Surf photo by Morgan Maassen

For most people surfing is not the first thing that comes to mind when you mention New York. In fact many people might be surprised to hear that New York is home to a thriving and dedicated surf culture.  In the past ten years surf media has shed an increasing amount of light on the unique group of surfers who hail from New York. So, when Quicksilver announced that they wanted to hold an ASP pro surfing event on Long Island it wasn’t a complete shocker. Although looking quite different from the tropical waters of Tahiti, these waves still proved to be a great arena for world-class surfing.

The two wild-cards who earned their way into the event were Balaram Stack, a super talented New York surfer who has proved himself many times in competition, and Asher Nolan another well tested East Coast surfer. Jordy Smith was not in this competition due to an injury he suffered while surfing the Teahupo’o competition.

Jumping to the semis, competition was tense Taj Burrow of Australia faced off with Kelly Slater of Florida. Slater and  In his heat Kelly Landed a crazy front-side 360 degree aerial prompting the judges to reward him with a perfect 10. Backed by a 9.07 Slater advanced to the finals to surf against Owen Wright of Australia. Wright advanced from a lower scoring but equally tense heat against Brazilian Alejo Muniz.

In the semi-finals of the last contest Owen Wright received a perfect ten for catching a monster of a barrel. His performance in the Tahiti contest brought him very close to taking out Slater in the final who won by a narrow margin. New York became Wright’s second chance to take down the world champ, and he did just that. Wright said after finals,

“The conditions were perfect for me. I knew I’d do everything I could to get to the final with Kelly and I knew he’d be there anyway. Once I got the final I went, no, this is payback for last week! But I’ve watched Kelly my whole life. He’s been a huge inspiration to me.”

It’s safe to say that Wright is not doing too bad for a 21 year old tour rookie! Furthermore, Wright will walk from the “million dollar contest,” with a check for $300,000 and a no. 2 ranking on the tour.

To read more on the contest check out Quicksilver’s website.

If you’ve ever asked, “how does the new tour work?” Check out this great Nice Rack post from the archives.

What do you think of the event’s location?

Do you know how much NY City paid to bring the contest to their shores?

Was the Slater vs. Wright final a suspiciously story-book ending?

What do you think of Bobby Martinez’s removal from the contest?

Hit us up on the Nice Rack Facebook page and let us know what you think.

Shakas

-Jason