First of all,
I'd like to send out a special thanks to everyone who participatied
in the Late Summer Classic. I mean EVERYONE: Sponsors, judges,
participants, volunteers, the groms who helped clean up and all
the other clubs that attended. If I may insert a cliche, I think
"many hands make light work," fits here. Everyone who volunteered
performed brilliantly. No stress, no worries. Nice job.
Now down to
business... one of the last Coalition contests of the year is upon
us: the 16th Annual Swami's Club Challenge. That's right, the Cardiff
Classic will be held October 6-7 and yes, it's back at Cardiff
Reef again this year. No more "D" Street. Otis Sistrunk and all the
Swami's boys and girls have gone to great lengths, and considerable
expense, to put this event back on at the Reef, so I want to
send a full crew to support our North County neighbors.
This year will
also include shortboard and new divisions, i.e., stand up paddle,
noseriding and a specialty board event where one can borrow a
sponsor board and compete with the winner keeping the board he/she
is riding. Cool huh? Oh yes, and back by popular demand, karaoke
at the Encinitas Elks Club Saturday night. And yes, it's for
club points, so somebody step up, we need a ringer. O'side and
Swami's are quite competitive in this event. I know this for
a fact because I've spent many a drunken night with Otis in Queensland
Australia's Noosa Surf Club. But I digress.
Anyways, anyone
interested in competing contact me as ASAP as we must finalize our
roster. Here is what we have so far:
Sr. Men (30-39):
Quintin Macklin
Daryle Coleman
Travis Long (alt.)
Women (35 and Up):
Jane Mold
Dawn Moore
Torrey Brown
Stand Up Paddle:
Pete Robson
Daryle Coleman
Men Shortboard:
Quintin Macklin
Alex Greene
Masters (40-49):
Pete Robson
Matt Melin
Grand Masters (50-59):
Ron Greene
Legends (60-69):
Bobby Challenger
Masters Shortboard:
Travis Long
Tandem:
Travis Long and
Valerie Duprat
Menehunes:
Patrick O'Connor
We still need
team riders for the following divisions: Jr. Women (15-19), Young
Women (20-34), Noseriding (Open), Noseriding (Masters), Womens
Shortboard
and Super Legends (70 and Up).
Once again
the gods of sun and surf smiled upon the PB Surf Club’s
Summer Classic. Wrapped in Tourmaline’s easy spirit, our
annual event went off without a hitch.
Thanks
to Glenn Paculba’s
judging team we had consistency and undisputed fairness all 36
heats. Joe Rigby and new member, Babette Esterly, kept these
heats running on time from 7:30am to 5:30pm. Jim "Spinner"
Cameron and Travis
Long called the action in the water, the winners, the missing
and thanked the sponsors with accuracy, humor and some very interesting
asides. Jerome Hall and Don Wright marshaled us without the use
of weapons, keeping track of contestants and sending out the
heats
with aloha and precision. Tabulators, Lilly Riley and
Pete Robson, kept the results coming, breaking the ties and guarding
the final
results until the awards. Jane Mold and Mary Helen Ish answered
all those questions (anyone who competes knows how we get) with
kindness and authority all day long at registration. They really
shined when, along with Torrey Brown, our president, these ladies
built and organized the Cat and Dog heats complete with costumes.
The
food arrived on time and in quantity thanks to Peter Fowler,
Taco Surf and The French Gourmet. Membership was very attractive
and very informed thanks to Sandi Pierz and Martin Murphy respectively.
Mark Hines managed the merchandise and raffle ticket sales with
the help of Karen and Erin Steadham. Pablo Smith kept the raffle
moving with timely ticket calling and masterful suspense up until
Jay Peters won the Masi board at the very end.
And none of this happens if the sponsors are not gathered. Huge
thanks to Dave Washkowiak. And the contestants don’t come
and show us Jr. Men’s and Men’s division power and
speed, Sr. Men’s and Masters style and precision, Jr. Women’s
and Women’s grace and skill and Menehune’s talent and
enthusiasm. Special thanks to the dynamic young pack of Kneeboarders
this year and the really fun to watch new division, Stand Up Paddle.
I didn’t know you could do a three sixty on a paddle board.
Operations never let us down under Richard Steadham’s direction
and plenty of brawn and good cheer from Omar Metwalli, Matt Dalton,
Chris Rule, Rex McGrath, Bill Newton, John Esterly, Richard Carne,
Daryle Coleman, Masi Saili, Dawn Moore, Celia Treamer, Matt Melin and Yasuo
Naruse.
WildCoast for preservation of our ocean’s water quality was our beneficiary
this year and we enjoyed having Serge Dedina, executive director and his son
with us for contest day to spread the word about their organization. Visit WildCoast
www.wildcoast.net to
see how you can do your part to preserve our most precious
resource.
