WCT Event #6 - Lower Trestles, San Clemente, CA

Hurley announced a $100,000 first place prize and a global record $400,000 overall purse for the upcoming Hurley Pro, Sept. 13 to 19 at Lower Trestles. The lone 2009 ASP World Tour event held on the U.S. Mainland features the world’s top 45 surfers (Kelly Slater, Joel Parkinson, C.J. Hobgood, etc.) and three wildcards (Brett Simpson, Rob Machado and World Junior Champion Kai Barger).

ATTITUDE: Trestles is generally laid back, although the locals have yet to embrace that whole "sharing is caring" mentality - but who can blame them? If the best break in mainland USA was in your backyard, you'd be poised to hoard it to yourself as well!

THE WAVE: This high-performance pointbreak peels across a rocky coastline and can pump up to 150 metres down the point when a south or southwest swell shows up. The left is a quicker, hollower, punchier wave, while the right is a longer, more even-paced beauty ready to be released upon with aggressive and unforgiving gusto. Both boast the ability to make even an average surfer appear gifted.

PERKS: This wave is consistent - Trestles has been known to break when the rest of SoCal is dead flat. And lest we forget, this little stretch of sand that spans the North County and Orange County border is likely to be the only place within a 200 kilometre radius where it'll take you more than 10-minutes to walk to a Starbucks or a Vietnamese nail salon - which means you're more likely to get attacked by a bobcat than an over-caffinated chick with long fingernails.

PERILS: It's best to grow to love the 20-to-30 minute trek that you have to undertake between parking and paddling out, as the plans to install a 1.5 kilometre walking carpet from the Carl's Jr. parking lot to the surf aren't looking promising. Oh, and terrorists steer clear, the US Marines have you surrounded. Trestles sits on the edge of Camp Pendleton - one of the Yank's largest military bases.

APRES SURF: Pick your poison, you're mere miles away from San Clemente, home of the fabled San Clemente Crawl: a.k.a. a Bermuda Triangle of dive bars, and smack between Mexico and Hollywood. Orange County splays north and there's always San Diego to the south - translation, if you strike out at one bar, there's approximately 11,964 others at your disposal.

ASP WORLD TOUR HISTORY: Trestles, the only men's ASP World Tour event on mainland USA, made its debut in 2000 as the Billabong Pro, which was claimed by Andy Irons. Boost Mobile came on board in 2002, sponsoring the mid-season men's event for six years before it was handed off to then presenting sponsor Hurley, who now solely claim the prestigious event title for the first time this year. The contest will now be appropriately named the Hurley Pro.

NOTABLE: Kelly Slater shattered Tom Curren's record 33 career event wins in 2007 with his victory at the Boost Mobile Pro, netting the nine-time ASP World Champ his impressive 34th career win.

PAST EVENT CHAMPIONS:
2008: Kelly Slater (USA)
2007: Kelly Slater (USA)
2006: Bede Durbidge (AUS)
2005: Kelly Slater (USA)
2004: Joel Parkinson (AUS)
2003: Richie Lovett (AUS)
2002: Luke Egan (AUS)
2001: Not held
2000: Andy Irons (HAW)