“The U.S Open of Surfing”
The Daily Quest is Fulcrum’s traveling surf camp program that enables kids to surf a variety of waves around Southern California. The travel camp is an excellent way to hand pick locations and experiences that will be beneficial in the development of young surfers.
Fortunately for Luke, Sean, and Grant, their week of travel camp coincided with the U.S Open of Surfing, the largest surf contest in the world. After four consecutive days of surfing Swamis, Tourmaline, Torrey Pines, Windansea, and San Elijo in Encinitas, the boys were excited to take a day off and watch some professional surfing. So we loaded my Jeep up at 8 o’clock in the morning and headed towards Huntington Beach. On the way there, we played “Attractive Distractions” off my laptop and the boys quickly found themselves admiring the surfing antics of Albee Layer. Little did they know, that they would go on to meet Albee an hour later and get his autograph on their official U.S Open memorabilia.
Due to my involvement within the surf industry, I was able to score the boys V.I.P guest passes that allowed them to view the action from the comfy confines of the W.S.L tent. Once we got our wristbands, we were able to dine on the complimentary food and drink, have access to a wide variety of professional surfers for autographs and even cut to the front of the line for the Samsung Galaxy Virtual Surfing Experience.
If you are new to following the sport of Surfing, this year the W.S.L or World Surf League is currently being sponsored by the fine folks at Samsung. The partnership has ignited a storm of creative ideas and marketing campaigns, none finer then Samsung Gear’s Virtual Surfing Experience. Using six GoPro cameras mounted to the back of current world champion, Gabriel Medina, the Samsung Galaxy goggles take you straight inside the barrel and allows users to feel what experienced surfers due when they get tubed. The kids had an absolute blast and quickly vowed that they wanted to progress at surfing enough so that they could truly feel what it’s like to surf inside of a breaking wave.
Earlier in the week, Luke, Sean and Grant asked if they could go to Marine Street in La Jolla to practice their photography with their Go Pro cameras. The big shore break conditions on offer were very similar to the studio that Clark Little uses when he films on the North Shore of Oahu. The boys told me that they were quite fond of Little’s Instagram page and that it was a dream of theirs to meet the world renowned photographer.
Fate would have it that Clark Little just so happened to be inside the V.I.P tent at the same time the Daily Quest was. We quickly sauntered our way up to Little, who was gracious enough to sign autographs and take a few selfies with the boys. They were absolutely ecstatic that they got to meet one of their heroes and I was stoked that I was able to help facilitate that encounter.
The U.S Open proved to be just what the boys needed to inspire themselves to continue to grow in the sport of surfing. Not ten minutes after we arrived back in Del Mar, the boys donned their wetsuits and hit the waves, eager to practice a few moves they saw at the Vans U.S Open of Surfing.
If you would like your son or daughter to be part of the Daily Quest, Sign up here Link