The Hurley US Open of Surfing, taking place from July 18-26 in Huntington Beach, will offer a global record $100,000 to the first place winner (up from $20,000) for the men's six-star WQS event. The epic field of world-class competitors is headlined by 9x world champ Kelly Slater, former world champions Andy Irons, Mick Fanning, CJ Hobgood and Sunny Garcia and 3x US Open champion Rob Machado. Guess it's pretty easy to attract top talent when the top prize is 233% times what most WCT event winners take home (paltry $30K).

An annual summer circus, the US Open of Surfing is the world's largest professional surfing competition. This massive event hosts 500 athletes and draws more than 400,000 spectators over nine days. Highlighted by the men's competition, the US Open also features a women's, junior's and longboard competition, in addition to showcasing skateboarding and BMX. In essence, it's an advertiser's dream generally held in sloppy surf...BUT alas! Swell forecasts show a fun south swell coming in Friday the 24th and lasting through the finals on Sunday the 26th.

Should be a great event this year...stay tuned to BNQT for exclusive contest footage as well as interviews with top competitors. More information available at: www.usopenofsurfing.com.