Huntington Beach — Jeff ‘Mr. Sunset’ Hakman, a former Pipeline Masters and Duke Kahanamoku Classic champion, and co-founder of Quiksilver USA, is entering the Surfers’ Hall of Fame.

Hakman joins Bruce Brown, Joey Buran and Pat O’Connell as the 2009 inductees into the prestigious Hall of Fame, at 10 a.m. Friday, July 24 in front of Huntington Surf & Sport (corner of PCH and Main).  More information is available at http://hsssurf.com/

“Jeff Hakman is truly one of the greatest surfer’s ever and has been one of the major influences of “Big Wave surfing,” said Surfers’ Hall of Fame founder Aaron Pai,  “He’s about to get a little concrete on him…and we can’t wait to thank him for all he has done for our Sport of Surfing!!!”

Born in Southern California’s south bay in 1948, Hakman began surfing when his father bought him his first Velzy-Jacobs board at the age of eight.  The two would frequently take day trips to surf up and down the west coast.  Shortly after his family relocated to Oahu at the age of 12, Hakman would waste little time establishing his North Shore credentials.  He began receiving free boards from master shaper Dick Brewer, and also landed a cameo in John Severson’s surf movie Angry Sea.

At the age of 17 and pitted against 23 world class surfers, he won the inaugural Duke Kahanamoku Classic at Sunset Beach in 1965 before a CBS film crew.  His win would result in an invitation to join Duke’s surf team and promotional tour.   From age 21 to 27 Jeff won more major surfing titles than anyone in the world including the first Pipeline Masters, two more Duke contests, three Hang Ten Internationals and the Gunston Pro.  His mastery of and fearless approach to Sunset Beach led to his lifelong moniker, “Mr. Sunset”.

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SAQUAREMA, Rio de Janeiro  – Itauna Beach cranked open the surf tap with clean four-to-six foot (1 – 2 metre) waves on offer for the third straight day of competition at ASP WQS 6-Star Coca-Cola Saquarema Pro pres. by Rip Curl that saw the event favourites and top ASP WQS campaigners No. 1 Brazilian Jadson Andre and No. 3 Australian Adam Melling advancing with good perfomances.

One of the highlights of the day was Brazilian Pedro Henrique, who got a beatiful barrel in the first heat of the day. Henrique took down top ASP WQS campaigner No. 8 Patrick Gudauskas posting an almost perfect 9.83 score (out of 10.00), with three judges giving him the perfect score (10 points) on his first wave of the heat.

“Ahh great heat without no doubt,”Henrique said. “WQS Tour is always difficult, all heats are strong, if you not get good waves you lose. I just want to thank God for that wave (9.83 points), I saw Trekinho (Marcelo) took an 8.30 on a wave that I almost went, so I knew I had to start well with a high score, and then that perfect wave came to me and it was just a magical wave. That thing bowled up on the inside and I managed to stick with it and come out. I was super stoked because the view was insane – whether I came out or not I was happy.”

Who came close to the new record of Coca-Cola Saquarema Pro pres. by Rip Curl was the American Brett Simpson, who earned a 9.17 from judges with three strong maneuvers, with pressure and speed.

“The waves are really fun, fortunately the waves came on my way,’Simpson said. “On my 9.17 score (out a possible of 10), I was on the spot and the other guy was too deep so I paddled into the wave, did two big turns and a huge floater in the end, that was a great waveThis is my first time here, for sure is the best waves that I always surfed here in Brazil, Fernando de Noronha Island is better but a different type of wave, and here is a great place for a contest and if the waves continues like this will be perfect for us.”

Brazilian Neco Padaratz who finished in second place in the ASP WQS 6-Star event last week in Florianopolis ended in second place in the last heat of the day, moving straight to Round of 24 of Coca-Cola Saquarema Pro pres. by Rip Curl.

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Billabong ISA World Surfing Games

International Surfing Assn.
Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica
1 – 8 August 2009

The Jamaica Surfing Association has announced the surfers selected to represent Jamaica at the 2009 Billabong ISA World Surfing Games to be held in Playa Hermosa Costa Rica. The team will consist of

Open men
Icah Wilmot
Inilek Wilmot
Shane Simmonds
Luke Williams

Open Women
Imani Wilmot
Elim Beckford

Jamaica will be short 2 Open Long-boarders severely limiting Jamaica’s potential point haul but the men are surfing well as are the ladies and will be trying to improve Jamaica’s 27th place World Rank. The team, was selected based on their ranking from the National Open Series as well as on performances in the recently concluded 2009 Suzuki Makka Pro, and will be under the management of JSA President Billy Wilmot.

“This year the World Games will be extremely competitive with each country now being able to select professional athletes for their teams whereas originally the World Games was an amateur event.” Said Mr. Wilmot “This fact has elevated the standard of surfing at the event and has increased tremendously the amount of media attention the Games now attract. Jamaica is always a “media darling” at the games and with our surfers performing really well we are going there to make a statement… Jamaica is here!”

The trip to the event has been made possible through the collaborated sponsorship effort of Insight, Ipath, the Sports Development Foundation, COPA Airlines, Magma, Xtrak, Mailpak, Quashi

original story from surfersvillage