7. The Hurley Pro Trestles, California, USA

by Jock Barnes

Intro
The surfing spectacle moves to the golden shores of sunny southern California and they lay it on like only our Cali cousins know how. The lips, biceps, trucks and chests will all be supersized and the show will never stop. For years Event organizers have fought over this break because to put it simply this southern California Liquid skate park has provided us with some of this sports most memorable battles and performances. Let see why we love Trestles.

The Wave
This rock and sand bottomed break on a good day provides the type of perfect “A” framed peaks only feasible in an engineer’s wet dream. Though not famous as a barreling wave Trestles has all the ramps and copings set out in the right sequence to prove the ultimate in high performance surfing and thus one hell of a show. Notoriously inconsistent Trestles has been known to dry up mid heat leaving the most seasoned competitors scratching their heads a wave short at heats end but maybe that’s just another element that adds to the excitement and suspense of an Event at Trestles.

Equipment
A good short board is all our top 45 will be reaching for at Trestles because this wave is as user friendly as your likely to find. A little slower and more open face than snapper so with that in mind there may be slight modifications a surfer might opt for such as more foam, maybe a wider tail, fuller outline or a fuller rail, but this would be the only significant difference to our pro’s quiver here at trestles.

Keep your eyes on
Kelly Slater first entered the surfer’s psyche with the release of Kelly Slater in Black and White and one monumental performance here at lower trestles. Now close to two decades on that same performance would still win most WT events. So in my mind Kelly is the big name at trestles. Dane Reynolds has made a career out of upsetting titles campaigns here and Jordy Smith is all over YouTube showing how he surfs trestles. So I feel this year is going to be a battle for young and old.

My Pick
Dane Reynolds