The Converse Coastal Carnage skate bowl contest is back at the US Open of Surfing for its third consecutive year. In the heart of the craziness on the beach the retro pool competition is set to feature some of the worlds best bowl skaters in action.

The retro designed course is a bright blue double wooden bowl with plenty of hips, tight corners and mellow transitions incorporating new obstacles this year to keep the competition exciting. If practice is any indication to what they guys have in store, the 400,000 expected weekend visitors are in for a show.

Fresh from an appearance in X Games Converse Skate ambassador Rune Glifberg will compete against a wave of fresh new talent. Up-and-comer Tom Remillard returns this year looking to better his runner up finish at last years contest.

X Games standout and bronze medalist Ben Hatchell will be looking to continue his momentum on the bowl circuit hoping for a victory at one of the funnest comps on the season.

Converse Coastal Carnage is a jam format consisting of 10 qualifying rounds with four riders skating against each other at the same time.

The qualifying rounds starts on Saturday at 1:45 p.m. with the Coastal Carnage finals on Sunday at Sunday at 4 p.m. If you can't make it down to the beach don't worry both the qualifiers and finals will be broadcasted live.

Check back for a complete wrap up of the highlights from the retro bowl contest...



Photos courtesy of Converse- Top- Kalani David doing a stalefish. Bottom-Ryan Reyes crailside

The highly anticipated NSSA National Championships went down this weekend in Huntington Beach.

While the waves were small the groms were smaller, and able to hop their way around the HB lineup.

Cam Richards took out the coveted Open Men's title over Kalani David and Taylor Clark. Leila Hurst won the Open Women's and Parker Coffin dominated the Juniors.

Since the entire state of California was headed to the beach this weekend, I was about as far away from Huntington as I could get, so I thought I'd copy and paste the press release in here.

HUNTINGTON BEACH CA:
Cam Richards won the 2011 NSSA National Championships Open Mens title on the south side of the Huntington Beach Pier today while Leila Hurst triumphed in the Open Womens title. Also taking home a career boosting title in his division was Open Juniors winner Parker Coffin.

Establishing an early lead in the 30 minute finals with a solid 6 point wave, Richards performed consistently throughout the heat. Both Kalani David and Taylor Clark put in valiant efforts to catch up, but the 15 year old from South Carolina aggressively maintained his lead with every set that rolled through.

"I feel awesome right now, I wasn't expecting this," beamed Richards. "I did really bad in my main divisions; I lost Open Juniors and the Explorer so I was mad and wanted to redeem myself, I guess this was a good way to do it."

Hurst staked her claim halfway through the Womens Open final with the highest scoring wave of the round, a 7.25 left that she connected through the inside reform. Tatiana Weston-Webb scrambled to answer back with a fast outside wave that brought in a respectable 5.75, but never quite caught up to Leila's solid lead.

"I've wanted this for so long and this was my last chance to get it, so I'm so stoked," Hurst said. "Now I can walk away with more than the Explorer title. I'll go for the CT and all that fun stuff but I'm just going to cruise for the rest of this summer."

Parker Coffin took home the NSSA National Open Juniors title in full form as he picked off waves that had the most push on the outside and was consistently able to do the "Huntington Hop" and connect to the inside section and score big.

To check out highlights from the 2011 NSSA Nationals, log onto www.nssalive.com for photos, videos and more. For a complete list of the NSSA's season results, go to www.nssa.org.

A huge thanks to official event partners; Nike 6.0, SURFING Magazine and official event forecaster, Surfline.com, for their instrumental help in the collective execution and dissemination of this event. Their support is greatly appreciated.

2011 NSSA National Champions:
Open Mens Champion: Cam Richards
Open Womens Champion: Leila Hurst
Open Junior Champion: Parker Coffin
Open Boys Champion: Jake Marshall
Open Girls Champion: Dax McGill
Open Mini Grom Champion: Tyler Gunter
Open Longboard Champion: Steve McLean

The collective minds over at RVCA have been putting the finishing touches on their first full length surf film, aptly titled SHARING WATER. The list of stars is as follows: Alex Knost, Makua Rothman, Danny Fuller, Daniel Jones, Matt Archbold, Ford Archbold, Kalani David, and Dino Adrian. Here are the first glimpses of light leaked from this mysterious project..



Sharing Water Trailer from RVCA on Vimeo.



Sharing Water Trailer 2 from RVCA on Vimeo.

The kind folks over at RVCA just unveiled the first little teaser for a film project they have been working on. This clip is from a recent trip down south to Baja with youngsters Kalani David and Ford Archibald, along with Newport's resident hipster/rockstar/longboarder Alex Knost, and not-so-punker-anymore Pat Towersey. The track is by Matt Costa and its muy bueno.



Mexico: Donkeys and Dings from RVCA on Vimeo.

Here's the surprise I promised you, the second Bowl Jam at Steve Cholos house. You may remember the one he had two years ago that was sponsored by Quiksilver and went huge. Well, this one was way more mellow, it was kind of a secret. Steve didn't want it to be such a huge event since it is his house and everything.

Even though it was on the DL, some serious gnarsters showed up, guys like Omar Hasson, Christian Hasoi and Kalani David all got their slay on. It wasn't a contest, no money, no judges. Just the boys, and some girls, letting loose to the cheers of their crew.

There was a grom session though, that was scored, but by the crowd. I will get to that in the next post because it deserves some recognition. Check ou the photo below of: Omar and a big air to fakie, who's says skaters don't get chicks, and the backyard.