2009 Red Bull Riders Cup: Blow By Blow Final Video
Watch Mira Costa High School and San Dieguito Academy go toe to toe from opening period through overtime in the 2009 Red Bull Riders Cup National Championship Finals at Upper Trestles.
America’s Got Talent
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By: Jake Howard, ESPN
High school was an awkward time. I hoped I'd outgrown it, but then I went to the beach this weekend and realized that I'm more of an insecure, self-conscious kook than ever. With the Red Bull Riders Cup National Championships descending upon Trestles this weekend—my regular haunt—high school surf teams from around the country poured onto the sand, set up their little cliques, paddled out, and sadly, most every kid surfed better than me—with the exception of the one girl who pearled after every top turn, I reckon I'd barely beat her out.
Why the self-loathing you ask? Well, for one, it's that the level of a lot of high school-aged surfers never ceases to amaze me. READ MORE…
School of Surf Season One
School Of Surf, a documentary series based on the National Surf League's Red Bull Riders Cup (NSL High School Cup) gives you a detailed inside look at high school surf culture in and out of the water. School Of Surf chronicles the contrast between the blessed beach town surf kids of Southern California to the cold-water warriors of the New Jersey shore. It follows the struggles of your average high school kid looking to carve a place for himself as pro surfer all while trying to graduate school and leave the surf team on a winning note by taking the national championships.
FROM VBS PRODUCER JAKE BURGHART:
When we first heard of this contest we were like, whatever—not interested. Surf contests are boring. Then we got a call from Brad Gerlach, big-wave surfer and one of my childhood heroes. That kinda changed things. We went out to visit Brad in California, and over a few beers he explained his longtime absence from surf contests, saying that he just wasn’t having fun anymore and he wanted to get back to "the essence of surfing." This is where bullshit detectors started to go off. "The essence of surfing," by creating a different contest modeled off of more conventional jock sports? Well yes, and somehow it really works. The Game is totally exciting to watch and alarmingly fun. Even though it's way more competitive and has way more action than the conventional surf contest, it's so much closer to what surfing's about—going out with your friends and having a good time. It also raised a few questions about the surf industry for us, like, why is everything so conservative? Why are conventional contests so boring? Why is it so hard to try something new? Why aren't all surf contests like this? Those sort of questions.
So I dusted off my thruster, paddled out, and made some new friends. After a few months of hanging out with high school kids, surfing their local breaks, playing Ping-Pong in garages, and eating a shit-ton of pizza, we wound up with a bunch of awesome footage of surfing’s next wave of stars. This series is a little look into those characters and a window into what contest surfing could be like if it were just a little more fun.
Watch the entire 3-part series here at VBS.TV
Check out the Trailer:
Brazil v. USA Game Challenge on Surfline
Check out surfline.com for their coverage of the Brazil vs. USA Game Challenge.
Surfline Feature – Riders Cup Championship
Check out The Surfline.com feature on the Red Bull Riders Cup Championships held at Church’s. Click the photo to view the full feature.
