another shot from the Seven Tiki pro

Just came across another photo of me from the Seven Tiki Pro last week. This one, from Surfing The Mag. I was wearing the new HD trunks from Astars throughout the event, things are amazing!!! If you are going to pick a pair up be sure to try them on, I find that the stretchy trunks run a little bigger. I was riding a Dominator, rapidfire, even though the judges kind of hate on the round boards, but I can't see myself on any other board when its under waist high.....

Tommy Tant Memorial & Red Bull Tow-at

Coming up on the first weekend of November is the Tommy Tant Memorial. This is always a special event for me not only because I have won it a couple times in the past, but more so because of the relationship I have built with the Tant Family over the years. They are some of the most loving and caring people on the face of the earth, and this event which is memorial for Tommy (who was an talented local surfer who was pursuing a career in surfing before he passed away) is a staple event for our community and one that everyone who is involved looks forward to throughout the year. This year the event is even more exciting for me as Alpinestars has signed on as a supporting sponsor, as well as Red Bull who is going to be holding an invite only Tow-at night expression session. This means that on Saturday night the boys from Red Bull are going to set up stadium lighting off the Flagler pier and will have a couple jet skis in the water, Whipping the 6 invited surfers at the waves, so we can put on a show for the crowd. I am super psyched, and cannot wait to compete this year. Be sure to check back for more updates on the event and photos and video from the festivities!!!!

Spray your board in 50 seconds....

How to paint your board in 50 seconds with Jesse Heilman from jesse Heilman on Vimeo.

Here is a little Vimeo clip I put together using my new GoPro camera. Just wanted to show how easy and fast it can be to do your own artwork on your board. Check it out....

Seven Tiki Pro..

This weekend we had the Seven Tiki Pro in Jaxonville Beach. The waves were dead flat in the morning, barely even lapping up on the beach, but Jay Dodson decided to go ahead and run the event after a few hours to wait for the tide to fill in. Ended up being a good choice, because by then the waves were a little bigger and actually contestable. I had a bad cold from my past trip in california, and was feeling really crappy throughout the day, but I ended up making a few pretty good heats, and had a pretty good day. I eventually lost in the semis to eventual winner Gorkin, and Cody thompson, both of whom were surfing good throughout the meager conditions. Here are a few photos from the "Fight Club" write up that ESM did.

Risked it all for these???ha

Here are a few more photos shot during Hurricane Igor, on one of the most shark filled days I have ever seen in my life. I ended up surfing Sunglow pier that morning with Shea and Matty lopez, as well as the rest of the usual crew, then we cruised down towards the Jetty for an afternoon session. Looking back on how ridiculously sharky it was, this may have been one of the most “dangerous” surf days of my life…ha Hope you all enjoy the photos, I literally risked limbs to get them..haha Big thanks to Tupat for always being on it, and ready to do work when the swell is on!!!

Firewire R&D....

So I spent this past week out in california working on some new designs with the guys from Firewire surfboards. If you don't know much about them already, they are the most high tech surfboard manufacturers out there, and are always coming up with new revolutionary designs to push the level of surfing towards a brighter future. Over the past couple years I have been fortunate enough to build a good relationship with all of the Firewire family, and my surfing has continued to benefit from this bond. Earlier this year I spent a few weeks on the Goldcoast of Australia working with the creator himself Nev Hyman on some new designs for this season. We came up with one particular model that we both feel was going to be insane, so he went straight to work on getting it dialed in. My description of our new model (The "Hellfire"), is a shaped down small wave board, that resembles your normal shortboard in the nose area, but has a routered out tail that helps the board to stay on rail through when you get it in a real section. The routered out tail helps you keep the volume under your back foot, while preventing it from getting to loose when you put it on rail. I know this sounds pretty crazy and something most people will "right off" as soon as they see it, but I rode mine this last week in meager surf to say the least at Oceanside harbor, and I am a firm believer in this model. The one I was riding was only 5'4 but held like my normal shortboard! For how bad the surf was I found a couple sections that showed what this board was capable of. The board I was riding actually had a ton of "V" on the bottom of the board, and actually made it difficult for the average surfer to figure out, so after discussing it with Chuy Reyna (who was riding the HellFire in a 5'8) we decided to stay with the same outline and just make the bottom of the board flat, to increase the boards speed through flatter sections. Look for this board to be coming out soon at your local Firewire dealer, and don't be afraid to look outside the box of your normal board. You never know, you may not ever look back!!! haha

"Sequence of the Week"

Just came across this little sequence that was shot a little while back. Thought it was a pretty cool one, so I figured I would throw it up here. Thanks to my boy Jesse Wicker for nailing it. If I remember correctly this day was pretty miserable, cold & windy, but psyched we actually did a little work this day.

