The Vans US Open of Surfing is a week-long surfing competition held annually in Huntington Beach, California. Generally held on the south side of the Huntington Beach Pier, the US Open is part of the qualification process for the World Surf League (WSL), and is a WSL QS 10,000 event. It is the largest surfing competition in the world, and also includes skateboarding and BMX competitions – making it the world’s largest action sports event.
The Gearhouse Broadcast US team provided the entire facility across surf, skate and bike. It’s the 10th time we’ve covered the event, and this year we had a record 25 cameras broadcasting live every day on Fox, as well as streaming worldwide.
For the surf venue, the team deployed Gearhouse’s Flypack A, which consisted of a full control room and audio room being built out. Equipment included four Hitachi SK1200 cameras with box lenses, one super slow-mo camera, two POVs, two Hitachi RF cameras, two EVS XT3s and ten wireless FreeSpeak beltpacks.
For the skate/BMX venue, we deployed Flypack B, which comprised a full control room, audio room and post-production room. Equipment included eight Hitachi SK1200 cameras, two RF Sony auto-follow cameras, two POVs, two Panasonic ROBOs, one EVS XT3 and ten wireless FreeSpeak beltpacks.
The team also supplied all the wireless communications and audio complement throughout the event, which ran from 26 July to 4 August. With surfing being California’s official state sport, an incredible 100,000 people turned out for the final Sunday to watch the climax of all the action. Good vibes.