Remember the days when the surfing contests were all about the surfing and not about the sponsors?
Well, those days are back.
OK, not really. But, for the moment anyway, Huntington Beach's U.S. Open of Surfing — the largest surf contest in the world in terms of fan attendance and prize money — is without a sponsor.
Hurley and Converse along with their parent company, Nike, recently decided to pull their sponsorships and focus on other initiatives.
"Our opportunity is our ability to have a dialogue with millions of kids," Hurley Chief Executive Bob Hurley said in an interview with shop-eat-surf.com. "Will it be in the form of a U.S. Open somewhere else? Probably not. This isn't about moving our investment in Huntington Beach to a similar event somewhere else. It's about looking at new and innovative ways to connect with the next generation. We are continually pushing the boundaries on what might be."