If the test of a good event is whether the folks putting it on had a good
time, then we really had a great event. Don’t miss it next year. Come have fun,
get involved, support a good cause, and see some really good surfing.
Men:
1. Micah Wood
2. Isaac Wood
3. Billy Harris
4. Jerry Swearinger
5. Antonio Roberti
Sr.
Men:
1. Jim Cameron
2. Ferdie Morales
3. Masi Saili
4. Foster Thompson
5. Jay Peters
Masters:
1. Joe Rigby
2. Ron Greene
3. Jeff Sinott
4. Bill Snyder
5. Bobby Challenger
6. Robert Gutzler
Jr.
Women:
1. Sarah Goldstein
2. Jackie Vinson
3. Erin Lewis
4. Mele Saili
5. Analise Dubois
Women:
1. Kathy Austin
2. Jane Mold
3. Celia Treamer
4. Coleen Cooney
5. Tracy Gulzolo
6. Dawn Moore
Menehune:
1. Lucas Dirkse
2. David Arganda
3. Mikele Saili
4. Rickey Cunningham
5. Dutch Drinko
6. Patrick O’Connor
Kneeboard:
1. Chris Lain
2. Nick O’Brian
3. Curtis Odham
4. Steve Tucker
5. Eric Osland
6. Taylor Cahppette
7. Zeke Snow
Stand
Up Paddle:
1. Andre Niemeyer
2. David Arganda
3. Tim Mellows
4. Daryl Coleman
5. Pete Robson
6. Dan Duty
Cats:
1. Dawn Moore
2. Mele Saili
3. Celia Treamer
4. Analise Dubois
5. Alex Cunningham
6. Tiare Thompson
Dogs:
1. Ricky Cunningham
2. Lucas Dirkse
3. Richard Steadham
4. Patrick O’Connor
5. Cole Magro
6. Matt Melin
All photos in this section by Ron Greene.
For a lot
more photos
of the contest, check out the Contest
Photo Album. Also, Andre
Niemeyer has a number of photos and videos of the day's events
on his website:
LARRY
GORDON: AKA GORDON AND SMITH SURFBOARDS, Part II
IS IT A SURFBOARD OR IS IT ART?
By Bobby
Challenger Thomas
Gordon
and Smith Gold Label Collection
In 1964, Gordon
and Smith introduced the red and gold emblem series in a full-page
advertisement in
Surfer magazine. The ad introduced
the Exhibition Team of distinguished surfers that exhibit the
boards in the water with outstanding ability, qualified for their
honorary
surf team. Gordon and Smith wrote that they were proud to have
the surfers in the ad as outstanding surfers displaying their
special emblem on their club or personal jackets. I was very
lucky to have
been one of the surfers in the ad along side of Skip Frye.
About 20 years
ago, Larry’s daughter
Debbie discovered a classic gold label board. She displayed
it at the Tourmaline
contest that year seeking the history of the board. As soon
as I saw it, I knew in a second its story and history. Now some
20 years since then I have the opportunity to tell the story
and history. How’s that?
Well,
at our annual Club contest at Tourmaline, Jane Schmauss from
the California Surf Museum showed up to announce the honoring
of Larry Gordon and Floyd Smith of Gordon and Smith Surfboards.
In
her announcement she asked if anyone had any '60s
classic
G&S surfboards, and if so, please bring them to the gathering
on Sunday October 7 for display. Here I was with one in the
back of my truck, but it belonged to Larry Gordon.
Shortly,
here
comes
Jerome
Hall and Jane looking for me in the parking lot. I showed
the board to them and Jane asked if I would bring
it to
the museum
for display and write the history of the board. I told
her I would have to talk to Larry Gordon and I was not even sure
I would
be attending, due to the fact that it was on the same day
or weekend
of the Swamis surf club contest. So if you are not riding
in the event, please show up and pay respect and honor
to
these two men. For without their
foresight, courage and guts to go into the surfboard business,
you may have
never learned to SURF.
And now, here
is the story and history of the board. You tell me, is it a surfboard
or is it art?
So
many memories. I have had this special board in my studio for
restoration for three weeks now. The more I'd looked at it, the
more its story and history started to unfold. I remember this
surfboard like it was yesterday. When I designed and shaped this
9'8", I had one thing in mind: to ride it at the
Huntington Beach Championships in big waves. I was not a noserider
at the time. Then and now, I still prefer bigger waves. In the
picture of me
at the G&S
shaping room, the board is in the background. Look closely. This
tells me when I shaped the board. I remember spending a long
time crafting
this shape, the stringers and the lamenated wood tail block.
Then I went to Larry and told him I wanted to route my fin into
the
center stringer and put my own speed fin into the routed slot.
