The Florida Surfing Association (FSA), along with Cliff Bar, Gremmie Gear, Paco’s Mexican Grill, Coggin Nissan, Sonny’s BBQ, Papa John’s Pizza and BoJangles, held their annual Pier Pressure Pro/AM surf contest at Jacksonville Beach Pier. The event was originally schedule for Saturday, October 17th but due to strong west winds, small surfing conditions and cold weather the event was called off and pushed back to Sunday. Originally, this created some conflict because North Florida’s ESA district was scheduled to run at Mayport Poles the same day, causing local surfers to choose between Pier Pressure or staying loyal to their ESA district. As a result, the two contest directors, Paul West from FSA and Mitch Kaufmann of ESA came to an agreement to run the events side by side on the Southside of the Pier. In addition, the directors coordinated their heat schedules to allow competitors to compete in both events.
The Florida Surfing Association is dedicated to helping promote surfing and surfers in a positive manner on a local, national and international level and that is exactly what happened on Sunday with assistance from the ESA. Both events had a great turn out with plenty of surfers competing in both events. Jacksonville Beach Pier provided a solid waist to chest high NE swells with glassy surfing conditions which added plenty of excitement for both the surfers and spectators. The Pro event was taken down by Evan Thompson, holding off his older brother Cody in the finals as they went up against PJ Satterwhite, finishing third and Dane Jeffries coming in fourth.
There was also plenty of action outside of the water as well. Tom Harding, a local North Florida shaper of ALAIA’s 3rd Generation provided a free ALAIA demo for spectators and competitors to experience wave riding as the Polynesians’ and Hawaiians did many years before. Also, FREE FLOW Lines came down to the beach and set up their core strength and balance enhancing product which was a huge hit with competitors and spectators of all ages. As the day progressed, the sun warmed up the sponsors provided plenty of free food and giveaways for all participants at the event. The next FSA event will be the Florida State Surfing Championships on November 28th at Jacksonville Beach Pier. For more information about the contests or the Florida Surfing Association (FSA) please visit www.floridasurfing.org.