Bikinis, boards, beach bums, blondes, brunettes, bodacious bodies, and of course, booze. Yesterday marked the beginning of the Go211 Live week-long gala in Huntington Beach, the largest action sports, music, and lifestyle festival in North America. . Surfers, skaters, BMX bikers, motocross freestylists, musicians, and hundreds of thousands of fans pack the shores from July 18-27th.

The event is spearheaded by the Honda US Open of Surfing competition – the largest and highest rated professional surfing competition in the world. Drawing over 400,000 spectators and fans annually, the competition is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, growing from a mere surfing competition to world’s largest beach sports festival.

In Addition to the Men’s, Women’s, and Junior’s surfing competition, there is the US Open of Surfing’s Longboard competition and at the 68’ (long) by 46’ (wide) one-of-a kind Honda Soul Bowl showcases the best and brightest from the skateboarding and freestyle BMX worlds as well as freestyle Moto-cross on its own course. There are loads of other specialty events like the Corona Stand up Paddle Challenge, Pac Sun’s Battle of the Brands, and Boost Mobile’s Shoot out. There are clinics nearly every day for anything you can imagine from surfing to skating to makeup to fashion. And least we forget the countless bands and special guests performing free concerts all week long.

There is an interactive festival area that includes over 100 sponsor displays and booths for all ages to shop, sample, and experience onsite a piece of the Southern California lifestyle. Although not as exciting as watching 720’s on the half pipe or wipeouts in the ocean, the atmosphere at the festival village is still quite electric. The village scene is all commerce and fun. They have DJs, promotions, free give-aways, Teen Vogue Fashion Live, Transworld Surf Jungle, a dance-off competition, prize wheels, and raffles. They even have the Stanley Cup on display, a dunk tank and the US Marine sponsored pull-up contest!

Now more than ever, the ability to watch sporting events both live and on demand is the future and Go211.com continues its evolution by distributing the entire festival online through both live streaming video and recordings of the day’s competitions. Visit Go211.com or usopenofsurfing.com.

Tags: Huntington Beach, Stanley Cup, surfing, U.S. Open