TAG | quiksilver
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Quiksilver King of the Groms comes to Newquay
No comments · Posted by Lauren in Competition, Surfing
At the end of this month, over the August Bank Holiday weekend, some of the world’s next big stars in surfing will descend on Fistral Beach, Newquay for the European King of the Groms final and the 4* ASP Quiksilver Pro Junior event – the last in the series of four European stops.
The King of the Grom’s European final kicks off on Thursday 25th August and is a hunt for the best surfers aged sixteen and under, who will then compete in the international final during the Quiksilver Pro France in October.
The second stage of this Quiksilver, surf-filled weekend is the The Quiksilver Pro Junior which is a 4* ASP stage with a $20,000 prize purse. Over ninety-six of the world’s best junior surfers will compete on Fistral beach to become the new Junior European Champion. Check out more details on the King of the Groms Facebook page.
There will be a great family atmosphere over the weekend where visitors will be treated to live music and child-friendly events. The guys from Surfers Against Sewage will be around promoting their latest campaigns too so get involved!
On a more senior note, next month Quiksilver will be hosting the Quiksilver Pro New York, the first ever world championship surf event to be held in the city that never sleeps. It is the world’s first $1,000,000 surf event too, not a bad days work if they take the top stop for the likes of Billabong’s Taj Burrow, Joel Parkinson, Kelly Slater and friends! It promises to be a great event for competitors and spectators a like, the festival area on Long Beach will feature other action sports events including Skate, BMX and MotoX.
Kelly Slater, retirement? The word has been spoken by the man himself but there has been no specific time or date mentioned yet, maybe the opening stage on this year’s ASP Tour might be his last competition, maybe it won’t. Maybe he says, he will do a farewell Aloha Tour. That would be better, we certainly want to see the legend that is Kelly Slater, 39, out there smashing the surf for as long as possible. Always keeping his private life private, he has got given anymore info away saying only that his 2011 agenda is undecided…
The Quiksilver Pro event on the Australian Gold Coast in just a couple of days away, starting on 26th February is the first of eleven stages and Slater is headlining it, after all he is the reigning ten time ASP World Tour champ! He will face Kai Otten (AUS), 31 and an event wildcard in the opening rounds.
Maybe he is worried about the competition from the thirty-four other surfers on the tour this year, the best surfer’s in the world. Throughout the winter he has been putting in the training between his homes of Hawaii and California. He says of the off-season, “I’ve been hanging in Hawaii and getting boards sorted out in California and having down time. Surfing myself out most of January was fun.”
Parko winning the Gold Coast stage in 2009
Billabong surfer Joel Parkinson (AUS) 29, is back up to full fitness after the horrific injury he sustained during last year’s tour (slicing through his foot real bad with the fin of his board) almost ending his career let alone just the season. He still managed to finish off the season with a Vans Triple Crown win though. Of course Parko is well up for it this year, he says “I guess the benefit now is that I’m hungry – not only to compete, but just to surf. That’s one of the key things with surfing on the tour, you’ve got to not only stay hungry to surf throughout a whole event, you’ve got to stay hungry over the course of a whole year. The way I’m feeling at the moment, I’m going to paddle out for my last heat of the year at Pipe even hungrier than I was when I paddled out for my first heat at Snapper. That’s how I’m feeling, that’s how hungry I am to surf right now. And the thing now is that I’ve got three kids, so it’s not like I can go surfing five times a day. I’ve got to pick and choose my windows to surf in and I have to make the most of them.” Wow, passionate!
Parkinson should breeze through Round 1 being drawn against South American duo of Adriano de Souza (BRA), 24, and Alejo Muniz (BRA), 21. It would be nice to see him win an inaugural crown after so many near misses. Anything could happen this year, whether Kelly Slater is around or not…
Tony hawk along with his good friends Sandro Diaz, Kevin Stabb, Jean Postec, and Jesse Fritsch are on tour dropping off at Brighton for a skate demo on July 21st. They will be taking over the old paddling pool on the west pier with the evening bringing two demos an hour long each the first being a show from, U.K vert skaters and the second being tony and fellow team mates on birdhouse as well as some of his mates. The evening will finish with an hour long set from Maximo Park Newcastle’s finest. Tickets for this outstanding event can be found at www.ticketmaster.co.uk and are a reasonable £15 per person.
1 – On July 8th Berlin / Germany
2 – On July 15 th Rome / Italy
3 – On July 18 th Barcelona / Spain
4 – On July 21 th Brighton / England
