Atwater » Surf

Luke Ditella reaping the rewards of Hurricane Danielle

Mike Quilliam — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:15:18 +0000

The east coast hasn’t gotten many good swells from what I’ve heard this summer but thats all changing with Hurricane Danielle popping up. Heres a shot from Transworld about some of the New Jersey boys enjoying a little Hurricane D including Atwaters Luke Ditella

Day 4 ECSC

Mike Quilliam — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 22:47:38 +0000

Day 4 was a wild one out here at the ECSC. We walked up this morning and the Moto guys were all flying through the air doing back flips and what not which was super cool since it was literally out the back of our booth. We went through about 450 fans today since the weather was a little warmer and people were doing all they could to beat the heat. Scott and Jake both had their heats today and took 2nd and 1st respectively but the contest isn’t over and chances are they will probably be fighting for first place tomorrow.

Jake and Scott in our tent

Whos behind the mask

Why its Devin Briggs

Atwater popping up all over the place

Revenge, sweet revenge

ECSC Day 3

Mike Quilliam — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 03:10:02 +0000

Day 3 of the ECSC was even better than the first 2. We had a great day with a huge turnout in Virginia Beach. John McDanel swung by for a bit to wave the Atwater flag and help us out with some stamping. Tomorrow we have the start of the pro portion of the ECSC with Jake and Scott both entered so it looks like Atwater will be taking home a 1st and 2nd place in this years ECSC.

ECSC Day 2

Mike Quilliam — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 23:48:13 +0000

So day 2 of the ECSC was a little more hectic than the first. We again had our Virginia Beach Street Team there on hand to help out in the booth during the day which helped out in the heat. They got the FMX jumps set up today which they are going to be jumping tomorrow. We got 3 more days of this so stay posted to tomorrows updates.

Jack got iced by the Spy Optics folks. There will be revenge.

Jamie Sterlings Great Lake’s Adventure

Mike Quilliam — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 23:09:30 +0000

I just finished a week long adventure in the Midwest. I was flying all over the Great Lakes doing recon for a Red project called “New Wave”. We utilized John Shoffner’s Gunmen Albatross Red Bull branded Sea plane. I never knew the Great Lakes had waves. After flying 25.2hrs, and 3528 nautical miles I’ve come to the conclusion that the mid west has some nice setups for surfing. I’ve always been curious about the Great Lakes of North America. Some of the setups out on the vast Lakes looked like Tahitian reef passes. No the waves were not tubing like Teahupo’o but the water was crystal clear and the waves were rolling in with uniformity. We didn’t expect to get waves on this trip. This first expedition purpose was to only look around and plot GPS coordinates. We did plenty of searching and scored a little out of season swell that I stand up paddled. The locals greeted us with open arms and welcomed us back anytime. The private flights on the Red Bull Albatross were mind blowing. Talk about a high end adventure. VIP….Thank you RED BULL!

I’ll be coming back to the Great Lakes in the middle of winter on the next big Northeastern storm. Yes parts of the lake will be frozen and I’ll be bundled up in snow gear. Why, because I live for the adventure and the water is fresh.

P.S. Water landing’s rule! Its so smooth to land on a silky lake…John Shoffner thanks for flying the plane and making it a smooth flight!

Aloha,

Jamie Sterling
Photo: Brian Nevins

Photo: Brian Nevins

Photo: Brian Nevins

Photo: Brian Nevins

Jamie Sterling wins the Billabong Pico Alto

Mike Quilliam — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 19:42:24 +0000

BIG KAHUNA JAMIE STERLING WINS BILLABONG PICO ALTO INVITACIONAL 2010
August 20th, 2010
This Thursday August 19th, the wave of Pico Alto showed why it deserves to be part of the Big Wave World Tour. The Billabong Pico Alto Invitational 2010 presented by Sony, was the second date for this important World Circuit.

The atmosphere surrounding the competitors was filled with energy and adrenaline. The grandstand full of spectators was shocked by the size of the waves. The generous force of nature gave us waves of more than 35 feet high, peaking during the semi final heats where the wave of the contest, a perfect 10 by Grant Baker from South Africa, was scored.

The local surfers demonstrated a high level of performance as well. Gonzalo Velasco, Billabong team rider and Sebastian De Romaña arrived to the semi finals competing along side twelve of best international big wave riders, including current world champion Carlos Burle from Brazil and defending Billabong Pico Alto 2009, winner Greg Long from the USA.

Various surfers experienced extreme moments, the Peruvian Rafael Velarde lived through the intensity of Pico Alto in his first heat, when a wave of 24 feet high broke the board that he ridden to two previous Billabong Pico Alto finals (2006 and 2009). The eventual winner, Hawaiian Jamie Sterling and South African Chris Bertish, both endured two wave hold-downs, Bertish coughing up blood and unable to finish the heat.

Water Patrol provided by Ocean Riders, the local Peruvian team and Tim West from the Big Wave World Tour, insured not only the surfers security in these huge waves but also provided them transport from the beach to the line up with the use of PWC´s.

The grand final was highly contested between Anthony Tashnick (USA), Carlos Burle (BRA) and Jamie Sterling (HI) with Jamie taking the title. “I’m very emotional since this is the first time I have won a Big Wave World Tour event” expressed the smiling Hawaiian.

The collaborated effort of our fellow sponsors: Sony, Burn, Powerade, Cosas Hombre, Lan, Von Zipper and Nixon made the realization of the event possible for everyone.

Media Freenzy around “The Gooch”

Mike Quilliam — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 17:26:19 +0000

Darshan Gooch is getting quite a bit of coverage as of late and not only on the Atwater website. He was recently on the pages of Slide magazine riding his board upside down. He was on the cover of the Santa Cruz Visitors Guide just cruising around the beach and landed on the cover of the mag.

Darshan Gooch on the inside of Slide magazine. (Note that his board is upside down)

The Santa Cruz visitors Guide and if you look in the bottom right you will see Darshan just cruising by.

Boosting

Jack Belle In Japan

Mike Quilliam — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:41:24 +0000

Jack Belle recently took a trip over the Pacific to Japan with Danno Surfboards to do a little good will tour across the land. Danno took a few of his team riders over and here are some of the shots from Jack’s adventure.

Atwaters Darshan Gooch on Surfline

Mike Quilliam — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:39:12 +0000

Darshan Gooch has been up and down the coast over the last few months. He is always sending over emails of his journeys to these random remote places which we love to see. Darshan just landed on the pages of Surfline for their post on this last swell.

Atwaters Jake Kirschenbaum is the Cover boy for the ECSC

Mike Quilliam — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 20:00:45 +0000

Last year Jake Kirschenbaum didn’t win the ECSC but did participate in it and even though he didn’t bring home the win he did make an impression on someone over there because he is the main shot on the ECSC website. Jake and Scott Posner were in town last week and they both stopped by the office to say hello and catch us up on what they have been up to.