Pictured: Image of current wave conditions in Playa Hermosa. Lele Usuna from Argentina as well as surfers from more than 30 countries are enjoying them. Pic: Manino/ISA

Final preparations underway at Playa Hermosa with good surf conditions predicted for the week

Just two days before the opening parade, excitement around the Billabong ISA World Surfing Games is everywhere. Scheduled to be held in July 31st through August 8th 2009 in Costa Rica it will be the biggest surfing championship in history to date.

Surfers are arriving from every corner of the globe, say ISA President Fernando Aguerre. Teams from Germany, Nicaragua, Ireland, Tahiti and Jamaica are attending this year, making it an Olympic-style event.

The Swiss team arrived in the pouring rain, their board bags doubling in weight on the way from the airport. The American team almost lost their top female when she was charged excess baggage at the airlines and didn’t have the money to pay for them. The French and Australian teams brought top performers from the ASP world tour looking to take home the gold, while Mexico is just hoping to place in the top ten. With teams from as far away as Austria, Japan, New Zealand and Great Britain, and Hawaii as well as nations as unlikely as Barbados, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago attending, it is sure to be a World Cup style event.

Check out the Billabong ISA World Games here.

HUNTINGTON BEACH, California (Tuesday, July 28, 2009) – Huntington Beach local Brett Simpson’s heroic run at the massive ASP WQS 6-Star Hurley U.S. Open saw him bump up from eighth to fifth overall amongst the hungriest competitors on The Grind and puts him in excellent standing at the halfway mark on The ASP WQS.

All of the globe’s ASP WQS members are competing for one of 15 spots on The Grind by year’s end to their place alongside the elite that make up the ASP World Tour.
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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!!

Bethany will be featured on FOX’s hit show “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?”
THIS FRIDAY – July 31st!!

She’ll be in the special episode titled: “Shark & Coma Survivors” – 8 \ 7c

– “ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A 5TH GRADER” — (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT)
SURVIVORS FIGHT TO WIN BIG ON AN ALL-NEW “ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A 5TH GRADER” FRIDAY, JULY 31, ON FOX
After fighting for their lives, shark attack survivor Bethany Hamilton and coma survivor Jill Finley compete for $1 million by testing their elementary school knowledge in the subjects ranging from art to geography and math to social studies. If they are unsure of an answer they will have the opportunity to get help from real grade-schoolers who will offer what they think is the correct answer on an all-new ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A 5TH GRADER airing Friday, Jul. 31 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. (AYS-320) (TV-PG) CC

Host: Jeff Foxworthy
Contestants: Bethany Hamilton and Jill Finley
Visit the OFFICIAL SHOW WEBSITE

** CHECK YOUR LOCAL LISTINGS for the EXACT AIR-TIME IN YOUR AREA **

We hope you get a chance to tune in Friday, July 31st at 8pm on FOX!!

p.s. If you miss the show on Friday, you will be able to watch the episode online at: http://www.fox.com/fod/play.php?sh=smarter

HUNTINGTON BEACH, California (Friday, July 24, 2009) – The Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Qualifying Series (WQS) 6-Star Hurley U.S. Open of Surfing saw ASP Dream Tour surfers capitalize on the increased six-to-eight foot (2 metre) surf on offer to post impressive scores. Reigning nine-time ASP World Tour surfer Kelly Slater (Cocoa Beach , FL), 37, smashed the event’s highest heat total of 18.80 out of 20 in men’s competition while current ASP World Tour rookie and defending U.S. Open Champion Nathaniel Curran (Oxnard, CA), 24, posted the event’s first perfect 10-point-ride.
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Yes, he lands it. Not even a big deal. Check out the full sequence on Surfline.com.

Waves were a fun chest to head high today and the men ran heats from three till six pm! T-Knox advanced with a few solid crisp turns , and Kelly blew the lid off one to recieve what I believe was the high score of the day a 9.33!! Round of 96 will finish up tomorrow with Rob Machados heat so stay posted .

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Video: SK

Waves today were pretty bad down here in HB, one to two foot , so the small wave arsenal was the GO– here’s the skinny on what the boys were ridin’! The U.S Open round of 96!!

Pat Gudauskas- 5-11 whip won his heat

Andy Irons 5-11 whip – won his heat

Dusty Payne 5-11 rookie- won his heat

Nat Young 5-9 proton – won his heat

Tanner Gudauskas 5-11 flyer epoxy (2nd advanced)

Nathaniel Curran 5-11 stock tangent (2nd advanced)

Eric Geiselman –white dove (2nd , advanced)

Sage Erickson – 5-8 whip epoxy ( made pro junior final)

Yadin Nichol 5-11 mbm –won his heat

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THE UNION EXPRESS

For the better part of his 15-plus years of competing on the ASP World Tour, Kelly Slater has remained remarkably reticent to assert his influence in the name of change. Not any more.

The big story in J-Bay at this year’s Billabong Pro isn’t the swell forecast, Kelly’s funky new board, local boy Sean Holmes playing giant killer again or even Tom Curren and Occy reigniting an old cold war, but rather the earth potentially crumbling beneath the ASP World Tour. That’s because Slater and his management team are dead set on drastically reforming pro surfing. At a closed door meeting at a swanky Orange County hotel in early July (while Kelly was down in Brazil rescuing his season from disaster) Slater’s manager Terry Hardy addressed the matter with the pro surfing industrial complex; read: Billabong, Rip Curl, O’Neill, Volcom, Hurley and Bob McKnight of Quiksilver (who sent the invites to industry players). It was all very hush-hush on the DL kind of stuff, and as one marketing director told me before going, “It better be one hell of a presentation.”
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