SPY Professional Surfer Cody Thompson answered the call of the night, out-boosting five top east coast surfers to claim first place and $5,000 at the 2nd Annual Red Bull Night Riders tow-at event in Flagler Beach, Florida, Nov. 12. More than 6,000 spectators gathered after sundown to cheer on the competitors as jet skis launched riders at waves and into the air where an expression session of aerial proportions exploded in combat against the illuminated night sky.
Cody Thompson’s lofty alley-oop earned him a score of 8.17 out of a possible 10 points from the judges, a standing ovation from the crowd and the win over 2001 ASP World Champion CJ Hobgood.
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…
Shred For Cred is a retail/athlete marketing event held by SPY. The event is a surf contest/ bowling tournament where the winners surf and bowl against SPY surf stars. The overall finalist brings home a pocket filled with cash and some kick ass SPY gear. The winner also gets to bring back a bag full of product to hand off to their store to sell. That’s free money to their store, which gives them hero status in the work place.
The first stop was Ponce Inlet, FL. The SPY surf stars were Ben Bourgeois aka Benny B and Cody Thompson. The waves were chest high and very rippable. A special thanks goes out to all the loc dogs that let us have our surf contest during a wave starved summer that was blessed with a one day swell during our event. The contest was surfed on retro boards or personal shortboards. If you chose the retro you got an extra 2 points added to your top 2 waves. Whether is was retro’s or shortboards, we saw some serious ripping from the surf shop employees.
After the contest was done it was off to the local bowling alley where the fried food and beer was plenty and gutter balls were frequent. There were a few ringers in that group. I remember a score of 180 something going down…. It was good times and a lot of laughs at the alley. After 3 games we had our finalists:
Thomas Lamprecht 1st place
Paul Forand 2nd place
Pierce Miller 3rd place
Robert Carmichael 4th place
Dane Jefferies 5th place
We had a little battle of the pros between Benny B and Cody T and it was Cody Thompson that rose to the occasion and took 40 cool ones from my pocket for his surf/bowling skills.
Shred For Cred heads to Huntington Beach August 17th!
Cody Thompson flew out to CA from FL early June 2011 to catch a south swell at Lower Trestles. This was all we got becuase he got hurt doing a big air which is at the end of the edit. Enjoy!
To see more Spy surf team vids go to You Tube or Vimeo.
Cody Thompson finds way to stay busy when the waves are flat at home in Jax Beach Florida. Skateboarding and wake surfing…. It’s almost like cross training for him. “It’s better than sitting around and not doing anything… I can practice airs and try a lot more things behind a boat. It’s not as fun as surfing but I still do enjoy it.”
Just in time for the last few days of summer SPY will be sponsoring the 48th annual East Coast Surfing Championships from August 25th-29th in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Hundreds of amateur and pro surfers, including SPY’s own Ben Bourgeois, Cody Thompson, Tyler Newton, and Nick Rupp, will go head to head for East Coast surfing titles with purses totaling $30,000.
Back for another year, the SPY crew will be out in full force! Come and kick it at the SPY booth in the vendor village for some beach games, prize giveaways, and your chance to win an exclusive pair of SPY shades before they are out in stores. It will be a hot one but with all the shenanigans we have in store you won’t even notice the heat!
Be sure to check for our SPY updates on our SPY Facebook and Twitter pages.
SPY IS ONCE AGAIN THE OFFICIAL EYEWEAR SPONSOR FOR THE 6TH ANNUAL REEF/SWEETWATER PRO-AM SURF FEST
Back for another round of calamity, SPY is the official eyewear sponsor for the 6th Annual Reef/Sweetwater Pro-Am Surf Fest July 16-18th in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. With a $20K pro prize purse at stake Oceanic Street will see 96 pro surfers from around the globe compete for the purse including SPY’s very own recent Wilmington Sports Hall of inductee Ben Bourgeois. Also competing will be SPY’s Mike Losness, Nick Rupp along with Florida wonder brothers Evan and Cody Thompson.
Get your butt down to the beach and kick it with SPY! We’ll be throwing down beach games all weekend long keep the crowd pumped in between action in the water. Stupid human tricks will abound with crowd favorites such as the human corndog and the human water weenie. Don’t miss out on the scavenger hunt—you never know what you’ll find on the beach! The 95+ degrees won’t even matter with all the fun we have in store for you. Just you wait…
Join SPY Friday night at Red Dog’s, 5 North Lumina Avenue, Wrightsville Beach. Doors open at 9pm. DJ Lord Walrus will be spinning out beats and keepin’ the bodies moving.
If you can hang like we do, Friday will really just be a warm up for Saturday! Join us again Saturday night at Red Dog’s. Doors open at 9pm with Organix with special guest Kaze.
SPY will be lighting up Wrightsville Beach both in and out of the water July 16-18…come on down and get a piece!
The Volcom VQS Championships was held May 13-15. This video features the Spy surfers Parker Coffin, Cody Thompson,Tyler Newton and Cory Arrambide during the last 2 days of the event. The Spy standout were Paker Coffin who placed 2nd in the Air division and Cody Thompson who placed 4th in the Pro Am division.
To see more Spy surf team videos click on Vimeo or You Tube.
