The crowd on the Pier and on Main Street at the 2013 US Open of Surfing before the riots.
As a guy who wasn’t born into a surfing family or any sort of surf community, I can’t tell you how much I’ve grown to love my extended surfing family. Even the people who don’t remember meeting me–from legendary shapers to pro surfers to veteran locals who take time to chat in the line-up at a beach I visit, they have all left a lasting impression. That impression is overwhelmingly positive. That’s why I’m here. I love the surf community to the core. Be it young hipsters, old school legends, short board bros or weekend warriors. It takes all kinds, and that’s what is beautiful about the whole thing. The fact that the perpetual glide unites us all in the water is, to me, amazing.
Seriously, what happened Sunday night on Main Street of Huntington Beach after the US Open is so disappointing. The US Open is a landmark event for our country in the surf world and serves as a canvas for the world’s surfers to paint a masterpiece of progressive wave riding in front of one of the largest crowds the sport has to offer. For years it has been an important event for top-flight surfers to do well and it isn’t even a WCT event.
Lately, however, it has turned into a weeklong excuse for (mostly) Southern California’s youth to wear next to nothing while consuming copious amounts of alcohol and making poor decisions. While countless surf fans attend the event, their presence has, of late, been overshadowed by the aforementioned reckless youth. In my personal experience, last year the event (where about 750,000 people attended) seemed to be blurring the lines between surf contest and giant festival. Advertisements take up nearly any empty wall space, parties are sponsored each night at bars and scantily clad teenagers are pasted with temporary tattoos advertising this year’s newest companies. However, Big Tony Alvez and his Hospitality Ambassadors managed to keep peace the entire week. This year, they handled their fair share of incidents with grace and respect and it wasn’t until six hours after champions were crowned that trouble started to brew on Main Street.
According to various reports, someone on the second story of a restaurant threw a ketchup bottle into the lingering crowd near Jack’s surf shop, starting a fight amongst members of the crowd, which drifted towards the pier. Police on the scene quickly worked to break up the fight which only drifted back towards Main Street. From there reports differ, citing different fights (videos of which can be found all over YouTube) and such. A mob mentality took over as people one-up each other damaging public property. Nearly every port-a-potty in a large row was knocked over by karate-kicking backwards-hat-wearing out-of-towners in tank tops, several stop signs were torn down and one was even thrown through a local business’ window. Then someone steals a bike, and someone else tries to steal another, but a brave employee grabs it back as locals quickly step in to say looting local shops is strictly off limits. The riots split three ways at an intersection as innocent bystanders try to run or film on their cell phones the remaining rioters trying (and failing) to flip a city vehicle.
Police respond quickly with riot gear eventually calling for back up from surrounding cities’ police departments. To their credit, police (by almost all reports) dealt with the crowd effectively with a mix of tear gas, rubber bullets and had the streets clear by 8:00 that evening.
Eight people have been arrested so far, and it’s been reported that 13 people (5 of which are police officers) were injured in the incident.
The sad part about this is that a truly wonderful event for surfers and surf fans is will be remembered not for the amazing surfing in the water but for the foolish acts of a thoughtless mob. IMG and Vans, among other sponsors, worked hard to put on an event that would unite our community for a week on the beach and showcase the best in action sports. That’s what this event is about and before the riot that’s what happened.
Both the men’s and women’s finals were epic shows in the state of progressive surfing and Conner Coffin defended his men’s junior title like the champion we all know him to be. He’s now a repeat champion. Chris Cote said that Greyson Fletcher’s performance in the Marseille Bowl replica was on par with the legendary John Cardiel. Fletcher must be blushing. God knows I would be. These are the things that need to be remembered. Top performances by top athletes on a world stage for the masses to see, bars being set, barriers broken, and the crowd goes wild. That’s what the US Open should be about.
But if we should know anything about news these days it’s that riots make better headlines than contest results. No matter how pathetic the riot and how impressive the results.
It’s a general consensus that the majority of the rioters come from out of town and, according to arrest reports, that is the truth. Not a soul from HB arrested in accordance with the riot. “I have a big feeling that most of those people aren’t from Huntington. That’s what bothers me the most,” says Brett Simpson. And Simpson has a right to be bothered as he himself is a two-time US Open champ and a native of Huntington Beach.
As surfers, we value localism. Not the violent threats in the water or the “keep off my waves kook” mentality you’re used to, but a more “leave it better than you found it” ideals that our fathers preached. I’d like to hear Joel Tudor’s opinion on this. He’ll tell you how it is. This isn’t your town, Huntington Beach was kind enough to let you visit, but when the event is over clean up after yourself and go home!
It’s a concept the industry has finally begun to grasp after years of exploiting Hawaii. Now it openly preaches this amongst its young. Unfortunately, it hasn’t seemed to rub off on those outside our community.
On front pages across surf media websites you will see the riots taking up top story spots. Where we should see photos of young surfers achieving life goals, runners-up throwing tail, and winners hoisting trophies, we instead see hooligans up-ending port-a-potties. It almost saddens me to write about it myself.
The legacy of the US Open should be positive. It should be known as a gathering place for the sport’s elite to compete in an arena on the sand, and for fans to celebrate their community. We should revel in the beauty of the specter not cower as young punks take to the street. I would love nothing more than to see surfing take back what was once its own. But with sponsorship as tough as it is, Nike pulling out after 2012 and Vans stepping up, I wouldn’t be surprised to see massive changes next year.
You can’t reward the kid who drew on the wall with a cone of ice cream. You can’t give these fools a chance to take advantage of beautiful Huntington Beach again next year. So I would not be surprised to see downsizing of events, changes or loss of sponsorship. No company wants this as their legacy and why should we expect that of them? It’s not fair to them, it’s not fair to locals, or anyone else involved for anyone to expect that.
I sincerely hope this is the last we see of this teenage angst taken to the streets. Maybe this incident will give the event a return to its core with more fans of sport than fans of nudity.