This is how I know it was a personal board of mine. Larry related
to me when I told him of this story that it was not a standard
G&S
fin design. This was another conformation to my memory. I started
looking
at the 1965 Leroy Grannis photo of me surfing at the Huntington
Beach Championships for that year and could see that I was riding
that very same board.
I remember
this board the first day I ordered the blank and shaped it into
my own personal board with its unique fin design. And then,
have photos to boot!
I am so blessed to see and have memories of a surfboard I shaped
about 43 years ago. I hope that someday, maybe you can continue
the history of surfing in San Diego like Gordon and Smith Surfboards
have.
By the way,
I told Larry the board might bring $20,000.00 in a special auction.
His reply: "Bobby, I will never sell it to
you."
In closing,
I believe it is the oldest surfboard I ever shaped at G&S
and could one of the oldest boards in Larry’s
personal family collection. I am proud to say, Larry and
his family
have a piece of ART. I can also say, they have lasted this
long in time to become truly
a legend of surfing
and
an icon
in the industry.
Please come
to the Gordon and Smith tribute on Sunday, October 7. Click
here
for a brochure of the event.the California Surf Museum, Oceanside.
The Swami's
club contest at Cardiff Reef is a really good reef break this
time of the year. Get some photos for your memory album. Trust
me on this
one. If you haven't signed up yet, contact Team Captain,
Travis Long.
Tourmaline
Tailgaters' Surfers Stomp: At
our contest, Tom Davis said to me, "Challenger, get
your dancing shoes on and defend
your title." I said, "Sure Tom, I am ready." Last
year's dance was my first and I really had a lot of fun.
Kathy Austin was there dancing
her little heart out and several of us from the club
were cheering her on. Remember Kathy? Memories are forever. The
chick
can dance!
Tourmaline
Surfer’s Memorial: Put
the Thomas family down for $1000.00. Preserve,
educate, honor and enshrine those who came before—and after—for
this really cool
idea. Good deeds,
Tailgaters'.
Calendar
of My Adventurers: Oct 6/7: Swamis club contest. Could be really good.
Get some photos. Oct 7: California Surf Museum Honoring Larry Gordon
and Floyd Smith of Gordon and Smith Surfboards
Since 1959.
See the classic
gold label
I shaped 44 years ago. Oct 12: Mission Bay High School Alumni Gathering.
More to come. Oct 13: 2:00pm; One
ofthe "Kahuna" panelists featured
at the
Sacred
Craft Consumer Surfboard Expo at
the Del Mar Fairgrounds.
Oct 13: Tourmaline Tailgaters
Association “SURFERS
STOMP” at the Masonic Lodge, Point Loma.
Get your dancing shoes
on. Oct 31: Baja surf adventure.
Smitty’s break. Fish, surf
and play with my dog, "Chief." Nov: Windansea Club event. Do we believe we can
win? I do. Feb 2008: Australia, Noosa Contest. Shape new
boards. Come and surf with me.
Photos from
the Bobby Challenger Thomas Collection
WHEN
THE STUDENT IS READY, THE TEACHER APPEARS
By Jerome
Lynn Hall
As
a university undergraduate many years ago, I enrolled in
a course titled “Family Relations,” a popular
semester-long study that dealt with the intricacies of
family membership. “It’s
not always the big issues that cause friction,” said
the professor, “but
the little things!”
And then, as
he launched into the concept of the Ego, how it is so remarkably
fragile and so
often the source of struggle
in relationships,
our professor said something I have never forgotten: “When
you know who you are, you can take out the trash!”
What he was saying,
of course, was that when we are secure in ourselves, then the
door to true humility is opened. Too often,
however, our insecurities get the best of us: we become inflated
with our own self-importance and soon, before we’re aware
of it, our relationships with tasks, things, and people become
distorted.
I was reminded
of my professor’s teaching just a few
weeks ago when several of us from the PB Surf Club met
at La Paloma
Theater in Encinitas to view the newly released One
California Day, a spectacular
surf film (co-directed by Mark Jeremias and Jason Baffa)
featuring eight California surfers: Joe Curren, Jimmy
Gamboa, Tyler Hatzikian,
Alex Knost, Chris Malloy, Dane Perlee, Joel Tudor, and
Tyler Warren.
What made that
film really special, however, was the on-screen guest appearance
of San Diego’s own Skip
Frye. One after another, beginning with Cardiff’s Joel
Tudor, the featured stars talked about the powerful influence
that Skip had on them,
not only as
surfers, but as human beings.
Harry “Skip” Frye
was born in 1941 in San Diego and started surfing at
age 16.
He began shaping boards five years later and soon
found himself working for G&S Surfboards, where,
in 1966, they introduced the Skip Frye signature
model. He later traveled to Australia as one of California’s
top competitors. After witnessing first hand the
Aussie “short-board
revolution,” Skip returned to California to
become the lead innovator of the short board and
V-bottom designs.