Some Highlight photos from recent Hurricane surf....

Here are a few shots that Rob Snow nailed of us during some of the recent hurricane chase missions we have had up and down the coast. It's pretty amazing how rewarding it feels to score fun surf after a day or two mission of straight driving, and amateur attempts at predicting the weather patterns..

OBX PRO!!!!

Just finished up here in North Carolina, and super psyched to be ending our East Coast tour with a podium finish here at the WRV/Hurley OBX Pro. This event was the 5th stop on the Western Atlantic Pro Surf Series and offered the highest prize purse on the East Coast this year. After surfing two weeks of super fun surf, we were greeted with nearly flat conditions for the event, so it was even more special to make the final because each heat was absolute work to advance through. This result bumped me up to third on the WAPSS ratings just a couple hundred points behind current ratings leader Jeremy Johnston, going into the last two events. Here are a couple photos from the comp…Special thanks to the legend Jeff Weatherall, who multi tasked as Coach, photog, video guy, team manager, and hype man....
Final Results :
1st Asher Nolan $10,000
2nd Michael Dunphy $5,000
3rd Ben Bourgeois $3,000
4th Jesse Heilman $2,000

Surf Roots Thursdays presented by Astars....

Alpinestars has just signed on as a sponsor for a new Southern California concert series called Surf Roots Thursdays. Here are a few flyers, with dates, times, and locations of the upcoming shows. Check them out if you are around, If not tune into the live Webcasts to see what you are missing out on. I am planning on being at one or two of the shows, so I will hopefully see you there!!!!

Go Pro footage from Hurricane Earl

Hurricane Danielle- Jesse Heilman getting barreled in Hatteras, NC from Robert Snow on Vimeo.

Here are a few clips from my recent Hurricane chasing mission up the coast to Hatteras with my brother and Robert Snow. This is Rob's most recent experiment shooting with the Go Pro camera with it attached to his still cameras water housing. Makes for some cool footage as well as good little web edits like this one. Check it out.

DailyStoke Interview: Shootin’ the Sh!t with Jesse Heilman

I am not really sure who came up with the questions, but I thought it was one of the more interesting interviews I have done in a while.

The crew at dailystoke.com is always on the scene catching up with the guys on tour, and we recently had the great pleasure to catch up with Jesse Heilman, who ripped his way up and down the East Coast to lead in the WAPSS rankings as of this writing. Read on to hear how Jesse is so good that he can shred on any board you give him (even Taj’s), what it’s like to compete, why you will be wearing his sick new Able Planet headphones later this year, and finally we talk stuff that really matters, like meat pies. Read on kids…

dailystoke.com: So we saw you in this Alpine Stars print ad where you are staring at your board, were you thinking (a) “I love you, will you love me back?”, (b) “dear board, you shall not break on me”, or (c) “when this is over, we are going to…”

Jesse: Ha, actually I was contemplating stealing that board from one of my Alpinestars teammates Nathaniel Curran. This board was not even shaped for him, and just so happened to be my perfect dimensions. That was towards the end of our trip in El Salvador and I was down to my last board, so this little board was looking pretty inviting. Ha.

dailystoke.com: More seriously, what do you like about the new A-Stars N-1 shorts?

Jesse: I have been super impressed with the whole line of new Alpinestars trunks. The N-1 trunks are definitely one of my favorites, just the right amount of stretch, and perfect length. Before going to El Salvador to test drive the new surf trunks, I can’t remember the last time I was able to surf 8+ hours a day for 10 days straight without ever getting baggy rash. I know the quality of surf trunks has drastically improved over the past few years, and I am psyched to be representing the new line from Alpinestars.
Read the rest of the interview here at Dailystoke.com