Quiksilver Ceremoniously Opens Competition in Long Beach

Point Lookout native and pro surfer Balaram Stack celebrated his twentieth birthday while he took part in the opening ceremony for the Pro New York surf competition Labor Day morning.

Stack was among the competitors who lined up alongside a six-man canoe that was shipped from Hawaii as Quiksilver emcee Peter Mel welcomed the crowd that gathered in the shadows of the Roxy Beach House on National Boulevard beach.

Mel Pu'u of Quiksilver gave a Hawaiian blessing and an indication of Quiksilver’s future in Long Beach. “It looks like it’s not going to be the last,” Pu'u said about the company holding the event for the first time in the beach town.  

Kelly Slater, a ten-time surfing champion from Florida, said he hadn’t been to New York since he was a kid and that Puerto Rico is the closest he has come to surfing competitively on the East Coast.

“So it’s sort of like being at home,” Slater said of surfing in Long Beach.

Jeremy Flores of Europe, Adriano de Souza of Brazil and Travis Logie of South Africa also addressed the crowd, each expressing how the city has welcomed them with open arms. Logie express this sentiment in surfer's lingo: “This is my first time in New York. This place is insane.”

County Executive Ed Mangano was on hand to address the crowd. “They pulled together,” he said of Long Beach's efforts in the wake of Hurricane Irene.

Following the opening ceremony, the pro surfers took part in an expression session, a non-competitive event that allowed them to showed off their surfing skills for their fans.