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Being in Huntington Beach to watch surfing is very cool. Essentially, every shop in the main part of town is related to surfing or is a restaurant...long story short, surfing is king in this town.
Oh and the beach is really nice too. Imagine people on the beach basking in the sun, playing volleyball, building sand sculptures, and just hanging out with friends. Behind them is a nice little boardwalk for walking, biking, and roller blading. And in front of them is the water, a nice blue green with people swimming, playing, boogie boarding, and of course surfing!
The day I was there, Sunday, they had the Men's quarter finals, semi finals, and finals for the Jr's, Long Board, and US Open. Everyone was sitting on the beach until the US Open finals came on and then you had to work your way to the waters edge to get a decent view on the beach. Everyone else was camping out on the pier or in a VIP (purchased ticket) area, which means I was officially in the water with surfing professionals! All of them did some pretty cool tricks out on the water, but part of their runs depended on the waves, which I heard weren’t as high as they have been in the past. One of the coolest things I saw was a surfer come out of the wave onto the top of it, bounce off the wave, and get back into the wave...and this was the start of his run...it was ridiculous! He scored pretty well on that run too, but the scoring system is a bit of a mystery to me.
Here is a quick guide to surf scoring, which would have been helpful before I went, but it seems like judges have a lot of wiggle room for their final decision. This leads to guys having a sweet run and recieving a 4.25 and then other times he would have a decent looking run and get a 7.25?...This is apparently worked out through averages and having enough judges posting scores for the surfers.
Outside of surfing they also had a couple of huge skateboarding ramps/bowls setup for competitions during the day and a huge motorcycle jump where they had sponsored riders doing tricks at certain times during the day. BTW, these guys are certifiably crazy!
Would I go back and watch surfing again? Heck yeah, in a heartbeat!
2 comments:
So, I'm just curious after these last few posts.....does Brian work? :o)
Ha - glad you enjoyed my hometown. Growing up, I never realized how awesome the beach is in HB. Nice wide stretches of sand, sweet pier, and surfers everywhere. Seemed normal at the time! If only there were beaches like that in Oregon!!
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