Surfing is a challenging sport
that's made to look easy by the skills of those who ride so
gracefully on the wavers. The average person with no
training of skill has a tough time appreciating what it
takes to catch a great wave and ride it, putting on the best
show to win prize cash.
The US Open of Surfing in
Huntington Beach draws top surfers on the World Qualifying
Series trail (such as the surfer shown in photo above) to
win specific events where cash prizes are offered, and
accumulate the points they win in combined travel to various
surfing events in the series.
Huntington Beach's particular
challenges include the waves. Sometimes there aren't any.
Surfers have often joked that either they need to change the
time on this event (held July - August), change the location
to the north side of the pier (it is held on the south
side), or lower the rank of the event from a 6 star to 4
star so that expectations aren't so high in anticipating and
riding good waves.
Huntington Beach wave action for
this event has a spotty record. While the reality is that
the average wave size over years of event probably ranges in
the 3 foot size, there have been better seasons, and worse.
