ASN Hawaii Giveaway Finalists- Let the Voting Begin!!!

This is the first of many ASN Trip Giveaways and the responses from our Members has been amazing.  The finalists below are all action sports fans and are ready to go to Hawaii!  Each one of the finalists wrote a short essay on why they should be selected which you can read below.  We can’t wait to send one of them to Hawaii, so read their essays and vote now on our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/ActionSportsNow .  Voting will end on Sunday so check back on Monday morning to see who has won!

Good Luck Finalists!!!! 

Tim Kaufmann

HELP ME!!! I’ve become fatally ill from a very rare disease known as  Nosurfalitis. Doctors tell me there is only on cure known to mankind. I’m told I must travel to the Pipe Masters on the specific date of December 8th in the year of 2010 and get barreled at least 100 times to wipe the sickness away. Trouble is I’m stuck in the mountains with bigfoot and hairy arm-pitted chicks at least a thousand miles away from any ocean. My skin is drying up and shriveling, my surfboard broke up with me, I’m so pasty white and pale Wonder Bread would be ashamed and now this whole Nosurfalitis thing gets thrown at me. I only have one chance to make it. Actions Sports Now is telling me that if I get enough votes I could be cured!!! Please vote for me to go to Hawaii! You could be a hero, my hero.

Katya Blum

I’m super pumped to have been chosen as a semi-finalist for the ASN Hawaii trip. There is nothing sicker that I can think of than to be in Hawaii for the Billabong Pipe Masters, let alone a week @ the transworld beach house. 

I love to snowboard, and did a lot of it while at UVM. I am also not easily in awe of things. However, there is a feeling of complete amazement that I get when staring out from the top of a back country trail, that the people who first strapped a board to their feet were totally nuts, and that not too many people get to go as extreme as taking on a mountain. I imagine Pipe Masters to be similar, yet exponentially more intense. There is a beauty in the waves because of the power they posses, their ebb and flow, and the sheer magnitude of the ocean. Every time I look at a surf photo or watch a vid, I think about what it must be like to be to be riding the wave, the solitude and the silence amplified by your own heart beat and breathing. I would love to witness surfing on the level of the Pipe Masters in a place where it truly lives. 

I think what ASN is doing to connect, in one platform, action sports shops and the people who love them is phenomenal. I know vermont, but I wouldn’t know colorado, and ASN makes that possible. 

Francesco Viola

Growing up on coast of North Carolina, I have a drive that others don’t. Surfing in the winter in 35 degree water you have to be stoked. I surfed my first wave in Cocoa Beach on a surfboard I rented from Ron Jon when I was 12 years old. I remember the wave specifically. I remember it profoundly because it was the beginning of a lasting love for surfing. I surf because it makes me new. I become a better person when I come out of the water. Surfing has enabled me to view the world and life in a much better way. Surfing has given me opportunity. Part of my college education was funded by the Eastern Surfing Association and the Buddy Pelletier Surfing Foundation. Without surfing I would have never had the opportunity. Since college, I have moved to Charlotte, NC. It has been a struggle being away from the beach and away from the sport I love so much. I try to visit my family in Wilmington, NC when I can to get back in the water and get away from all the stresses of life. I have never been to the North Shore of Hawaii and would love the chance to experience the history of the North Shore and some of the most famous surf breaks in the world. Winning this trip would be an opportunity of a lifetime and being part of Slater’s 10th World Title would be unforgettable.

Johna Hungler

I want to thank you for this opportunity to win such an amazing trip, especially in the wake of the recent passing of Andy Irons. This event will be a week that no one will forget. I should be a finalist because I believe in getting out what you put in.  I´ve always been a dedicated person, when it comes to a job, school, or competition, I put my everything into it. I´m interested in going on this trip because it will allow me to see a part of the world and a culture that I never thought I would be able to experience because of financial limitations. The surfing community has allowed me to actually believe that those limitations are just a figment of my imgination. Opportunities like this one reinterate the fact that as long as you try your hardest you can succeed.  One of the most important reasons I entered this contest is, honestly, for my boyfriend. He has given me so much and I feel like I have never been able to return the favor. This trip would be an experience that would make up for all those times I felt like I was lacking. I believe that PR is an important aspect of our culture today, and I am open to doing as much publicity as you may want. It would be the least I could do to give thanks.  I´m responsible, reliable, and outgoing, I will not disappoint you if I am chosen!

Brian Austin

My name is Brian Austin and I am twenty five years old. You should choose me to go to Hawaii. I have been surfing for almost ten years of my life, born and raised on Long Island,NY. I moved to North Lake Tahoe so I was able to snowboard amazing terrain everyday. Even in Lake Tahoe I found myself searching Lake Tahoe on really stormy days. I succeded in suring Lake Tahoe over a dozen time in my three years. This past year I moved to Laguna Beach so I was able to surf everyday, like I did with snowboarding. In all the places I have been and surfed I have never been to or seen the infamous Hawaiian surf. I find myself checking the surf in Hawaii daily and would love an opportunity to witness Pipeline and be apart of Pipemasters. It would be absolutely incredible and I would take full advantage of the opportunity and what Hawaii has to over. I have lived in a “flop house” before and would be more then understanding of the atmposhere inside the ASN/Transworld share house. So choose me to go to Hawaii. It is a place I have always wanted to go to and witnessing Pipemasters is more then I could dream of.