Kooking It UP!: 2014 Hurley Pro at Lowers

Medina making it look easy.

This was my third surf competition. Well, maybe my second. I can't count the U.S. Open, where surfing was the second fiddle next to kids writing hash tags on their chest and butts. No, this was a real contest, with rip-able, sometimes pumping waves. Surfing was the main event and everything else was secondary. Yeah, Hurley, GoPro, Samsung and the rest of the sponsoring corporations were plastered everywhere, but not in a particularly disrespectful way. In my humble opinion, this event was tastefully sponsored with just enough commercialism to not make me throw up. The surfing was as good as it gets too. And the push for innovation by all the competitors, especially by the likes of John John, Lakey Peterson, Medina, Carissa Moore and Slater was inspiring.

Slater slashing.

What I enjoyed most of all were the free surfs. The contest arrived just in time for a whole bunch of swell and I got up early on the preceding days of the contest and was able to snap a bunch of cool pics that I shared on my Instagram page. I bombarded instagramers that follow my feed with a flurry of snaps. I just hope I didn't flood their feeds too much, but I just had to share all those moments of the best in the world just ripping!

The "Spartan"

What amazed me the most about the free surfs was John John. That kid was just going for it all, letting it all hang loose, just like he did in the contest. That lay back hack and that "nose pick" slash that he performed all contest long was practiced during every free surf that I watched. The kid is amazing. He has so much flow, speed and power mixed in with this undeniable soul. I have no doubt that once John John puts his mind to it, he's going to win a couple titles. But presently, he just appears to be so frothy, in addition to his obvious youthfulness topped of with being full of such unquenchable funk. But what was the most amazing thing about John John was how many waves the kid catches in the 200+ crowd of human beings surfing Lowers. He catches waves all the time. From the outside, then on the inside, the kid caught almost 15 waves in an hour and half at Lowers, probably more. I never seen such a thing. When I surf lowers, I have a quota of 4 waves in 2 hours before I'll get frustrated. This kid catches 4 waves in about 10 minutes!

I was asked by this couple that were visiting from South Carolina who was my favorite surfer to watch. I replied John John. "Why?" They asked. My reply "Because he doesn't give a fuck. He just wants to surf and rip." But you gotta give it up to Jordy Smith, who won the whole thing. But Jordy won the final of the Hurley Pro. John John was the surfer of the contest. Here is a video I took of a free surf before the Men's second round heat to show why (John John has two waves in this video, the first and last clips).

Dirty Lens from Kookingitup on Vimeo.

I can't forget about the women. They were ripping Lowers to pieces. From Carissa Moore to Lakey Peterson, all the ladies were holding their own during the free surfs. Laura Enever and Bianca Buitendag impressed me the most during the days I watched the free surfs. Enever was very kind and polite to the other surfers, always jumping off a wave for a novice if she was out front. Very cool and respectful.

Buitendag. Swayze actually captured this one while I was out surfing.

A lot of people give Alana Blanchard shit for her booty picks and what appears to be the "lack" of motivation for surfing well in contests. But dang, all my doubts about her surfing have been erased. For one, the girl is always seeded to face the top five in the contests because of her rank which leads her to early exits (which I guess is partly her fault). But the chick can surf a hundred times better than me and 99% better then the people that I surf with (and all my surf buds combined). She rips.

Blanchard. I wish I could throw like that.

I also went out and surfed Church's for the first time ever. "Church" is the farthest break south at Trestles, just before the military campground. I surfed it during the Men's heats on the second to last day. And it was pumping. I couldn't believe how good that wave gets when the waves are head high and over. I caught probably my longest right of the summer that day, taking the wave from the top of the lineup all the way in to almost the rocky beach near the campgrounds. Yeah, I had to fight through long boarders, but I met a cool female surfer who could totally rip and we helped each other block off the dreaded wave hoggers.

Slater taking flight

I totally recommend attending The Hurley Pro. It was a great experience. And all the people I met, including the Pros, were totally cool. The spectators put surfing first, are knowledgeable and surprisingly respectful. There was no nonsense like the U.S. Open. It was all about surfing. And that's how it should be. Enjoy the rest of the pictures!