On July 28th, public disturbances broke out on the streets of Huntington Beach following the U.S. Opening of Surfing. According to Kyle Calder, “The melee started when someone was hit with a ketchup bottle from a second-story restaurant.” This ended up triggering a fight that escalated to a small scale riot taking place. It went from a few unruly people fighting to people knocking over portapotties, and it eventually lead to people throwing a stop sign through a store window. People were asked to leave by the police, but many tried to stand their ground, leading to officers releasing tear gas and rubber rounds that eventually stopped the crowd.
This wasn’t the first time that an incident like this happened following a surfing event in Huntington Beach – a similar event happened in 1986 where hundreds of people got in a confrontation with police throwing rocks and bottles, and people even lit cars on fire following the Ocean Pacific Pro Surfing Championships. What set off this riot were “two or more men behind the bleachers immediately south of the Huntington Beach Pier who were trying to take off the bathing suits of two young women.” This was a similar event, but two totally different incidents and time periods. What was supposed to be a great day of surfing was overshadowed by these two disturbances. Check out the photos below from both incidents and for more, visit the LA Times from 2013 & 1986.
Photos by Allen J. Schaben and Nick Waplington
