January 24, 2018
January 24, 2018 – The Eastern Surfing Association (ESA) is excited to announce its 2018 post-season championship schedule. ESA’s three regional events in the spring are qualifiers for The Easterns® that will take place September 16-22 at Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head, North Carolina. Competitors who surf in the ESA regional championships may qualify for USA Surfing’s Prime events and USA Surfing Championships that are held in California in June.
- ESA Southeast Regionals – April 20-22, 2018 – Paradise Beach Park, Melbourne Beach, Florida
- ESA Mid-Atlantic Regionals presented by The Outer Banks Visitors Bureau – May 4-6, 2018 – Jennette’s Pier, Nags Head, North Carolina
- ESA Northeast Regionals – May 18-20, 2018 – Belmar, New Jersey
- The Easterns® presented by The Outer Banks Visitors Bureau – September 16-22, 2018 – Jennette’s Pier, Nags Head, North Carolina
2018 ESA Sponsorship opportunities are available for these events, as well as local ESA events for the 2018 season. Please visit www.surfesa.org for more information, or send an email to centralhq@surfesa.org.

Posted in ESA News | Tagged 2018 ESA Championship Events, Beach Gladiator, Chums, Eastern Surf Magazine, Eastern Surfing Association, Easterns, ESA All-Stars, ESA championships, ESA regionals, ESM, GoPro, OluKai, Phunky, Rip Curl, Sharkbanz, Shoots Media, Sun Realty, surf contests, Surfco Hawaii, Surfer Magazine, SwellInfo, The Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, Unsinkable Polarized, USA Surfing |
September 26, 2017

September 25, 2017 – The Eastern Surfing Association (ESA)’s 2017 Easterns® Surfing Championships presented by the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau concluded on Saturday in ideal surf conditions that some say they’ve never witnessed along the east coast. Hurricanes Jose and Maria provided consistent, overhead, clean, peeling waves for the remaining four straight days of the week-long championship contest held at Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head, North Carolina. The perfect waves combined with the ESA’s 50th anniversary made this year’s Easterns® one for the record books.
“I’ve never seen so many perfect days of waves and weather for an ESA event,” said Michelle Sommers, ESA’s executive director. “It truly looked like a perfect day in Hawaii.” Easterns® head judge, Chip Hall, added, “That was the best finals I’ve ever judged.”
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September 21, 2017
September 21, 2017 – The ESA resumed The Easterns® on Wednesday at Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head, North Carolina. After two lay days due to storm surf from Hurricane Jose, competitors paddled out in clean, double-overhead waves on Wednesday morning. Tuesday’s canceled heats were rescheduled to Wednesday, and those who were scheduled to compete were very happy.

GoPro Open Shortboard champion Logan Kamen in deep. Photo: MEZ/ESM
“Everyone was so excited to surf in the clean, barreling waves after the crazy conditions at the beginning of the week,” said Michelle Sommers, ESA’s executive director. “It was nearly perfect, and those who were scheduled to compete were stoked.”
ESA All-Star Logan Kamen claimed first in the “GoPro” Open Shortboard division and is taking home a Hero 5 camera. All-Star Kainalu Nichols scored the highest wave in the heat with a 9.5 for a barrel that had everyone cheering. Southern North Carolina’s Kai Nau claimed victory in the Open Bodyboard division. ESA national sponsor Phunky apparel provided t-shirts to all of the finalists.
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September 19, 2017
Due to extreme conditions from Jose, Easterns will NOT run today (Tuesday) and will resume Wednesday morning beginning with Tuesday’s schedule running single-beach. Wednesday’s original schedule will resume following the finals of Tuesday’s heats, and heats will run through dark.
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September 18, 2017
September 18, 2017 – The Eastern Surfing Association’s 2017 Easterns® Surfing Championships began on Sunday at Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head, North Carolina. Hurricane Jose provided competitors with building swell and stiff winds throughout the day that proved once again why the Outer Banks is one of the east coast’s premier surf locations.

Several of Sunday’s finalists with their awards. Photo: Mez/ESM
ESA officials decided to run Monday’s schedule concurrently with the heats that were already running on Sunday since the forecast for the earlier part of the week was not going to be contestable. There were two beaches running with two separate heats in the water at the same time. Overall, a total of 56 heats were run throughout the day.
“We wanted to provide our competitors the ability to surf their Easterns® heat and moving these heats to Sunday was the only way,” said Michelle Sommers, ESA’s executive director. “Many people were already here, paying for lodging and transportation, so we made sure they had a chance to compete in the championship event that they worked so hard to qualify for.”
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