Hurley US Open of Surfing

U.S. Open Nike 6.0 Pro Junior

ASP 6-Star WQS Mens event
ASP 6-Star WQS Womens event
ASP Grade 2 Mens Pro Junior event
ASP Grade 4 Womens Pro Junior event
Huntington Beach California
18 – 26 July 2009

Huntington Beach — The Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Qualifying Series (WQS) 6-Star Hurley U.S. Open of Surfing ran the first 18 heats of the Round of 144 and saw Santa Cruz standout Nat Young, 18, crush the event’s highest scores en route to his Round of 96 berth. Reigning ASP World Junior Champion Kai Barger (Haiku, HI), 19, also displayed an impressive performance on the way to his heat win.

All surfers competing at this year’s Hurley U.S. Open are not only looking to take advantage of the crucial ratings points on offer towards qualification for a spot on the 2010 ASP World Tour, but are also out to claim the historic winner-take-all US$100,000 prize purse which Hurley has put up for this year’s main event winner.

Young utilized his deadly backhand attack on a Huntington righthander to blast the event’s top single wave score of 9.47 out of 10 with three massive beyond-vertical turns. The Santa Cruz standout attached the near-perfect score with an additional impressive forehand ride to earn the highest heat total of the day as well, a 16.23 out of 20.

“The waves are really fun and I kind of sat off by myself a little bit,” Young said. “There are waves coming in everywhere and it’s just who gets the waves. Luckily they came to me. On that nine, it was a nice peaky one that wasn’t too closed out. I did three turns and I think it was one of the bigger waves, so that’s probably why it was a good score.”

The lightning-fast goofy-footer is often a standout in both the ASP Pro Junior and ASP WQS events and he’s hoping that he can use the momentum built in Saturday’s ASP Pro Junior competition to help him succeed in both the Hurley U.S. Open and U.S. Open Nike 6.0 Pro Junior.

“I like surfing a lot of heats in contests,” Young said. “I don’t really get too tired and I feel like the more heats I surf, the more momentum I can build throughout the events. Hopefully I can do well in both this ‘QS and the Junior.”

Young will face a brutally tough heat in the Round of 96 when he faces off against former ASP World Champion Sunny Garcia (Oahu, HI), 39, current ASP World No. 5 Damien Hobgood (Satellite Beach, FL), 29, and former ASP World Junior runner-up Tonino Benson (Kona, HI), 17.

