The Vans U.S. Open of Surfing is an annual nine-day event that brought together the world’s elite in surfing, skateboarding and BMX in Huntington Beach, CA, aka “Surf City. It was stop No. 6 of 10 on the 2016 Samsung Galaxy World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour. Over half a million people attended the event over the course of nine fun-filled days each. The competition held some of the largest prize purses in the industry, and is where the world’s best surfers competed to earn essential points towards the year’s title of “world’s best surfer”.
Many US Open of Surfing champions have competed here: Kelly Slater, Rob Machado, Andy Irons, Brett Simpson, Julian Wilson, Alejo Muniz, Sunny Garcia, Stephanie Gilmore, Carissa Moore, and Courtney Conlogue.
The nine-day event also included skateboarding and BMX competitions, live music, movie premieres, fashion shows, and product demos and samples from industry brands.
See photos from day eight: both the Jr. Men and Junior Girl Surf competition and the Men’s Skate competition.
Men’s Skate, Final:
1st Chris Russell, USA
2nd Ben Hatchell, USA
3rd Oskar Rozenberg Hallberg, Sweden
US Open Jr. Mens, Final:
1st Nolan Rapoza, USA
2nd Yuji Mori, JPN
3rd Luis Diaz, CNY
US Open Jr. Girl, Final:
1st Caroline Marks, USA
2nd Alyssa Spencer, USA
3rd Brisa Hennessy, HAW
Written by: Evan Fabricant
Photos by: Dana Gardner
“Bulgaria SEGA” newspaper
