Surfwear Maker Ponies Up Cash for Skateboard Contest
Leslie Earnest covers retail businesses for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-7832 and at leslie.earnest@latimes.com
A highlight of the Long Beach Expo was a skateboard contest sponsored by Element Skateboard, a division of Costa Mesa-based Giant Skateboard Distribution. The winner’s purse was $10,000 but the contest--which involved seeing which skateboarder could make the highest jump over a barrier--got so exciting that surfwear maker Quiksilver, Inc. in Huntington Beach, pitched in $5,000 for the second-place winner.
San Francisco skater Reese Forbes, 24, was the favorite, but he was aced out by Danny Wainwright, also 24, from Bristol, England, said trade show director Court Overin. “That just drew a huge crowd,” Overin said.