Typically this time of year in Hawaii, monstrous winter-season waves slam the coast and there’s an energy to the North Shore, where the world’s top professional surfers battle it out as spectators watch from the sand.
But the competitive surf season in Hawaii is much different this winter, with a tidal wave of change that is reshaping the surf landscape, including for Southern California surfers who typically make the trip over.
The famed Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, one of the most prestigious titles in professional surfing, will no longer be a trifecta of live competitions held at three Hawaiian beaches, Haleiwa, Sunset Beach and Pipeline. Instead, it will be a month-long virtual contest that kicks off today, Dec. 21, where surfers can submit videos of their best waves at a chance to earn prize money.
The coronavirus pandemic last year added complications for gathering on the sand with spectators and surfers traveling in from around the world to compete (Vans also declined to be a sponsor of the US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach because of the pandemic), prompting contest organizers to get creative – and Vans announced recently it’ll be sticking with the online format for the foreseeable future.
Discussions were already in place pre-pandemic about changes to the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, which the Costa Mesa-brand has owned since the mid-1990s, said Scott Sisamis, Vans’ global director of action sports.
Some of the changes the brand wanted to implement involved more equality for women and finding a way to have more local Hawaiians to compete. In past years, having the three surf breaks shut down for weeks by competitions was a frustration for the community and the format didn’t offer a lot of spots for local surfers, Sisamis said.
“Prior to COVID or the idea of going digital, we were trying to work toward solutions for that,” he said.
When the pandemic shut down tourism and many live events in Hawaii last year, Vans pivoted to the online contest. It no longer had to build scaffolding on the sand, entice people to battle traffic to get on crammed beaches or shut down the surf breaks for locals at each already-crowded spot.
“It solves things and offers new opportunities … on the downside, there’s no specific event to go and sit there and watch,” Sisamis said.
Instead, the virtual Vans Triple Crown of Surfing will have a one-month window through Jan. 21, where a crop of 126 surfers can try and nab, on film, their two best waves at each surf spot and submit the entries to be judged.
The surfers aren’t just the top pros on the World Tour, rather a pre-approved list made up of at least 40% local Hawaiians, with the remainder evenly split by male and female competitors. If not enough women enter, those spots will be filled with men on a wait list, he said.
“In a nutshell, how does surfing look when you have four weeks to get your best two waves at a location versus 20 minutes to deal with whatever comes through when you are a competitor in the water,” Sisamis said.
Last year’s winner was two-time world champion John John Florence, no surprise as he grew up surfing Pipeline and the nearby other breaks. But in this new format, his brothers, Ivan and Nathan, who do not compete on the World Tour, could easily be contenders, Sisamis said.
“There are so many top surfers around the world that have this skill set to do well at these three locations,” he said, noting the World Surf League will still be involved with judging. “It’s somewhat of a hybrid. It’s new territory, I think for everybody.”
That means more opportunity for the “free surfers,” or pro surfers who make a career out of being a top surfer, but just not by traditional competition standards.
“I think it’s maybe a little more open to the whole surfing community than a small subsection of people focused on surfing as a career,” Sisamis said, naming off several stand-out surfers such as the Gudauskas brothers, of San Clemente.
Total prize purse for the three events is $200,000, with top men and women able to earn the $50,000 prize. Each week, the website will be updated showing the leaders with new video uploaded regularly.
More changes will come in 2022, Sisamis noted. There will be a live Vans Pipe Masters event in December 2022 that will be an “invitational,” with physical event permits secured through 2024.
The virtual Triple Crown will continue with individual event titles for the Vans Hawaiian Pro (Haleiwa), the Vans World Cup of Surfing (Sunset Beach), and the Vans Pipe Masters (Banzai Pipeline), as well as crown overall Vans Triple Crown series champions.
“It’s just different times,” Sisamis said. “The feedback for us, off of year one, was amazing.”
Another consideration is the actual shifting sand on the North Shore, a beach that has been suffering erosion in recent years, Sisamis said.
“Prior to COVID, we had to consider the physical footprint of what we’re doing in a big way,” he said. “We have to take responsibility and consider that as a brand.”
The contest entry fees and a match by Vans will go to three local Hawaiian nonprofits: Na Kama Kai, Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii and the North Shore Community Land Trust.
The changes have had an impact on the local community, said surf photographer John Salanoa, who a few years ago moved from Huntington Beach to the North Shore.
Typically, local hotels are buzzing with industry insiders and pro surfers holding events and movie premiers. Instead, businesses are struggling.
“The local economy is taking a hit,” he said.
Add to that, the World Surf League’s decision to hold the Pipe Masters event at the beginning of the season, in late January, rather than as the final event of the World Tour in December, and it’s like a “ghost town” on the North Shore so far this season, Salanoa said.
The local surfers, however, are liking the change, he noted.
“The volume of surfers in the water is down dramatically,” he said. “A lot of surfers aren’t making the trek here. The people in the water love that they get more waves.”
Some residents are glad not to see the influx of visitors coming to the North Shore, with pandemic concerns still lingering.
“We’re still on a semi-lockdown situation here,” Salanoa said.
Peter “PT” Townend, the world’s first pro champion who earned the title on the North Shore and who is now executive director of the Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum, said this year marks the most “confusing” North Shore surf season he can remember.
“I think the whole North Shore experience is in a state of flux for the first time in our lives,” he said. “We’ll see what happens. The North Shore winter is still, I’ll argue, the mecca of competitive surfing.”
Source: Orange County Register
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