Around local watering holes in Huntington Beach, California, it’s common to hear the last weekend of June and first weekend in August – typically when the US Open of Surfing takes over the south side of the H.B. Pier – described as the week the circus is in town. The metaphor is apt, but not for the reason you might think.
In the way that traveling circuses of yore would erect their big tops in rural meadows for a brief residency only to pick up and leave the place like it never happened – that’s where the comparison to the US Open rings most true.
Like most years, the 2019 iteration featured temporary skate ramps, scaffolding, and countless “brand activations” to distract from the action in the water. The collective of spectators swarmed the place to the extent that finals day can only be described as moist – take that as you will. And then, in a flash, it was all over and H.B. returned to its regularly scheduled bucolic reverie.
The interesting thing about crowds is they’re often the best smokescreen – just ask John Lennon about his affinity for New York City. If, for instance, you found yourself in Tahiti or on Maui during a WSL event, it’s inevitable you’d rub shoulders with the world’s best surfers, perhaps making small talk getting groceries or some other quotidian task. But, at the US Open, often the most interesting interactions happen in corners, at off-hours, or, occasionally, right in the thick of it.
It takes an astute cameraman with all of the many-colored bracelets necessary for access to document what the US Open is like behind the curtain and among the hoi polloi. The above is the best transition from one to the other – shots of the many anonymous faces, and touching moments like Sage Erickson hugging her family after her monumental win.
