Looking through the heat draw... Joel Tudor will be appearing in the Round of 64 riding a shortboard!
It's about money. The only tour that is about waves first (except the Brazil event which is terrible) is the WCT. They depend on the local promoters to put up a big portion of the prize money for the WQS. Sometimes a sponsor will donate big and get a contest up into the six-star or prime level. Virginia Beach has consistently raised money for an event here for decades. NY, NJ, NC, and FL could have a WQS event too if they'd get the resources together, but you rarely see it. A city like VB needs to hold the event in the summer to cash in on the event as a whole (concerts, vendors, other sports, etc.) It's not like these contestants don't know how the waves are here going in. Summer anywhere on the east coast is risky at best.
Good on 'em though. Last year this was a 3-star, so they are slowly but surely growing it. However, I would almost rather it be a 4 or lower star to make sure plenty of young EC pros can still get in.
In case any of you jerseyites want to catch Dean Randazzo he'll be on in the next few minutes. 6:25ish Rafael Teixeira Kevin Sullivan Colin Moran Dean Randazzo
I'll be ripping up the jetty this weekend in the am. Then I'll chill with my board on the beach and pretend I'm a competitor! Good times with myself and 4500 of my closest friends doing the exact same thing! In all seriousness stay away from the beach this weekend unless you have an incredibly developed immune system
"You know, up there in the armpit of South Carolina..." Shea Lopez... Trying to reference the smaller swell window and large continental shelf that causes smaller conditions in SC. LOL
pretty funny how they use the camera angle to make the waves look bigger. today the cam is off. I guess they couldn't dig a hole deep enough to make it rideable. Another humorous observation, they interviewed the point leader, and the guy had difficulty keeping his mouth shut about wave quality. cam is off today.
I am in disbelief that they are holding heats in 1 ft shore break. How about a swell window? (not that it would help unless it lasted half way into september)
what's up with the camera quality. It's all pixelated. I guess just shooting from a hole in the beach isn't enough to make it look like a 4 star event. I plan on getting disappointed this pm with the outgoing.
