A 14-year-old boy named Wonder clambers out of the ocean and onto Durban’s South Beach, exhausted after hours of surfing, and collapses on the sand.

At the end of the day, he’ll return his surfboard to a nearby community centre and then curl up on a downtown sidewalk to sleep.

Wonder is among a dozen young black boys taking to the waves every day through a community group called Umthombo, which is coaching street kids in surfing and other sports to keep them off the street while providing counselling to find more lasting solutions to their problems.

“When I’m surfing, I don’t sniff glue. I want to leave it behind,” said Wonder.

His parents have both died, and he ran away from his uncle’s home, where Wonder says he was beaten and often denied meals.

He says he’d rather live on the streets than return to his uncle. In his tattered wetsuit, he’s found a new identity. After a year of practise, he won second place in a local competition, scooping a trophy, a T-shirt and “a big bag of chips”.

Emma Sibilo, one of the social workers at Umthombo, said Wonder’s story is typical of the estimated 400 street kids in Durban. Most have turned to the streets after their parents died, or to escape abuse at home.

But life on the streets exposes them to drugs and often forces them into gangs that wage violent turf wars in the city, she said.

“Surfing takes them away from drugs. They go there, they become active, they get fit, meaning they engage in less anti-social behaviour,” Sibilo said.

One of the smallest surfers is nine-year-old Khetho, who has spent most of his life on the streets. He sleeps with his three brothers on the sidewalk, has bounced in and out of temporary homes, but was mainly spending his time begging for money and sniffing glue.

Since he started surfing two years ago, he eats two meals a day at Umthombo and spends most of his days in the water.

News broke recently that Nike has signed back on with IMG Action Sports for a “multi-year” sponsorship agreement for the U.S. Open of Surfing. After last year’s dramatic investment in the event from Hurley, Nike 6.0, and CONS the announcement brought up a slew of questions. How many years is the “multi-year” deal? What kind of plans do the brands have to out do themselves this year? Was there a measurable return on the company’s investment last year? If so, what was it?

TransWorld Business asked Hurley’s Founder, Bob Hurley all these questions and a few more. We got answers to most of them … well, sort of. Looks like there are some details Nike would prefer to save for later. So stay tuned for much more as the event dates—July 31–August 8—draw closer.

If you were to grade the marketing push, brand enhancement activation, and overall success of last year’s US Open for Hurley (and Nike 6.0 and Cons for that matter) what would give yourselves and why?

I would prefer to let the athletes who participated and the crowd who came out to support them give us a grade. Our whole focus was on elevating the experience. We were definitely happy with the outcome and it was a huge credit to all involved, especially the community.

Based on last year’s turnout, what was the number one lesson learned and how do you plan on adapting this year to implement improvements?

I’d say the lesson we learned is that when the three brands come together, we can accomplish some amazing things. As for what we will improve for this year, you’ll have to wait for more details.

How many years is the “multi-year” deal with IMG? Why not disclose this in the release?

We generally don’t reveal the specifics of any of our contracts.

There are a lot of moving parts to the US Open property and a number of ancillary events in HB during that time frame. How do you approach utilizing all of these (the sporting events, Agenda trade show, movie premieres, parties, etc.) to create the strongest branding opportunity possible?

For all the reasons you mentioned above, we believe the US Open of Surfing has the potential to be an All-Star weekend for action sports, where the sports’ best athletes compete, the fans are entertained, and the industry comes together to celebrate. As far as the branding opportunity, you have to focus and try to make every experience special. You can’t assume that people will be coming along for the week-long journey of everything you do. But for those that do, you will see a common thread in our story telling and experience.

How does the event activation breakdown from a management standpoint between Nike and Hurley?

All three brands (Hurley, 6.0, and Converse) have dedicated teams for their specific event, as well as an overall team (comprised of members from all three brands and IMG) that steers the whole event. Though it’s “lots of moving parts,” as you said earlier, it’s energizing when you bring the thinking of three creative brands together.

Obviously this event is a major investment. How do you measure ROI on something of this magnitude?

The US Open is part of our overall commitment to the action sports community. We measure that success over the long term. In the short term, we judge ourselves on whether or not this event will be better than the last year. We’re confident it will be.

Did Hurley, Nike 6.0, and CONS conduct any sort of research tied to the event as far as regional sales spikes, Web traffic, etc that you can share that offer any significant, quantifiable data or interesting stats?

We have numbers that supported many of the elements of the event last year. We were encouraged, but we expect to deliver on a whole new level this year.

Over 1,000 surfers showed up this weekend for the Boards & Waves Expo to see the latest innovations in surfboards and fins, watch shaping demos and attend educational seminars.  A first for Brevard County, the Expo was designed to educate surfers about surfboard shapes, design and performance.
Ten local surfboard shapers including Ricky Carroll, Chris Birch, Tom Neilson, Larry Mayo, & more were “talking story” both days about their boards while three exhibitors featured Hawaiian wood ala’ias.  New products from Surf King, RepelShark, Surf Perch, Doc Martin’s Sunblock, Skatezz, and Phix Doctor were featured at the Expo along with ten surf and beach-inspired artists in the special “Artist Alley” section of the show.

StandUpPaddle boards, homemade surfboard contest, recycled surfboard art program, live music by Gabe Gomez and Bootleg, and surfboard painting by Drew Brophy and Mark Longenecker added new twists to this year’s Expo.  An extra bonus was the screening of Bruce Walker’s The Payoff on a giant video screen at the Saturday night party sponsored by Primo Beer.

“The reaction from the attendees, exhibitors, and the community has been very positive from the very beginning.  I already have ideas for a bigger and better Expo next year, as well as many requests to bring it to the beach,” said Dave Seehafer, organizer of the Expo and surf industry consultant.  Dave attributes much of the support to the locale, since the Space Coast is the East Coast surfing capitol as well as the home of 9-time world champion Kelly Slater.

A portion of the proceeds benefited the Surfrider Foundation and the Cocoa Beach High Surf Team.  Sponsors included International Palms Resort, Melbourne International Airport, Surfers Village, R&D Inc/Ricky Carroll Surfboards, Primo Beer, DNA Energy Drink, and Verizon Wireless.

For more information and a list of exhibitors and sponsors that participated in the 2010 Boards & Waves Expo, go to the Expo website, boardsandwaves.com, or contact Dave Seehafer at 949-466-4110, email info@boardsandwaves.com.

www.boardsandwaves.com