raised $50,000 to benefit Surfrider Foundation, Heal the Bay, and Inside the Outdoors.