Hurley U.S. Open Round of 144 Results: (1st and 2nd advance)
Heat 1: Paulo Moura (BRA) 9.60, Dylan Melamed (HAW) 9.17, Matt Pagan (USA) 9.00, Darrell Goodrum (USA) 5.73
Heat 2: Bobby Hansen (NZL) 13.40, Sebastien Zietz (HAW) 10.50, Micah Byrne (USA) 10.10, Ricky Whitlock (USA) 7.74
Heat 3: Dane Gudauskas (USA) 15.10, Jesse Merle-Jones (HAW) 13.17, Nathan Carroll (HAW) 11.97, Sean Marceron (USA)
Heat 4: Kieran Horn (USA) 15.90, Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 14.83, Evan Valiere (HAW) 8.00, Devon Tresher (USA) 6.97
Heat 5: Nat Young (USA) 16.23, Marco Polo (BRA) 11.57, Shaun Burrell (USA) 10.17, Conner Coffin (USA) 9.46
Heat 6: Blake Howard (USA) 13.34, Tonino Benson (HAW) 12.13, Shaun Ward (USA) 11.90, Justin McBride (USA) 9.13
Heat 7: T.J. Barron (HAW) 12.70, Alain Riou (PYF) 12.40, Dillon Perillo (USA) 12.33, Chad Compton (USA) 5.60
Heat 8: Cory Lopez (USA) 11.54, Casey Brown (HAW) 10.00, Richie Collins (USA) 7.70, Paul Fisher (AUS) 1.67
Heat 9: Evan Geiselman (USA) 11.30, Charles Martin (GLP) 11.27, James Taipan Wood (AUS) 10.30, Nick White (NZL) 5.00
Heat 10: Corey Ziems (AUS) 13.67, Rudy Palmboom (ZAF) 10.53, Dylan Graves (PRI) 10.50, Tommy O’Brien (USA) 10.34
Heat 11: Eric Geiselman (USA) 14.66, Asher Nolan (USA) 11.84, Damien Fahrenfort (ZAF) 10.56, Kyle Knox (USA) 10.34
Heat 12: Kiron Jabour (HAW) 13.83, Luke Munro (AUS) 8.93, Kellen Ellison (USA) 8.37, Matt Mohagen (USA) 6.60
Heat 13: Travis Logie (ZAF) 14.33, Jason Harris (USA) 9.17, Ola Eleogram (HAW) 9.10, Jesse Heilman (USA) 9.00
Heat 14: Granger Larsen (HAW) 11.67, Noi Kaulukukui (USA) 11.46, Hugo Savalli (REU) 10.03, Travis Mellem (USA) 9.23
Heat 15: Anthony Petruso (USA) 12.90, Hodei Collazo (EUK) 9.74, Dean Randazzo (USA) 7.64, Alex Smith (HAW) 7.63
Heat 16: Kai Barger (HAW) 13.30, Nathan Hedge (AUS) 11.70, Makuakai Rothman (HAW) 9.17, Jason Shibata (HAW) 9.10
Heat 17: Gony Zubizarreta (ESP) 13.26, Russell Winter (GBR) 9.93, Sterling Spencer (USA) 6.60, Ian Walsh (HAW) 4.05
Heat 18: Luke Campbell (AUS) 13.26, Shea Lopez (USA) 11.34, Mason Ho (HAW) 8.40, Shey Yates (USA) 6.43

more information at http://www.usopenofsurfing.com

read more at surfersvillage

WAITPINGA BEACH, South Australia (Sunday, July 19, 2009) – Noah Lane (Rainbow Beach/Queensland) and Laura Enever (North Sydney Beaches/NSW) have won the ASP Pro Junior Men’s and Women’s divisions of the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Australasia Fantastic Noodles Pro Junior.

In very good three-to-four feet (1 meter) surf, both surfers produced outstanding 9-point-plus rides to secure today’s wins.

Laura Enever’s victory was one of the best of her career, and has further extended her lead on the 2009 ASP Australasian Pro Junior Series Women’s ratings.

Enever, 17, was staring at a big defeat at the halfway stage in the Final which saw Tyler Wright open with a strong 7.75 and shortly after take a commanding lead with an excellent 8.75.

Enever, with just two moderate scoring rides was requiring a combination of scores to take the lead, and with just 10 minutes remaining in the 30 minute Final, she found an excellent wave, unleashed four major bottom-to-powerful-top turn snaps and found herself right back in the Final when she was awarded the heat’s top scoring ride of a 9.25.

Her task was still difficult, requiring a 7.25 to win with Wright also holding priority, and by the time Enever had returned to the outside peak, the Final had less than 5 minutes to go.

Surprisingly Wright allowed Enever to take a mid-sized wave under priority (Wright had the right to take the wave), and Enever wasted no time extracting every potential point out of the ride which she rode through to the beach and was awarded a 7.35 to take the Final on 16.60 out of a possible 20 to Wright on 16.50.

“I never gave up at all in the final even tho I knew Tyler had a big lead,” Enever said. “I scored a 9.8 in the opening round so I actually thought I need to do that again and I was chasing a 9.5 ride to try and win it on one wave when I caught that second last ride.”

read more at ASP

Huntington Beach set for the Hurley US Open Of Surfing basically looks … flat.

surfline is reporting a possible ground swell to fill in later today, but that will only push the surf into the 1-3 ft range.. There are some surfers out, but looks like slim pickings…