The 7th Annual Active Willabong Surf Team Challenge went off in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Calif. with nine talented teams battling it out in clean, rippable 3-foot surf.
The Willabong is a group format surf competition that puts 2 company employees, 2 team riders and 2 Active employees in team heats. Each rider’s top score goes into the cumulative team point total.
SPY guys Mike Losness, Chris Abad, Andrew Valentine, and stand-in Ryan Burch paired up with Active’s Brent Fudagaki and Bill “BK” Keller to round out the lethal SPY + Active team.
Team SPY was pitted against 3-time defending champions Chemistry Surfboards, Brixton, Dragon, Filtrate and other standouts. It was never a question of “who’ll stop the Raen” en route to the finals. As the final seconds of the contest ticked into the history books, the flaring SPY crew proudly paddled in and claimed the coveted Willabong trophy and 365 days of bragging rights.
Despite the irony of the white elephant trophy the victorious SPY + Active team stands proud.
(left to right) Ryan Burch, Chris Abad, Mike Losness, Brent Fudagaki, BK, Andrew Valentine.
Ryan Burch’s self-shaped assymetrical surfboard integrates intricate design elements essential to the SPY team’s victory. It doesn’t hurt that he can surf switch-stance also.
You don’t have to be a mathematician to figure this one out: SPY + Active = winning.
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.
Congratulations to SPY® team rider John John Florence for coming of World Championship age on the ASP: He was officially welcomed this past week to join the title chase on the back-half of the 2011 ASP World Championship Tour. John John made it to Surfing’s main stage by sheer force and in the wake of sad misfortune for Yadin Nicol, who broke his fibula free-surfing in Japan in late August. For more information go here.
NEW ASP TOP 34:
1. Kelly Slater (USA) 2. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 3. Mick Fanning (AUS) 4. Owen Wright (AUS) 5. Taj Burrow (AUS) 6. Jeremy Flores (FRA) 7. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 8. Adrian Buchan (AUS) 9. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 10. Michel Bourez (PYF) 11. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 12. Julian Wilson (AUS) 13. Damien Hobgood (USA) 14. Josh Kerr (AUS) 15. Alejo Muniz (BRA) 16. Gabriel Medina (BRA) 17. Kieren Perrow (AUS) 18. Raoni Monteiro (BRA) 19. Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 20. Jadson Andre (BRA) 21. Heitor Alves (BRA) 22. Chris Davidson (AUS) 23. Brett Simpson (USA) 24. Dane Reynolds (USA) 25. Patrick Gudauskas (USA) 26. Daniel Ross (AUS) 27. Miguel Pupo (BRA) 28. Dusty Payne (HAW) 29. Kai Otton (AUS) 30. Taylor Knox (USA) 31. Tiago Pires (PRT) 32. Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 33. Travis Logie (ZAF) 34: John John Florence (HAW)
The Quiksilver Pro New York supported by vitaminwater, the 6th of 11 stops on the 2011 ASP World Tour, is the richest surfing competition to be staged anywhere in the world in the sport’s 36-year professional history.
The main event will be held on the four best days of surf during the 11-day waiting period from September 5-15.
16 surfers, including Spy’s Clay Marzo, will compete for the second and final wildcard into the main event. The trial will be on Sunday Sept 4th. For more contest info visit the site here.
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
left to right: John John, Kolohe, Felipe and Conner
Sat Aug 6 2010
John John had a busy day of surfing today in the ASP Prime event and the Pro Junior division. Today ended John John’s run in the ASP Prime event where he lost to Kolohe Andino in a 30 minute display of next level surfing.
Shortly after John John surfed in the pro juniors semi finals dominating his way into the finals, where he met up with Kolohe Andino, Conner Coffin and Felipe Toledo.
The 25 minute final was a crowd pleaser. From rail surfing to airs the pro juniors were destroying the wind blown afternoon surf of Huntington Beach. It was Felipe Toledo from Brazil who won the judges scores with a 15.17 heat total. From there it was 2nd place Kolohe, 3rd place John John and 4th place Conner Coffin.
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.
