The Vans Pier Classic in Riverside by the Sea, aka Huntington Beach, aka a drinking town with a surfing problem, will kick off next week. Check back for some MORINformed interviews with some of the contenders.

Cypress, CA (March 18, 2009) - The 4th Annual Vans Pier Classic presented by Jack's Surfboards takes over the Huntington Beach pier Wednesday, March 25 through Sunday, March 29. The event, which will be the second stop of the ASP North American Tour and first event of the ASP North America Pro Junior Series, consists of a Men's WQS 2-Star Vans Pro and a Men's Grade 2 Ezekiel Pro Junior. The contest will feature many of the best young surfers in the world vying for title honors and part of the $35,000 up for grabs.

Those that can't make it out to the pier can catch live webcasts of the entire event at www.vans.com. Also look for plenty of photos and daily live up-dates.

Surfers confirmed to compete among the 230 men draw include 2008 Pier Classic champ Shaun Ward as well as Hank Gaskell, John John Florence, Andrew Doheny, Jason "Ratboy" Collins and Dylan Perillo.

Contest Schedule:

Wednesday, March 25
8:00a - 1:20p Vans Pro Men's Round 1
1:20p - 4:00p Vans Pro Men's Round 2

Thursday, March 26
8:00a - 10:40a Vans Pro Men's Rnd 2 Cont.
10:40a - 4:00p Vans Pro Men's Round 3

Friday, March 27
8:00a - 1:20p Vans Pro Men's Round 4
1:20p - 2:40p Ezekiel Pro JR Round 1
2:40p - 4:00p Ezekiel Pro JR Round 2

Saturday, March 28
8:00a - 9:20a Ezekiel Pro JR Rnd 2 Cont.
9:20a - 12:00p Vans Pro Men's Round 5
12:00p - 2:40p Ezekiel Pro JR Round 3
2:40p - 3:00p Ezekiel Pro JR Round 4

Sunday, March 29
8:00a - 9:20a Ezekiel Pro JR Rnd 4 Cont.
9:20a - 10:40a Ezekiel Pro JR Quarterfinals
10:40a - 12:00p Vans Pro Men' s Quarterfinals
12:00p - 12:50p Ezekiel Pro JR Semi-Finals
12:50p - 1:40p Vans Pro Men's Semi-Finals
1:40p - 2:10p Ezekiel Pro JR FINALS
2:10p - 2:40p Vans Pro Men's FINALS
3:00p - Awards Presentation

Vincent, Isenseven:

"Thought we were dead? Indeed we were. While the season started highly promising, we had to overcome some unforeseen obstacles the past few months. Major injuries, some industry inconveniences, a stolen camera and hard drive crashes to name just a few. At the same time, Europe got blessed with a humongous amount of snow, making us ditch all previous plans and get lost in places we thought we'd never end up.

After enjoying dark rail nights in Scandinavia or sitting in Swiss mountain towns waiting for the sun to come out (which rarely happened), we are back more alive than ever and can proudly present our first teaser for the upcoming project "Let's Go Get Lost" - which perfectly describes this year's theme. Getting lost is more fun anyways.

This first output presents our 2009 team consisting of well-known friends like Erik Botner, Fips Strauss, Fredrik Evensen, Andr Kuhlmann, Michi Zirngibl, Christophe Schmidt, Torgeir Berre, Chris Patsch and Tobi Strauss as well as some new additions like Marc Swoboda, Alex Tank, Tom Klocker and Anton Gunnarson. With a smaller team of riders followed by 4 filmers almost every day, you will get to see the most personal and visually stunning Isenseven video ever.

After being asked a million times, HD downloads are back as well. Download the WMV-HD version at www.flip4mac.com to get a plugin to play WMV-HD on your Mac.

This movie is sponsored by Nitro, Oakley, O'Neill, Horsefeathers, Carhartt, Head, Vans, Nike 6.0 and Fiat.

The song is,"Salt, Peppa and Spindarella" by Johnny Foreigner out of Birmingham, UK. The Album, "Waited Up 'Til It Was Light" is available now. Be friends with the band on MySpace.com and find out there where to buy their stuff."

Puerto Rican ripper, Dylan Graves, is now on Vans. Here's what they had to say:

Cypress, CA (February 11, 2009) The squad at Vans is proud to announce the signing of international surf talent Dylan Graves to the Vans Surf Team. Hailing from Isabela, Puerto Rico, Graves, 23, garnered a great deal of attention at an early age after he was hand-picked to be part of the acclaimed Young Guns film series. With his progressive surfing and effortless style, Graves quickly transcended his status as a standout in the Caribbean/East Coast surf scene, to become an internationally recognized rising talent. Graves, who will don both Vans apparel and footwear, continues to be one of the most talented and respected young surfers competing today.

We are very excited to have Dylan on board, said Vans Surf Marketing Manager Scott Sisamis. Dylan's progressive, innovative surfing is a perfect fit with the team and represents a new chapter in Vans Surf.

I'm super psyched to be a part of the Vans family and feel like I fit right in here, said Graves. I'm looking forward to working with Scott and the rest of the Vans crew.
Graves joins surfers Joel Tudor, Karina Petroni and Leila Hurst as Vans Surf Team riders who are on both Vans footwear and apparel teams.

With a busy 2009 ahead, Graves, who just returned from trips to California and Baja and mainland Mexico, is gearing up for a trip to Fiji and plans to compete in major WQS events. One of the next chances to catch Graves in Southern California will be at the upcoming Vans Pier Classic presented by Jack's Surfboards, to be held at the Huntington Beach Pier March 25 to 29.

Grave's sponsors in addition to Vans include Channel Islands, Electric, Nixon and Freak Traction.
For more information on Vans surf happenings, our team plus our footwear and apparel, visit vanssurf.com

Matix put together a cool video tribute for Van. For information on how to donate money to the Van Wastell Memorial Fund click here.

I cruised over to the Vans Downtown Showdown this past Saturday night at Paramount Studios, just in time to check out Creature's satanic ceation. If you were there, or watched the live feed, you know that the accult assult stop was the second to last.

Yeah, I was late, but it wasn't my fault, it was that god damn 101! If you don't live in Southern California, and don't know what the 101 is, it's also known as the Hollywood freeway, and on Saturday nights you might as well call it the Pissed-Off-Bad-Night freeway. Why? Because your not going to move for hours, you're going to get pissed off, and have a bad night.

Oh yeah, and by the way it wasn't just cold, it was fucking cold! The wind was whipping through all the alleys of the studio and it was down right torture for a cold weather wuss bag like myself.

Like expected the Girl and Toy Machine crew's were killing it. Girl won last year, and Toy Machine has been on the podium every year of the event has been held, but coming out left field this year was Blind and Jani Laitiala.

If your not familiar with the format, each team gets to design a stop, which is skated by everyone for like 20 minutes. From what I remember, Girl had the Three Bump Dump, which was three pyramids in a row. Black Label had the Dive Bar, which is self explanatory. Creature had a pentagram, and Foundation had the Lunar Eclipsey Hubba.

Some sick shit went down on the Foundation stop: Brain Anderson - three broken boards and a tre flip down the star, David Reyes - noseblunt around the moon-shaped-ledge, Alex Olson - f/s 3 the star, and Mike Mo - switch b/s flip the star.

Blind took overall team, Jani took the pro, and Jamie Towncarney took the am with a back blunt across the Black Label bar. This is such a cool concept event, can't wait till next year.

All photos by MORINformed.