Next up was Jeff Hackert surfing in the same division as Pete, the Masters' 40-49, but with no better luck. After struggling to find the minimum two waves to ride, finished a disappointing 6th.

Dave Sams a few heats later in the Men's 20-29 category saw his day end early too as he just missed advancing with a 4th place showing. Surfing in the same division a heat later, Josh Hall pulled together four wavelets and a spot in the Semi's by notching a 2nd place in his Men's 20-29 round. Following Josh in in the same division, Micah Wood continued the team's fortunes by equalling Josh's score.

As the morning progressed, the waves didn't follow suit for Ron Greene during his Grand Masters' heat as he experienced the same frustration other team riders had before him: set waves remaining few and far between and a 15 minute heat evaporating quickly with not much to show for it. He wound up in 5th and took his place among the team's three photographers for the remainder of the weekend. Pablo Smith in the next heat, same division, faired better in two ways: having waves to ride during his round and the final outcome. He managed 3rd and a place in Sunday's quarter finals.

After the old guys in the Grand Masters, it was the Groms (11-14) turn to get wet. Harley Taich led off for the club in a heat that was crowded with five talented boys. It didn't seem fair she was the only girl in the round, but she gave it her best effort, yet settled for 5th place in the end. Nick Hastings in the following Grom's heat faired better and just got through by managing a 3rd place, and a spot in the Groms' Repecharge latter that evening.

A marine layer had hung tough all morning long, but as the clock struck noon, the sun decided it was time to show his face. With the brightening skies, our outlook seemed to brighten as well because we knew it was time for our women to start their afternoon campaign. Contest after contest, the women always seem to pull this club through and we knew this one would be no different.

Leading us off in the Jr. Women's 15-19 heat was Makela Saili, followed by her older sister Mele in the next round. Though each did their best with the knee-high rollers presented them, they were both done in by the more experienced competitors they faced as Makela finished a disappointing 5th and Mele an even more disappointing 6th. These two are fine young surfers though and their time will come, although I'm quite sure, not soon enough for them.

Next up was the always reliable Debra Hoyt, and holding true to form once again, came in third in her Women's 20-34 heat. She could now relax the rest of the afternoon and know she had a place in Sunday's semis. Following Debra in the same division, Celia Treamer surfed a good round and in the end placed 2nd—for about 20 minutes. Then the judges came on over the P.A. system and announced they had made a mistake on their heat sheets in that round and 2nd place now belonged to another competitor, bumping Celia to 4th and out of the contest. It's a maddening thing, but mistakes happen and you just have to accept the outcome with grace and style. As it happens, no one displays those qualities better than Celia.

In the meantime, our Women's 20-34 group just kept pushing on with new team rider Kaley Swift surfing wonders on the puny breakers during her round. In so doing, she earned herself a 1st place showing, something the club hadn't seen since Matt Dalton's accomplishment earlier that morning, which now seemed an eon ago in the shrouded mists of time.

Kathy Austin continued the assult by placing 2nd in her Women's 35+ round and could now look back on her recent cross-step lessons with Pablo as time well spent.

Eve Allerton followed Kathy in the the same division a heat later, but fell short of the mark by coming in 5th. Another one of our fine women surfers leaving the contest way too early.

After the Women's heats were recorded it was time for the Legends to enter the water and show they still had the right stuff. Enter Bobby Challenger for Pacific Beach. Experience does matter, even in these small conditionas, and Bobby showed he was up to the "challenge" by earning a 3rd place in his heat. A bit later, at 4 in the afternoon, he announced he wanted all paddle team members to meet over near the pier for a maiden voyage of the club's new paddle board he a had just completed. Jeff Hackert and Dave Sams answered the call and gave the new paddle machine a try and proclaimed it good! Other team paddlers would have to wait until tomorrow to get their chance to learn its behavior in the water.

By 6 o'clock, most people were making their way over to the pier for eats and a viewing of the new surf movie, "One California Day." Others still had business to take care of in the dwindling daylight. For our club it included Travis Long in the Men's 30-39 Repecharge at 6:30, and Nick Hastings in the Groms' Repecharge at 7, the last heat of the day. The sun may have been setting, but both made the best of the dim light with Nick finishing 1st in his round, and Travis 2nd in his. With their scores now recorded in the books, they were finally able to grab whatever food was left over on the pier and a place at the back of the crowd for the movie.

