U.S. Open of Surfing hits waves on Friday

Mike Sciacca

The world’s largest surfing competition, the Honda U.S. Open of

Surfing presented by O’Neill, gets underway Friday at the Huntington

Beach Pier.

The U.S. Open of Surfing anchors the Bank of the West Beach Games.

More than 600 athletes from around the globe will compete in surfing,

skateboarding, BMX and volleyball.

The Bank of the West Beach Games run July 28-31 at the pier.

More than 500 world-class surfers from the U.S. and abroad will

compete over a 10-day period in five divisions of competition. The

event carries an $185,000 prize purse.

Among the contestants in this year’s event are Laguna Beach

professional surfers Mike Todd and Bron Heussenstamm. Todd is the

132nd-seed in the men’s division, and Heussenstamm is listed as an

alternate.

“It’s pretty much the only real event we have here at home that

counts big-time,” said Todd. “It’s a huge event for all of us and

gives us the chance to do well in front of massive crowds, and our

sponsors basically will be watching this up close from their desks.”

The U.S. Open of Surfing features a $125,000 Men’s six-star World

Qualifying Series event, a $30,000 Women’s six-star World Qualifying

Series event, the $10,000 O’Neill U.S. Open of Longboarding and the

$10,000 Lost Pro Junior.

Founded in 1959, the U.S. Open is North America’s highest-rated

qualifying event, and the world’s largest and most heavily attended

professional surfing competition.

Last year’s Bank of the West Games drew a record 300,000

spectators.

A few of the sport’s elite surfers schedule to compete for

division titles are former event and world champions Andy Irons

(Hawaii), Rob Machado (Cardiff), Sunny Garcia (Hawaii), Kelly Slater

(Florida) and Cory Lopez (Florida) on the men’s side, and Rochelle

Ballard (Hawaii), Holly Beck (Palos Verdes), Julia Christian

(Carlsbad) and Melanie Bartels (Hawaii) on the women’s side.

The early rounds of surfing begin on Friday and continue through

the weekend, beginning at 7 a.m. each day.

The $50,000 Philips Key Ring Soul Bowl, featuring several of the

world’s best skateboarders and BMX riders, will run July 29-31.