This year's Hurley U.S. Open of Surfing, held at Huntington Beach pier earlier this summer, proved to everyone that when it comes to contests, Hurley means business. Forking out more than ever for everything from concerts and skate demos to the largest winner's purse in surfing, the company has made no secret of their new push to outpace the competition and reign supreme as the premier high-performance action sports apparel company. But the tent city at Hurlington Beach was only the beginning.
Next up is the Hurley Pro, a week-long invasion of Lower Trestles that Hurley has called “the ultimate high-performance event.” Huntington local Brett Simpson, winner of the U.S. Open of Surfing and fresh out of ankle surgery, will be one of the three wildcard competitors, along with Rob Machado and Kai Barger. They will compete against the ASP's top 45 athletes at the cobblestone-laden point. Conditions seem to be lining up well for the event, with solid south swells and hot weather. With any luck, the fall winds might pick up and blow offshore at the famous, peeling peak. The event is the only U.S. Mainland appearance of the ASP World Tour, making it a big deal for Southern California's surfing world. The ideal shape of the wave at Lowers makes for great spectating, as pros rack up line after line of high-scoring performances.
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The contest at Trestles is Hurley's first time as the sole sponsor of an ASP World Tour event, further solidifying the reputation they began building earlier this summer with the U.S. Open. And, true to form, they'll be adding their own special brand of flare to make the event just that much more over-the-top.
For one thing, a new HD webcast will bring the event into the homes of anyone with a computer. Echo Entertainment has been hired to produce the webcast, providing extensive content for both the media and consumers alike. Eight HD cams will shoot the event, “capturing it like never before,” said a Hurley press rep.
A major concern for locals in the past has been the sudden invasion of traffic, both by car and by foot, that floods Trestles and the surrounding area during the contest. The beach has often been littered with trash, diapers, cigarette butts and food. But although extending coverage, exposure, and advertising to more and more consumers needs no further explanation, Hurley still claims that a major goal of its new webcast is to help protect the ecosystem at Trestles.
“We understand that Trestles is a fragile ecosystem and want to do everything we can to minimize our impact on this world-class wave…of course, we have all intentions of leaving the beach cleaner than we found it,” said Hurley's Evan Slater.
That's right. They're putting more and more money into this so people
