Pros to surf into Huntington

Dave Brooks

The largest surfing competition in the world is about to hit

Huntington Beach shores this weekend as part of the Bank of the West

Beach Games.

Professional surfers from all over the world are set to converge

on the event to participate in the Honda U.S. Open of Surfing, a

six-star competition that’s part of the American Surfing

Professionals World Qualifying Series.

Professional surfers from the likes of last year’s winner Taj

Burrows to six-time World Champion Kelly Slater will join about 500

other surfers, skateboarders and other extreme athletes for Surf

City’s biggest contest of the summer, expected to bring in 300,000

viewers during its 10-day run.

“For Huntington Beach, this is about as big as it gets,” Naida

Osline, events coordinator for the city of Huntington Beach said.

“It’s the sports event of the year, and it takes a lot of work to put

it together.”

Crews with the Beach Games began the massive setup operation on

July 11. In just 17 days, construction teams assemble the large

sports village, complete with dozens of booths, tents and temporary

buildings needed to house the hundreds of participating athletes.

The crowning structure of the Beach Games is the gigantic

grandstand amphitheater, where thousands of viewers will take seats

in 30 to 54 foot bleachers to watch the competition unfold.

“We take a lot pride in putting that baby together; it’s very

important to us,” construction worker Fred Hamlet said.

The biggest draw for the Beach Games is the Men’s U.S. Open, which

showcases 240 competitors and has a $125,000 purse. The Women’s U.S.

Open of Surfing offers $30,000 in cash prizes to its field of 60

women.

Underscoring the dramatic growth of competitive surfing in the

United States, a new addition to the U.S. Open this year is the

$10,000 Target Women’s Junior Pro, which compliments the existing

$10,000 Lost Pro Junior for men, the largest event of its kind in

North America. The junior divisions historically offer a glimpse of

surfing’s next generation of top pros, with a champions list

headlined by Slater, Rob Machado and Andy Irons.

Besides the surfing amphitheater, construction crews work

tirelessly to set up for a variety of lifestyle events on the 12-acre

site, including an arena for the freestyle motocross competition. The

custom-built course, within a stone’s throw of the shore, allows fans

to watch the competition with the ocean as the backdrop.

A slew of BMX riders and skateboard stars will also battle in the

Soul Bowl, a unique 13-foot deep kidney-shaped bowl paying tribute to

the pool riders of the 1970s. The event also plays host to the Karch

Kiraly Invitational, a six-team, four-person beach volleyball

competition where top male and female beach volleyball players from

throughout California will be representing a designated beach city

along the California coastline.

“This has always been a crown jewel for Huntington Beach and

reaffirms our place as Surf City, USA,” said Doug Traub of the

Conference and Visitor’s Bureau. “It really goes a long way to

promote ourselves as an overnight tourist destination.”

The first U.S. Open was in 1959, then dubbed the U.S.

Championships at Huntington Beach. The event was an overnight

success, drawing thousands of fans who packed the sand and pier. The

contest was opened to women one year later and ABC’s Wide World of

Sports began broadcasting the event in 1962. Duke Kahanamoku,

credited with introducing the sport to Huntington Beach in the 1920s,

attended in the 1963 and was mobbed by hundreds of fans, chronicled

in a series of articles by Sports Illustrated.

ABC provided the first “aerial” coverage in 1968 when helicopters

hovered so close to the surf during the finals that they knocked

two-time world champion Corky Carroll off two waves.

The Op Pro Surfing Championships took over in 1982 and the next

year, fledgling sports cable channel ESPN aired the competition and

in 1987 signed a groundbreaking, three-year broadcast deal.

In 1986, the event suffered its notable black eye when a riot

broke out during the contest’s finale. Nearly a 100 people were

arrested or injured and five police cars were set on fire.

In 1994, the Op Pro gave way to the Prime Ticket -- eventually

morphing into Fox Sports Net -- and the name was changed to the U.S

Open of Surfing. TV promotion, extensive marketing and a huge action

sport/lifestyle festival drove attendance to over 200,000.

In 2001, International Management Group purchased the U.S. Open

and created Philips Fusion, eventually bringing on sponsors Bank of

the West, O’Neil and Honda.