Large crowds turned out on Labor Day for the start of the Quiksilver Pro New York in Long Beach, and the town welcomed the event, the surfers and Quiksilver with open arms.
Quiksilver brought a touch of Hawaii to the big city with an opening ceremony featuring blessings from Titus Kinimaka and Mel Pu’u and short speeches by some of the surfers competing, including Kelly Slater.
While the most prominent surfers in the world were at the opening ceremony, the biggest cheers came for young local surfer Balaram Stack, who is competing in a wild card spot. You definitely got the feeling that Long Beach has a real sense of community and pride, and the boardwalk at the beach seems to be a real gathering place for the town.
Dave Juan, co-owner of Unsound Surf Shop in Long Beach, said the contest is a dream come true. He and his partner, Mike Nelson, held the Unsound Pro here for about 13 years and tried unsuccessfully to get other surf companies involved, Dave said.
To have the Quiksilver Pro in Long Beach is amazing, and he credited Quiksilver for “having the balls to do this in New York.”
“We finally have some respect for our waves. We are honored by this,” he said. “To see all these happy faces – this is great. We are part of the Quiksilver family now.”
The town seemed to embrace the event, with small business owners creating their own signs on storefronts welcoming Quiksilver and the tour surfers, and locals and visitors alike mobbing the 11,000-square-foot Quiksilver store on the sand.
I spoke with a few locals who said the contest was the biggest thing that had ever happened in Long Beach, a working class beach town on Long Island. Those I spoke to were not pleased that the city cancelled the festival part of the event, which was supposed to include performances by dozens of bands during the week, skate and BMX demonstrations, and more.
The city said it did not have the resources to deal with that event and the aftermath of Hurricane Irene as well.
On Monday, crowds stood for hours watching surfers in the Expression Sessions, and waited to snap photos of athletes and get autographs.
I saw several Quiksilver executives at the event, including CEO Bob McKnight, Pierre Agnes, President of Europe, Craig Stevenson, Americas President, and Anton Nistl, DC Shoes Americas President.
The company is hosting retailers from around the world throughout the week. Quiksilver has rented some houses around town, which are holding barbecues and informal parties at night, and the Allegria hotel is filled with media, surfers, and executives, with parties there as well.
Quiksilver said nearly 500 media representatives from around the world are attending, and from a wide range of publications, including surf, lifestyle, fashion and business.
See Page 2 for more about the booming retail store
Booming store
The 11,000-square-foot Quiksilver store on the beach was packed throughout the day Monday. I kept returning throughout the day to see if it remained busy, and each time I went the store was crowded.
Quiksilver Retail President Brad Sell said there were lines waiting to get in the store over the weekend before it opened, and the store ended up staying open until 10 p.m. at night instead of closing at 9 p.m. as planned.
The company was also scrambling to keep it stocked, and was pulling some merchandise from Quiksilver stores in the city and adding more cash registers.
Quiksilver stocked the store with a full category representation of its brands, including Quiksilver denim, the $200 Xplosive boardshort, Quiksilver Waterman, Quiksilver Girls, and much more. The idea, Brad said, is to showcase the entire range of the brands and expose the crowds to that full offering.
Brad said Quiksilver Board Member Paul Speaker, who has lots of experience with big events, including working on special events with the National Football League, encouraged the company to go big with the store.
Top sellers during the first weekend were event merchandise and “anything Roxy,” Brad said. The company has also been surprised that the crowd was doing all sorts of shopping, including buying lots of DC Shoes, Roxy wetsuits and even some of the $200 Xplosive boardshorts.
We have lots of photos and more info about the event in our slide show, above. Also, Quiksilver is producing a daily morning show from New York that is being broadcast on MSG and Fuse Networks, and on the Quiksilver Pro website.
Editor’s note: Shop-eat-surf pays its own travel expenses on reporting trips
