Taj Burrow snaps after losing to Hurley wildcard Rob Machado, Kelly Slater blitzes the lineup, and more action from day 1 of the 2009 Hurley Pro Trestles.

Round 1 of the Hurley Pro Trestles is on this morning with the world’s best surfers tackling the two-to-three foot (1 metre) waves on offer this morning at Lower Trestles.

The Hurley Pro Trestles, Event No. 6 of 10 on the 2009 ASP World Tour, is just days from commencing and the Southern California air is electric with the arrival of the world’s best surfers at one of the world’s most high-performance waves.

Three days remain before the Hurley Pro, sixth event on this year’s ASP World Tour, kicks off on one of the most high-performance waves in the world at Lower Trestles in Califonrnia, from September 13 to 19, 2009.

Hurley today announced a $100,000 first place prize and a global record $400,000 overall purse for the upcoming ASP World Tour event; the Hurley Pro, Sept. 13 to 19 at Lower Trestles.

"This is a very big development for Surfing America and the sport of surfing in the United States," said Surfing America's Mike Gerard. We couldn't agree more...

A nicely groomed south swell greets the hordes of recently-released kids and old farts alike. From Malibu to Lowers we were on it!

Mainland America just completed its first Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Qualifying Series (WQS) 6-Star PRIME event Sunday with the 6.0 Lowers Pro at the premier location of Lower Trestles in San Clemente, California.

The herd has been culled…remaining heats at the Nike 6.0 Lowers Pro include Fred Patacchia, Dusty Payne, the Hobgood brothers, Wardo, Michel Bourez, Dane Reynolds, Rob Machado and more.

This morning it dawned on me, there’s a 6-Star Prime right in our backyard! Should be fun to see the world’s best rip Lowers, especially with the favorable south swells we’re seeing line up right now! We’ll be on it with photos and such…

Well people, mark down this day in history because it’s very special, this is the day that we won! Emails from the Surfrider Foundation started coming in around 10:00 this morning (December 18, 2008) with the title “We Won!

At least there’s some good coming out of the in-the-shitter economy...

This week's installment is courtesy of your good buddy Jack English who painstakingly carried his gear down to Trestles last week to get you star-studded action. Thanks Jack!