In those opening
scenes of One California Day, it
wasn’t so
much Skip’s classic board riding stance and
recognizable trim that impressed me. It was his
familiar silhouette moving
quietly and deliberately across the beach as he
picked up trash that others
had left behind.
I recall a
simple Zen proverb that goes something like this: “When
the student is ready, the teacher appears.”
If
you’re ready, you can learn a lot from
Skip Frye: he’s
that 1991 Surfing Hall of Fame inductee that
you watch treating people kindly in the lineup
just before he glides effortlessly down a green
water wave at P.B. Point; he’s the Longboard Magazine Reader’s
Poll Master’s Division Champion who never
hesitated to extend his hand to your friends
the first time you brought them down to
Tourmaline Surfing Park; he’s that legendary
wave rider, master board shaper, and international
celebrity picking up the trash in
front of Skeeter Malcolm’s memorial bench,
making the beach a better and more beautiful
place for you to enjoy.
When you
know who you are, you don’t beat others over the head
with your credentials. When you know who
you are, you extend your hand to strangers and
make them feel welcome. When you know who
you are, you can take out—or pick up—the
trash.
Please welcome
the following new (and renewing) members into the club: Jim
DuBois, Doug Daly and Bruce, Diana and Isaac
Wood. Be
sure to show them the PBSC aloha spirit
when you see him at future club meetings and events.
Thanks
to Glenn Paculba’s
judging team we had consistency and undisputed fairness all 36
heats. Joe Rigby and new member, Babette Esterly, kept these
heats running on time from 7:30am to 5:30pm. Jim "Spinner"
Cameron and Travis
Long called the action in the water, the winners, the missing
and thanked the sponsors with accuracy, humor and some very interesting
asides. Jerome Hall and Don Wright marshaled us without the use
of weapons, keeping track of contestants and sending out the
heats
with aloha and precision. Tabulators, Lilly Riley and
Pete Robson, kept the results coming, breaking the ties and guarding
the final
results until the awards. Jane Mold and Mary Helen Ish answered
all those questions (anyone who competes knows how we get) with
kindness and authority all day long at registration. They really
shined when, along with Torrey Brown, our president, these ladies
built and organized the Cat and Dog heats complete with costumes. 
The
food arrived on time and in quantity thanks to Peter Fowler,
Taco Surf and The French Gourmet. Membership was very attractive
and very informed thanks to Sandi Pierz and Martin Murphy respectively.
Mark Hines managed the merchandise and raffle ticket sales with
the help of Karen and Erin Steadham. Pablo Smith kept the raffle
moving with timely ticket calling and masterful suspense up until
Jay Peters won the Masi board at the very end.
Gordon
and Smith Gold Label Collection
Well,
at our annual Club contest at Tourmaline, Jane Schmauss from
the California Surf Museum showed up to announce the honoring
of Larry Gordon and Floyd Smith of Gordon and Smith Surfboards.
In
her announcement she asked if anyone had any '60s
classic
G&S surfboards, and if so, please bring them to the gathering
on Sunday October 7 for display. Here I was with one in the
back of my truck, but it belonged to Larry Gordon.
So
many memories. I have had this special board in my studio for
restoration for three weeks now. The more I'd looked at it, the
more its story and history started to unfold. I remember this
surfboard like it was yesterday. When I designed and shaped this
9'8", I had one thing in mind: to ride it at the
Huntington Beach Championships in big waves. I was not a noserider
at the time. Then and now, I still prefer bigger waves. In the
picture of me
at the G&S
shaping room, the board is in the background. Look closely. This
tells me when I shaped the board. I remember spending a long
time crafting
this shape, the stringers and the lamenated wood tail block.
Then I went to Larry and told him I wanted to route my fin into
the
center stringer and put my own speed fin into the routed slot.
This is how I know it was a personal board of mine. Larry related
to me when I told him of this story that it was not a standard
G&S
fin design. This was another conformation to my memory. I started
looking
at the 1965 Leroy Grannis photo of me surfing at the Huntington
Beach Championships for that year and could see that I was riding
that very same board.
By the way,
I told Larry the board might bring $20,000.00 in a special auction.
His reply: "Bobby, I will never sell it to
you."
The Swami's
club contest at Cardiff Reef is a really good reef break this
time of the year. Get some photos for your memory album. Trust
me on this
one. If you haven't signed up yet, contact Team Captain,
What made that
film really special, however, was the on-screen guest appearance
of San Diego’s own Skip
Frye. One after another, beginning with Cardiff’s Joel
Tudor, the featured stars talked about the powerful influence
that Skip had on them,
not only as
surfers, but as human beings. 