Working the Vans U.S. Open of Surfing

The Vans U.S. Open of Surfing is a 9 day event that takes place in Huntington Beach, California every year with the focus on surfing, skateboarding, and BMX. My love for surfing has grown in the past year and I knew I wanted to work the event as I had interned in the same office as IMG Action Sports last summer, who puts the event together.

When asked of my availability for the duration of the 9 days, I gave every possible hour I had open outside of my current summer work on campus. The thought of early mornings made me want to cry, but in the end, the early mornings were what I loved. Call-time was 5:15 every morning, meaning I had to wake up at 3:30 to give myself enough time to wake up, get ready, and make the 35-45 minute commute. They say that if you love what you do and the people you are surrounded by, work will never feel like work- that is exactly what my U.S. Open experience was. By the end of day 1, I loved it so much that I looked to get my work shifts covered for later on in the week. Working long hours from early in the morning, everyone became a family. Every person working the event was so lovely and made the mornings worth it and seem like nothing. It also helped that we got to see beautiful sunrises every morning along with all the surfers out in the ocean for their early morning surf sessions.

Up until now, I was never 100% sure of what I wanted to do once I graduate college. I have always said I wanted to work in sports, but was never sure of anything but that. Working the U.S. Open of Surfing not only made me want to work in the surf industry even more, but it really made me realize I want to work events in one way or another (related to sports of course). The U.S. Open was more than I could have wished for because I met so many wonderful people, got to step foot into an industry I am interested in working in, and most importantly, made good connections for my future.

The wonderful thing about volunteering through IMG Action Sports is that they also put together the Hurley Pro Trestles next month, which is a part of the ASP World Tour for both the men and women, so it opened up the door to possibly volunteering at that event. My hope is to volunteer a few days there, considering it is a much different event from the U.S. Open, focused solely on the surfing with lay days when the swell is down. I feel that working Trestles will give me an even greater feel for the surf industry and it will also be a chance to work alongside the wonderful people I met at the U.S. Open again.

Fingers crossed that everything works out. Follow your dreams. Take chances. And whenever possible, put yourself out there to meet the right people and make connections because you never know what can happen.

xx