Stab Magazine | Minor arrested for threatening US Open of Surfing

Live Now — Episode 3 Of Surf100 Challenge Series Presented By Pacifico

62 Views

Minor arrested for threatening US Open of Surfing

A 16-year-old boy was arrested in Huntington Beach following threats he made against the US Open of Surfing via social media. Under suspicion of making a terrorist threat, police acquired a warrant and arrested the unnamed minor at his home on friday night, where they confiscated a shotgun and a handgun, both of which were registered legally to family members. While the teen insists he was fooling around, the HBPD are taking the threat seriously, and have also confiscated his electronic devices to trawl for related data. Dark themes have been common in the boy’s social accounts, some of which have shown him posing with the weaponry. NYPD noticed the boy’s threatening posts (on an undisclosed social media site) and initially believed them to be related to the US Open of Tennis. Once they made the connection to the Huntington Beach event, they notified HBPD, who then acted based on what they saw. After last year’s event ended with a riot, the US Open made changes like losing the music concerts to put the focus back on surfing and try to defuse any wild behaviour before it went down. Anyone who’s been to this event knows the stench of drunk youths in the midday California sun, as their peeling body slogans (*insert here*) cut through the haze of kicked-up sand. The collective amount of testosterone is ripe for something to go down every year and it’s amazing, and lucky, that things didn’t get worse last year. And even better that at least one potential threat won’t be carried out this year. Kid playing tough bites off more than he can chew, or serious Virginia Tech-esque meltdown avoided?

news // Mar 8, 2016
Words by Stab
Reading Time: < 1 minute

A 16-year-old boy was arrested in Huntington Beach following threats he made against the US Open of Surfing via social media. Under suspicion of making a terrorist threat, police acquired a warrant and arrested the unnamed minor at his home on friday night, where they confiscated a shotgun and a handgun, both of which were registered legally to family members. While the teen insists he was fooling around, the HBPD are taking the threat seriously, and have also confiscated his electronic devices to trawl for related data. Dark themes have been common in the boy’s social accounts, some of which have shown him posing with the weaponry.

NYPD noticed the boy’s threatening posts (on an undisclosed social media site) and initially believed them to be related to the US Open of Tennis. Once they made the connection to the Huntington Beach event, they notified HBPD, who then acted based on what they saw.

After last year’s event ended with a riot, the US Open made changes like losing the music concerts to put the focus back on surfing and try to defuse any wild behaviour before it went down. Anyone who’s been to this event knows the stench of drunk youths in the midday California sun, as their peeling body slogans (*insert here*) cut through the haze of kicked-up sand. The collective amount of testosterone is ripe for something to go down every year and it’s amazing, and lucky, that things didn’t get worse last year. And even better that at least one potential threat won’t be carried out this year.

Kid playing tough bites off more than he can chew, or serious Virginia Tech-esque meltdown avoided?

Comments

Comments are a Stab Premium feature. Gotta join to talk shop.

Already a member? Sign In

Want to join? Sign Up

Advertisement

Most Recent

Laird Hamilton on The Limitations of Being a Purist, Invention vs. Ownership + Why He Never Had a Sticker Deal 

Untold stories from his How Surfers Get Paid interview.

Jul 4, 2025

Surf100 Challenge Series Presented By Pacifico: Episode 3

"The tribe has spoken," Dane Reynolds pronounced, and a surfer's torch was snuffed.

Jul 3, 2025

When Surfer’s Eye Is Actually Cancer

Erin Campbell's brutal journey from surf camp dreams to chemo drops, cryotherapy, and surgical horror.

Jul 3, 2025

Surfing’s 2025 Q2 Report

An assessment of surfing's vital signs throughout the second quarter of 2025.

Jul 2, 2025

What Actually Happened to Occy’s Mad Max Plunger Pool In Yeppoon?

Surf Lakes’ brass talks: internet hecklers, the unplugging of the plunger, and the Tom Curren…

Jul 2, 2025

Poor Goofy Foots 

Data shows that the world is stacked against goofs — they even make 15% less money than…

Jul 1, 2025

Britain’s First Wavepool Has Closed — What Really Happened?

Bankruptcy, social media hackings, debts unpaid — and yet, reopening looms.

Jul 1, 2025

Watch: Was Matt Meola’s Air Actually Better Than Hughie’s?

Watch the full Swatch Nines highlight reel and decide.

Jun 30, 2025

Houshmand Bludgeons Field To Win Second CT — Molly Picklum Tastes Blood, Snatches World #1 In Brazil

You can't argue with big surfing — that's Saquarema wrapped.

Jun 29, 2025

37 Years Old And World #1 — What’s Changed For Jordy Smith?

On rediscovering decades old surfboard templates, having a personality on the CT, and why this…

Jun 27, 2025

Tom Lowe Stars in ‘Let Me Live’

The wild, improbable ascent of Britain’s best big-wave surfer.

Jun 27, 2025

Saq Wrap: Italo Celebrates Mid-Heat, Griff Drops A Freestyle, Jordy + Yago Continue BBQing 20-YOs

Top seeds sow ruin, Final 5 starts to crystallize.

Jun 27, 2025

Surf100 Challenge Series Presented By Pacifico: Episode 2

Our seven surviving surfers confront an oddly large California beach break.

Jun 26, 2025

SEOTY: The ‘Once-In-A-Decade’ Caribbean Swell That Kelly Slater Passed On

Michael Dunphy stars in Jimmicane's 'Blue Veil'

Jun 25, 2025

Who Owns Bingin? Legal Fight To Stop Demolition Begins

Eviction notices served for all businesses built on state land.

Jun 25, 2025

Tony Hawk Just Named Hughie Vaughan’s Internet-Breaking Air Because… No One Else Can

89% of our IG poll respondents claimed the 'stale fish flipper' was the best air…

Jun 25, 2025

German Surfers: AN INVESTIGATION

Truth is the light by which the world can see. 

Jun 24, 2025

“I Lost Everything I’ve Ever Owned, But This Board Came Back”

One month after the LA wildfires, a surfboard washed ashore.

Jun 24, 2025
Advertisement