Sunday: The Advancing Rounds

The way these contests are set up, it's usually the case that the women surf later in the day. Not so for Kathy Austin in her Women's 35+ Semi Finals. She had to be suited up and in the water at 6:00 a.m. for her heat. Unaccustomed to such an early contest start must have thrown her equilibrium off as she ended her day almost as soon as it began by coming in 6th. Kathy's a good team cheerleader though and she stayed the whole day long, rooting the remaining team riders on.

Bobby Challenger was our second rider in the water and he found the early start as unkind to him as Kathy had found earlier. He finished 5th in the Legends' Semi Finals and said later, he felt he had let the team down by not making it to the Finals, as this was the first time in recent memory that he hadn't. With his heat behind him, he now focused his attention on the paddle relay race to be held later in the day. More on that to come.

One thing Sunday featured that Saturday hadn't was sunny skies from the get-go early on. The sunny morning must have affected Nick Hastings dispostion in just the right way as he went out and surfed a fine heat in the still small conditions and finished a satisfying 2nd. He obviously hadn't let the late evening round the night before affect his performance in the Groms' Semi Finals.

Josh Hall and Micah Wood were scheduled to surf in different Semi Final heats for Men 20-29, but when another club complained that their team had three riders in the same heat, asked if Josh could be moved into Micah's heat, allowing their rider to take Josh's place in another. Josh and Micah agreed to the change (much to the chagrin of Travis who would learn of all this maneuvering after the fact), but only one would advance out of the reshuffled round, Josh, who notched a 2nd. Micah came in 6th and found the gesture had backfired, proving once again that nice guys always finish last.

Travis Long then found himself in the same Men's 30-39 heat as one of his team riders, Matt Dalton. When the spray had settled after this round, Matt was still in the race with 3rd place. Travis wound up in 5th, hunt over for him. He would now concentrate on his upcoming tandem heat.

The morning was skipping right along and by this point, four of our riders were out, but three were still in. Enter Debra Hoyt who could always be counted on. Not this time as it would turn out. She finished a disappointing 5th in her Women's 20-34 Semi Final heat and took her place on the team's cheerleaders squad on the sand.

Kaley Swift in the following Women's round just kept on doing what she does best, surfing superbly. She took 1st place, just as she had in her first round the previous day. What more could you ask of a new team rider?

It wasn't long before it was Pablo Smith's turn in the Grand Masters' Semi Final. He surfed well enough to earn him a 3rd place and a slot in an upcoming Repecharge round. When that heat came a bit later, he improved his position in that round to 2nd place and a shot in the Finals.

Around noon the tandem teams paddled out. It was amazing to witness these talented couples surf in waves you wouldn't think possible to offer up enough push for two surfers on a single board, but they were doing it, despite the small conditions. Surfing with Travis in this heat was Valerie DuPrat, who together managed 3rd place. Halley Burd, Travis' usual parnter, wasn't able to make it for the early round, but promised to be there for the finals later in the day.

As the tandem teams were doing their thing, the paddle relay teams were getting ready to do theirs. As the new paddle team captain, Bobby Challenger really took charge and inspired the team with new strategies to employ during the race on the new paddle board. It all seemed to make a difference for them this time as they finished a respectable 5th place, bettering their performance from Santa Cruz just two months earlier by two positions. The leadoff paddler was Dave Sams, followed by Kaley Swift. Nick D'Rov was third, followed by Micah Wood. Josh Hall took the fifth position and Nick Hastings was the anchor. If the team would take it upon themselves to practise regularly on the the new board, and do it under Bobby's coaching, I'm sure we would see futher improvements in future races.

As the afternoon wore on, the club found itself with seven team riders in the finals. When each of these rounds were over and the trophies handed out, the final score looked like this:

Pablo Smith: 2nd in the Grand Masters' 50-59
Josh Hall: 4th in the Men's 20-29
Kaley Swift: 4th in the Women's 20-34
Nick Hastings: 5th in the Groms' 11-14
Matt Dalton: 5th in the Men's 30-39
Paddle Relay Team: 5th
Travis Long and Halley Burd: 7th in the Tandems

Overall Team Standing: 7th

Not bad when you consider the small conditions, but all clubs had to surf in the same small waves too. Our hats are off to the six clubs who did better than us. Congratulations. Now we turn our attention to Oceanside. See you there.

And now for some parting shots. Enjoy.