It’s that time to support SPY surfers Wade Goodall and Parker Coffin by casting your online vote for their blog sites. Both Wade’s Creative Destruction and Parker’s Young Wise Tails are sites that will keep you entertained for hours. Go visit Surfer Mag’s website and vote for Wade and Parker here.
The SPY crew headed to Virginia Beach, Va., Aug. 22-28, for the 49th Annual East Coast Surfing Championships. Impending Hurricane Irene sped things along for all involved, forcing heats to run from sun-up through sundown.
While the SPY crew held it down in the sand, our surf team held it down in the water. Cody Thompson and 2011 NSSA/Surfing American National Champion Parker Coffin, 15, surfed their ways into the quarterfinals of the WQS 4-Star-rated event, with Evan Thompson making it into the semi-finals of the Pro Junior!
SPY once again proved to be the crowd pleaser with giveaways and a shooting gallery that attracted thousands of spectators scrambling to get their hands on some SPY booty.
In spite of a looming storm threat, our posse decided to hold-off evacuation plans and, instead, partnered with a local watering hole, The Boxx, on a pre-hurricane, over-21 shindig.
Cody, aka DJ Code Red, kept the party moving and the shoes shuffling with a body-rocking DJ set that thumped well into the early morning hours.
Last call at the Boxx heralded a shift of venues, kicking-off an after-hours soiree where the only rules were no cameras, no stories and no hard feelings.
With the final days of the competition canceled due to the hurricane, SPY took the high road (which paralleled the prescribed evacuation route) with heads held high and stomachs turning from the previous night that officially didn’t happen.
There’s no doubt that the SPY crew helped out ol’ Irene by doing a little damage of its own…
In route to East Coast Surfing Champs in Virgina Beach VA, Parker Coffin goes to Nortth Carolina to surf in the Rip Curl Grom Search. The waves were extremely small and the southern hospitailty was flowing. Parker made the finals placing 2nd in close scored final between 1st to 4th. Parker was ripping but failed to get a good backup score to secure a win.
Parker on the far left in the red jersey, wearing the Mayson sunglass
With only 2 days left in the US Open, Spy’s John John Florence has been and continued to be one of the most dominant surfers at the US Open. John John is scheduled to surf in the Men’s round 5 (8-10:03am) and heat 3 against Kolohe, a battle of the new generation. Following that is the Pro Junior semi finals (12:59-1:40pm), heat 2 against Kolohe, Dylan Goodale and Colin Moran.
To see all the action live via webcast and to get more info and photo check US Open of Surfing.
Here is a few words that I grabed from the ASP press release today:
John John Florence (Oahu, HI), 17, was another young Hawaiian to ignite the high-performance peaks on offer at Huntington Beach to take his Round of 24 heat over Brazilian talent Miguel Pupo, 19.
“I was super-stoked to get through that Round of 24 heat because Miguel (Pupo) is so gnarly,” Florence said. “I was definitely pretty nervous going into that heat, but I just got lucky. There are so many fun waves out there.”
Florence, who is also on the verge of qualification for the ASP World Title Series at the midway mark in the season, is hoping to maintain his form at the Nike US Open of Surfing to continue to climb the ASP World Ranking.
“That was a big heat for me to get through to try and qualify,” Florence said. “That’s my goal to get to the World Tour, I’d be so stoked, I’ve put in a lot of hard work and so far it looks pretty good.”
Some other recent Spy doing during the US Open have been a signing that went off on Thursday at Jack Surfboards on the corner of Maint St and PCH. Alana Blanchard, Ben Bourgeois, Torrey Meister and Parker Coffin were there signing and making it a good time. We had screaming matches and a dance off for Spy product and a ol time in HB.
Friday morning we all met up down the way at Golden West St and welcomed our Boot Camp winner to a day at the beach. They got to hang out and surf with the same crew of surfers from the Jack Surfboards promo, Alana Blanchard, Ben Bourgeois, Torrey Meister and Parker Coffin. Good times on the beach teaching the Boot Camp winners how to surf. They all stood up for their 1st time and the smiles were brighter than the sun.
15-yr-old Parker Coffin from Santa Barbara is a charismatic ripper and one of the best young surfers in the world.
With Rincon as his home break, Parker has honed his hallmark backside surfing style: expressive, smooth, fast and explosive.
Parker is a standout in the water, but his personality separates him from his peers on land, as well. He has a natural ability to captivate and humor anyone within shouting distance. In this video you get a quick view of what he is all about. To get more of Parker, check out his blog at youngwisetails.com .
Two of the largest and most credible amateur surfing events are held in the month of June. Last week Parker won the boys under 16 divisions in the Surfing America Championships, which was held in perfect overhead Lower Trestles. This week on July 3rd ended the NSSA National Championships, held in Huntington Beach, and the conditions were held mostly in below average conditions.
Parker showing his versatility in all types of surf conditions, once again stepped on to the podium in the #1 spot in the Open Juniors division.
Parker started off the final heat with a 5.5 and an 8.75 in the first five minutes, which had the rest of the competitors in that heat needing a combination of scores. On his 3rd and final wave Parker increased his lead with a 7.75 leaving the rest of the pack way behind and his 2nd major win of this summer.
If there was any doubt of Parker’s ability, the back-to-back wins have proven that he is the best 15 yr old in the nation.
Parker had this to say about his recent victory. “Until lately I hadn’t really won a major event in almost a year. This weekend I nailed my second win, which was my goal for this summer. I am very excited and can’t believe that it all came together for me. June and the first part of July has been the most fun and best times I have ever had. A lot of great things have happened and I hope it doesn’t end!”
Parker talking about his win over the live webcast
