Action Sports City
Sunday afternoon, I flew to NYC for, I think, the 8th time this year. (I was here for about 36 hours two weeks ago to meet up with tennis player Victoria Azarenka for a piece I’m writing about brain training — stay tuned!) But this was my first real trip to NYC in the post-mag-office-in-NY era. It’s weird, to say the least, to be here and not have an office to go to every day, nor co-workers who live and work within two hours of the city. But it’s been a great week, nonetheless.
The Hawaiian-style opening ceremony for the Quik Pro NY on Labor Day drew the biggest crowd of the week.
This week, NYC is the center of the action sports universe. The Quiksilver Pro, the first ASP World Tour event in NYC, is taking place on Long Beach. Although the extracurrics, like concerts and motocross demos, were cancelled due to Irene cleanup, the contest has been a success. The waves have been consistent, if not perfect, and they should be pretty sizable and shapely for Friday’s final. (Check it out live on www.quiksilverpro.com starting at around 8 a.m.)
I spent Monday tooling around with another ESPN writer and a film crew filming for a show they're pitching to ESPN. We spent the day chatting up the locals.
The coolest thing about the contest has been the crowd. The people of Long Beach are stoked to have these guys surfing their home break, and they’re turning out in numbers, rain or shine. (Tuesday and Wednesday were mostly rain. Monday and Thursday were shine.)
The all-star cast of Art of Flight.
The snowboard industry is also in NYC this week (along with the fashion and tennis communities for Fashion Week and the US Open) for the premiere of Travis Rice’s movie The Art of Flight, produced by Red Bull, Quiksilver and Curt Morgan & the visionaries at Brain Farm. It was about as all-star an event as action sports events go. The entire cast of the film, from T-Rice to Jeremy Jones, flew in for the occasion, and Justin Timberlake and Owen Wilson were in the crowd.
Those PR folks are always working. Us writers, not so much.
Afterwards, the cast and crew and a few hundred of their closest friends celebrated the opening of the film at Stone Rose in NYC. Some of us took silly pictures to commemorate the evening.
On Tuesday, I spent some time with motocross rider Robbie Maddison and snowmobile rider Levi LaVallee, who were in town to promote New Year No Limits 2012 in San Diego. Maddison, who was part of the show in 2009, is attempting to jump his dirtbike 400 feet. LaVallee is also attempting to set a distance jumping record, the same record he planned to attempt last NYE before a terrible crash sidelined him for the season.
And today marks the start of the NFL season – Steelers – Ravens! After this week, I’m going to need a nap.