Our one Jr. Men's rider for this event was Nick D'Rov, a talented young surfer with no doubt, plenty of trophy hardware in his future. He finished a very disappointing 5th in his 1st round heat and had to put this outcome behind him and focus on the Malibu contest coming up in July. Nick has what it takes though and he'll just have to write this one off as experience. His time will come.

The menehunes had to settle for the Cowles break located south of the Lane down around the point on the way toward the Warf. It was only breaking knee-high there but our Harley Taich surfed a great heat and came in 2nd. Later in the afternoon, the Menehunes returned to Cowles for the Semi Finals, but this time, Harley finished a disappointing 6th place and an end to her hopes of a showing in the Finals. It should be noted however that in her Semi Finals round she was competing against five 14 year old boys, and she is only 11.

Jane Mold surfing in the Sr. Women's first round in mid afternoon put together a fine heat by getting her four wave count in easily. Watching her performance from the cliffs above, it was apparent she would either win the heat or just miss doing so. When the results were announced 20 minutes later however, 2nd place was her lot, but we knew her chances were excellent to better that in next round on Sunday.

Kathy Austin followed Jane's heat, also in the Sr. Women's division, and put together a nice round for herself by continually setting up deep outside and surfing right up next to the cliff face on each of her four waves. When it was over however, she just missed advancing by coming in a disappointing 4th. Speaking afterwords, she said 4th is worst than 6th because when you come in 6th, you know you were out-surfed by the other competitors in your heat. When you come in 4th, you may have just missed advancing by mere percentage points and that's harder to take.

When Saturday's action was over and the sun down, it was time to get down and party. Our club hosts put on a nice gathering at the "Portuguese Hall" across town with a finger-lickin' bar-b-que (pass another napkin please) along with beer to wash it all down. A local surf band provided the sounds, giving most revellers the chance to work off the tasty meal just enjoyed with a dance or two before calling it a night.

Sunday: The Advancing Rounds

Sunday morning bright and early (well, gray and early anyway), eight clubs gathered on the beach next to the warf for the annual paddle race. Paddling for the club at this contest were: Dave Sams (lead off), Jane Mold, Nick D'Rov, Matthew Melin, Jeff Hackert and Pete Robson (anchor).

Dave gave it a valiant effort at the start by getting us in at least fourth place by the time he handed off to Jane. Jane stroked her arms off in her round and brought the team into a respectable third place when she handed off to Nick who managed to keep pace with the leaders, though unable to pass any of them by the time he was done. From there our long trip north was starting to show through as our third place became fourth... then fifth... then sixth... and finally finishing a distant 7th. Our consolation prize was not finishing last you could say, but with Bobby Challenger's exhortations over the previous two months on the importance of team paddling practise, this one had to hurt. Maybe now some of us will take his advice more seriously and attend his paddling technique classes. We could sure use some.

After Dave Sams' paddling sprint, he was now asked to surf his Men's Semi Finals round and place somewhere in the top three in order to advance to the Finals. He finished 4th. Day over early for him.

Next up, Travis Long in the Sr. Men's Semi Finals and his efforts this time found him in 5th place at the end and a place on the bench with Dave.

Pete Robson's turn was next for the club, this one in the Master's Semi Finals. The previous day's victorious 2nd place showing in his very first contest didn't continue on Sunday though as his good luck ran out and he finished in 6th. Let's see: Dave finished with a 4th in his heat, Travis a 5th in his, Pete a 6th and trends were definitely heading south for the club by midday when once again our hopes were placed on the shoulders of one of our women to reverse the current trends.

Stepping up this time was Jane Mold surfing a fine heat in the Sr. Women's Semi Finals and seemingly in the driver's seat for 1st place by the end of it. Her nearest competitor had fallen on three waves during the round and it wouldn't be possible for her to win it. Wrong. She must have fallen with great style each time and wound up in 1st, leaving 2nd place for Jane and a big question mark as to just what the judges were looking for in these heats. A little later in the Sr. Women's Finals, Jane said she beat herself by not setting up outside for the big sets, settling for the smaller inside waves with less punch. The result, a 6th place finish. You couldn't help but wonder if she was still rattled by the previous round's judging.

Our last hopes for glory rested on Travis Long and Halley Burd's Tandem heat. Once again as they have done so often in the past, they surfed a beautiful round and finished in 3rd place. Their talent on display Sunday caught the eye of a photographer for the Santa Cruz Sentinel newspaper. In Monday's edition we learned later, they were featured on the front page of the Sports section with a color photo of one of their graceful rides during the contest. When it comes to great finishes, this pair always delivers.

All in all it was a fun adventure for the club's team traveling that far up the coast for a Coalition contest. It really is beautiful country up there and surfing the Lane with all its history behind it was a treat. As a club we don't know where we finished, but we know it wasn't in the top six, as only those clubs received trophies. In our defense, we can console ourselves with the fact that five of our aces: Quintin Macklin, Pablo Smith, Ron Greene, Bob Greene and Bobby Challenger Thomas weren't there surfing their usual best for us. Just think of how well we'll do at the "Call to the Wall" in July with them among our ranks again. I'm drooling on myself just thinking about it. In fact, the photo below shows that I can drool with the best of them.

When team rider Matt Melin wasn't surfing his heat, he was behind the lens of his camera taking shots of some of the rest of the team in their heats. Below is a selection.

Travis Long with his arm in the tube.

Dave Sams cuts it back.

Jane Mold milks it to the inside.

Joe Rigby stylin' it.

Nick D'Rov gettin' air—almost.

Pete Robson bows to the wave.

Richard Steadham can backside too.

Travis Long and Halley Burd tandem.