Pro surfers hit the ‘right’ coast

Surfers from all over the East Coast took to the waves at National Boulevard beach last week to compete for a $20,000 prize purse in Unsound’s Right Coast Cup contest, an event presented by Quiksilver.

Last year, Unsound surf shop was a major partner in the Quiksilver Pro New York Competition in Long Beach. It was the largest surfing event ever held on the East Coast, where more than 100,000 spectators lined the beach to watch local pros such as Point Lookout resident Balaram Stack compete against the world’s top surfers — including 11-time ASP world champion Kelly Slater and Australian Owen Wright — for a $1 million purse.  

Unsound, which hosts its own pro surfing contests in Long Beach every year — in 2010, Unsound held the Nike 6.0 Unsound Junior Pro Surfing Tournament — teamed with Quiksilver this year for an event that Unsound co-owner Dave Juan said was in the planning stages for some time.

“Quiksilver did their big production last year, which was great so we built off that and approached them to get behind our event,” said Mike Nelson, co-owner of Unsound. “It worked out great … it went smooth and everybody in the city has been really supportive.” 

The two-day Unsound event had a five-day window from Sept. 5 to 9 and came at the peak of hurricane season, with Hurricane Leslie generating good waves.

Beginning on Sept. 5, 41 junior surf pros, such as Stack, Leif Engstrom, T.J. Gumiela, Alex Fawess and Tripoli Patterson competed in a “skins” format, where winners of each heat from each round win prize money. Stack — who celebrated his 21st birthday on Sept. 5 — made it to the semifinals this year and placed third overall, taking home a prize of $1,800

“The waves were good,” said Sag Harbor resident Tripoli Patterson, who was knocked out early in the competition. “I hope [surfing is on the rise in New York]. It’s a good sport and it’s good to see it growing.”

Nelson said surfing is growing in New York by “leaps and bounds.”

“Everyone is getting really into it,” he said. “To have the pros come into town — some kids don’t like volleyball or football and [surfing] is their thing … to show them that they can do this as a profession maybe, is nice.” 

Last Friday, the final day of the competition, was a battle between two Floridians: Gabe Kling and Blake Jones. In the end, Jones won the cup and took home $4,500, as he was showered with Red Bull from his fellow surfers while he accepted his trophy. A prize was also given out for the biggest “air” in the competition: Engstrom took home $500 after he scored an 8.0. 

“After last year being the biggest event in the world and having the best surfers in the world and having the surf that we did is probably the best surf that we’ve seen on the East Coast,” said Darren Brilhart, of Newport Beach, Calif., an event organizer. “[Surfing] is definitely growing here on the East Coast, and we’re hoping that it comes back again next year as a world tour event.”