Nightglow Window

Sex and Commerce and (A Little) Surfing

Feeling the burn of two days at the U.S. Open Of Surfing in the sometimes wretched town of Huntington Beach, California -- Surf City U.S.A.

The Open is part of the Bank Of The West Beach Games, a swirl of surfing, skating, bmx, fmx, and music.

The water is a wind-blown blue, the bleachers high and crowded, and behind them a tent city of dozens of surf industry brands and random lurkers like partypoker.com.

The heat is oppressive and the sunlight a steady, unrelenting glare – like an overexposed photo where everything except deep shadow is blown out to white. Dust hangs heavy in the air as the throngs walk by.

But two things seem to dominate the day: sex and commerce.

Everyone is trying to wow the 85,000 spectators expected to visit, and flogging your product using girls in bikinis is the tactic of choice.

We’re no dummies, either, and create a wildly popular TransWorld SURF Model Search area as part of our tent city.

The girls line up ten deep and many of them are both cute and fairly, well, normal. (Oh, there are some stripper types and professional models in the mix too.) I admit that I was shocked to see how popular the whole thing was.

I stay long enough to roust Photo Assistant John King, who has the task of shooting all the girls, but soon I head up to the cool open spaces of the shaded VIP tent, where a lot of the industry types are posted up.

It’s a mad house, and it’s way worse back on Main Street where it's wall to wall autograph signings in front of Jack’s Surfboards and Huntington Surf & Sport.

The circus has indeed come to town.

The men's finals are tomorrow, but a fresh swell arrived today, which helped 23-year-old Peruvian hero and 2004 World Champ Sofia Mulanovich win this year’s Women’s US Open Of Surfing, beating young Australian Jessi Miley-Dyer 13.83 to 8.67.

Yes, there was surfing at today’s event, but that certainly wasn’t the only attraction.



Me, Josh, and Leah. Three out of the four editors of TransWorld Business.



Louise Balma, wife of TransWorld Founder Larry Balma and an all-around amazing woman.



The H.B. Madhouse



Tent City U.S.A. on Friday.



TransWorld SURF Managing Editor Casey Koteen, with all the backstage-pass bells and whistles.



Former TWBiz intern, now Dragon Optical Marketing Guru, Aaron Checkwood. Funny guy.



Lucky bastard John King was the photographer for the TransWorld SURF Model Search.



The Boost Mobile bikini girls doing the Tee-Dub model search. A little too pro if you ask me.



The TransWorld SURF Model Search



FMX hijinks



Rob Machado is an early favorite to win the contest.



TransWorld Sales Honchos Liam Ferguson and Jeff Griffing.



Lee Crane is master of the internet at TransWorld. Nice Hat.



Sex And Commerce.



The World Famous Chris Cote is the editor of TransWorld SURF.



Cool chick April Benton works the Tee-Dub marketing department.


TransWorld SNOWboarding Ad Sales Rep Adam Cozens, fronting.