5th Annual Reef/Sweetwater Pro-Am

Wrightsville Beach North Carolina
10 – 12 July 2009

Aaron Cormican, of New Smyrna Beach, Fla., outlasted his peers Sunday at Wrightsville Beach to win the pro division of the Reef/Sweetwater Pro-Am for the second time in the competition’s five-year history. Cormican won the event in 2006, and beat out his good friend Jeremy Johnston, the 2008 champion, also from New Smyrna, in the tournament final.

“This year has been a really good year for contests for me,” Cormican said. “It’s a hard event, there’s a lot of good surfers here and I’m stoked. It’s a dream right now, man. Life is good.” Cormican took home the trophy and a $5,000 first-place prize Sunday for his winning effort. Johnston came in fourth place, Dylan Goodale, of Kauai, Hawaii, was the runner up, and Matt Keenan, of Ocean City, N.J., placed third.

The surf conditions worsened with each day of the competition. Sunday morning the water was glassy and the waves were in the knee- to thigh-high range, but Cormican said his ability to thrive in smaller conditions has played a part in his recent success on the East Coast.

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The 5^th Annual Reef/Sweetwater Pro-Am Surf Fest will be back in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina on July 10-12^th at Oceanic Street. This year’s event features a $20,000 pro prize purse. This event is one of the largest surfing contests on the East Coast and attracts surfers from around the world.

Former event champions include professional surfers Rob Machado, Aaron Cormican, Asher Nolan, and Jeremy Johnston. Returning to this year’s event lineup is former ASP World Championship tour standout and hometown hero, Ben Bourgeois, who will be competing in the event. Other pros attending include Tonino Benson, Mike Losness, Heath Walker, Gabe Garcia, Brendan Petticrew, Sean Marceron, Ross Stevens, and Phillip Watters. In all, 96 professional surfers from around the world will descend upon Wrightsville Beach to surf the 3-day event.

Amateur divisions include Guys 15-up, Guys 14-under, Guys Open Longboard, Women 18-up, Girls 17-under, Women’s Open Longboard, the Guppy division, featuring young, beginning surfers, and the crowd favorite Tow-At Expression Session.

find out more information at boardretailers.org

Vote for your favorite Miss Reef and enter to be a guest Miss Reef judge in Panama!

In celebration of Reef’s 25 years, we are giving you a chance to win a trip to Panama to be our next guest Miss Reef judge. Just go to surfline.com, vote for your favorite Miss Reef from the past 25 years, register to win and you could be heading down to Panama to help us pick the perfect butt.

Check out reef.com/25th to download the 25 all-time best Miss Reefs and browse the Reef timeline to get a little bit of Reef history from the past 25 years.

check out the full story and see more pics at surfline