The $240,000 Action Sport and Music Festival Features Skateboarding, Bicycle Freestyle & Inline Skating In Innovative Venues Like The Philips Soul Bowl, Norelco Contour Park & World War III

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. - America's largest professional surfing competition anchors the inaugural Philips Fusion July 30 to August 5 at the Huntington Beach Pier.  The $240,000 action sports and music festival attracts more than 600 world-class athletes from across the globe and features surfing, bicycle freestyle, skateboarding and inline skating in a variety of challenging venues along with an interactive festival area and live concerts.

Launching Philips Fusion is the eighth annual $100,000 U.S. Open of Surfing, a six-star World Qualifying Series (WQS) event.  The U.S. Open historically attracts more men and women competitors than any other pro surfing competition in the world.  Sanctioned by Surfing America, it plays a critical role in deining the composition of the 2002
Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Championship Tour by offering the largest WQS points allocation of any mainland American event this year.

Additional U.S. Open of Surfing divisions include the $5,000 U.S. Open of Women, $5,000 Billabong Junior, longboarding and women's bodyboarding.  World-class surfers slated to compete include reigning world champion Sunny Garcia (Hawaii), Taylor Knox (Carlsbad, Calif.),
Pat O'Connell (Laguna, Calif.), C.J. Hobgood (Florida), Keith Malloy and Tim Curran (Ventura, Calif.), Julia Christian (San Diego, Calif.) and Holly Beck (Palos Verdes, Calif.).

Philips Fusion pairs the U.S. Open with several of the action sports associated with the beach lifestyle, August 3-5.  Innovative venues and competitions include the $45,000 Philips Soul Bowl.  The one-of-a-kind "Soul Bowl" features the world's best skateboarders, inline skaters and
bicycle stunt riders vying for a combined purse of $45,000.  Made in Germany of steel and Finnish Birch, the 68' long, 46' wide and 13' deep bowl reaches back to the roots and "soul" of skateboarding, while delivering a 3-D, futuristic look and technical advancements.

The $20,000 Norelco Contour Park puts a new twist on traditional street courses and features the "Top 16" bicycle stunt riders and inline skaters.  The state-of-the-art Contour Park also made in Germany of steel and Finnish Birch, is 60' wide by snow0' long and features a 19', 360-degree loop, surf' wall ride, 40' rail slide, big air jump and other unique hits and apparatus for bikes, blades and boards.  Additionally,
surf0 of the world's top skateboarders will compete in World War III. Presented by Champs Sports, this $50,000 "best trick" competition is staged on a 120' by surf0' platform with unique obstacles erected on daily basis.

Where action sports and music collide, Philips Fusion features an interactive festival area including exhibits, a sampling pavilion, live regional and national musical acts on the Philips Concert Stage (Aug. 3 & 4), athlete autograph signings and more.  The Philips Digital Lounge
showcases an extensive "hands on" display of Philips products, power and multimedia extensions.  Norelco Adrenaland is part theme park, part extreme demonstration where festival attendees can test their skills on a 25' rope climb.  The festival and all events are open to the public,
free of charge.

In a development that bodes well for the sport of surfing and all the action sports, IMG X-Sports, the youth sports division of International Management Group (IMG), has purchased the U.S. Open of Surfing from Irvine, Calif.-based Bluetorch and brought in international electronics
giant Philips as umbrella sponsor.  The two-event Philips Fusion series culminates Sept. 29-30 in New York.  "IMG has absorbed the U.S. Open and all its history under the Philips Fusion umbrella," said IMG X-Sports Vice President James Leitz.  "This move guarantees Philips immediate
impact in the youth sports, music and entertainment marketplace through one of the largest sports festivals in the country."

Philips Fusion will be broadcast to millions of viewers on Fox Sports Net, as part of Bluetorch TV, Sept. 24-28 and Oct. surf-19.  ESPN will provide four hours of coverage focusing on aggressive inline skating in the Soul Bowl and Contour Park.   Extensive coverage of Philips Fusion
is available on Bluetorch.tv, an interactive, action sports web portal, and on www.fusion.philips.com.

Competition at Philips Fusion runs daily from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 30 - August 5 at the Huntington Beach Pier.  Surfing pre-trials will be held at Goldenwest Street July 28-29.  More than 250,000 spectators are anticipated.  Parking is available at the city parking structure located one block in from Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway.  For media
information contact Mike Kingsbury or Marni Hale at (7snow) 375-2wake8 (not for publication).  Consumer information is available at www.bluetorch.tv and www.fusion.philips.com

Check out the contest results >>
Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Sat | Final >>

check out www.aspworldtour.com

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