44.0°,
Mostly Cloudy No wipeout for Quiksilver Pro New York
Irene forces festival cancellation, but surf contest will go on
“As a surfer, I’m excited — I’m happy it’s going on,” said Mike Nelson, co-owner of Unsound, outside City Hall, where many local surfers, residents and business owners gathered on Tuesday after learning that the Quiksilver Pro New York competition would not be canceled after all. “I’m a little disappointed as well, Tony Hawk won’t be coming. But overall, I’m happy the surfing is still going on.”
After months of fanfare, planning and anticipation, the Quik Pro N.Y. — the sixth of 11 events on the Association of Surfing Professionals’ World Tour, the first ASP contest ever held on the East Coast and the most lucrative surfing tournament in history — was on the brink of wiping out this week, after city officials said that it would be impossible to pull off in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene.
With many residents still without power and assessing the damage caused by the storm, City Manager Charles Theofan said on Monday that the event might have to be canceled, though he added that he still held out hope that the competition, if not the attendant festival, encompassing music, fashion, art, skateboarding and motocross exhibitions, could be salvaged.
“Having thousands of people pouring into this city starting Friday, with music and assorted frivolity, is not possible or appropriate given the current conditions,” Theofan said in a letter to the Herald. “Yet with all of that, we are proceeding with the surfing competition that was and is the heart and soul of the entire event.”
Talk of cancellation drew the ire of many in the local surf community, and a number of residents called on city officials to move forward with the contest, if not the festival. The Unsound surf shop, which is sponsoring the Quiksilver Pro New York Trials, had planned a peaceful rally on Tuesday in opposition to such a decision.
Just before 9:30 a.m., Unsound co-owner Dave Juan and Michael Flynn, an attorney for the shop, were approached by city officials and asked to take part in talks behind closed doors. The protest was called off after city officials and Quiksilver released a statement saying that while the festival would be canceled, the competition would go on.
