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MALIBU BOARDRIDERS CLUB 15TH ANNUAL COMPETITION By Richard Steadham It's always magical surfing at Malibu, that legendary and unique surf spot, especially during a contest. It was no different the weekend of July 22nd and 23rd when the team from the Pacific Beach Surf Club came once again conjuring up visions of surfing glory in their heads. Well, the Malibu magic was certainly there, but for the team, it was that ol' black magic that seemed to have a spell on them. We'll get to that shortly.
The First Round of Heats To put it simply, the elimination rounds on Saturday reduced our team by just over half its members. Yikes! Going down in these early heats were: Max Ullman in the Junior Men 15-19 heat; Josh Hall in the Men 20-29 group; Derek Lodico in the Men 30-39 division; Pier Moore in the Men 40-49 category; Kym Milburn in the Women 20-34 heat; Kathy Austin in the Women 30 & Up division; and all of our Groms, including: Nick Hastings, Nick D'Rov, and Kelly Holcomb. We lost some really talented surfers in this bunch and it was just the first day!
Looking on the bright side, almost half the team surfed well enough on Saturday to surf again on Sunday. This fortunate group included: Alex Greene in the Junior Men 15-19 heat; Dave Sams in the Men 20-29 group; Travis Long in the Men 30-39 division; both Ron Green and Pablo Smith in the Men 50-59 heat; Bobby Challenger Thomas in the Legends 60+ category; Deborah Hoyt in the Women 20-34 heat; Eve Allerton in the Women 30 & Up group; and Travis Long with Halley Burd in the Tandem division. Congrats to all these on a good first day of competition! With the first day's rounds over, our hosts put on a nice Mexican fiesta-style spread for contestants and their supporters, just below the judges' stand on the beach. A live band furnished the just the right sounds to keep the evening lively. When all the festivities finally died down, everyone made their way back to the place they would call home for the night—and oh what a night it was: oppressive heat, intermittent cold flashes, freak wind gusts, and plenty of thunder and lightening. It was enough to keep one eye slightly twitching while the other tried to sleep. Sunday morning eventually dawned and it was time to focus on the second day's action.
The Quarter Finals The forecast had called for a bump-up in wave size from Hurricane Daniel swirling off in the South, however, a continuing theme among riders in the early heats was catching the four wave maximum (judges scoring the two best waves). During some heats, waves were scarce with long waits between sets. Eve Allerton surfing in the Women 35+ division said after her heat that she had gotten her four waves alright, but that she had beaten herself by falling on two of them during good sets. She finished 4th, just out of contention.
Alex Greene in the Men 15-19 heat also got his four waves in, but found himself not in sync yet that early in the morning and finished a disappointing 5th. His day was over early along with Eve and Deborah's. The planets were in perfect alignment for Travis Long as he surfed a great heat and wound up in 1st place in the Men 30-39 group. Being superstitious, he attributed his good fortune to wearing his purple trunks. More than likely though, it was a strategy of lining up 50 yards inside by himself after the 5 minute horn had sounded, allowing him to execute two beautiful rides in the closing seconds of the heat, right in front of the judges' stand.
Dave Sams surfing in the Men 20-29 heat had a crowd-thrilling wave when he battled the whitewater from way outside. Falling on his board in a seemingly ride-ending moment, he recovered, made a difficult section in the middle which allowed him to extend the ride all the way inside. When the tallied sheets were posted minutes later, it was hard to believe he had finished way back in 6th place. Bobby Challenger Thomas in the Men 60+ heat found the increasing breezy conditions with plenty of texture on the water no problem. His experienced surfing here landed him in third place with an eye on the finals.
The Tandem heats began at 11:30 in the morning with Travis Long and Halley Burd paddling out in the second one at 11:45. A close call on their first wave almost cost them dearly with and interference call on a pair trimming along from the far right (their left). As we soon learned, the judges had determined that that team was too far back in the whitewater to be affected by Travis and Halley. Whew! Their remaining three waves demonstrated their amazing ability to perform a variety of beautiful maneuvers and secure for themselves a 3rd place in the heat, and a spot in the Tandem Finals. While the Tandem heats were going on, the annual paddle competition was getting underway down the beach, closer to the pier. We cobbled together a team and headed for the starting gate. With high hopes, we wished them luck... and they were off! From the get go it looked like we were in for a real battle. When it was all said and done, we limped into the finish line in 11th place (out of 12 teams). Looking at this from the glass half full perspective, we have 365 days until next year to bone up on our paddling skills. |
Saturday
morning when the first heats got under way, the sun had yet to
rise over
the Malibu hills to our East (Surfrider Beach at Malibu faces
South-Southwest). Conditions were glassy, with waves ankle
to waist high. The water temp hovered around
69-70 degrees.
Nice. 20 Coalition clubs were lined up cheek-to-jowl with their
tents along the stretch of sand facing break one, their colorful
banners proudly proclaiming each tent's occupants.
With this scene in mind, let's turn our attention to the business
at hand—the contest.
In the Women
20-34 group, Deborah Hoyt surfed what she felt
was a good heat for her, but soon learned when the results were
posted that Carla Rowland of the Malibu Surfing Association had
won it handily surfing
on her home break. Deborah placed
5th in a very competitive heat.
Taking a cue
from Travis and setting up shop inside, Ron Greene in
the Men 50-59 division had two really nice noserides there, beating
crumbling
sections and cutting back and forth across the face of the wave
along the way. With precious minutes ticking away in his heat,
he scrambled
outside
to get
his remaining
two
waves
in, though
the effort in the end only netted him 4th
place. In the same division, but a later heat, Pablo
Smith found
himself in 2nd place after scoring multiple points powering through
four nice waves with style, several of them ending with clean
kickouts in front of the judges' stand way inside.
A surrealistic atmosphere had lingered most of the morning with the distant rumble of thunder and the occasional bolt of lightening striking the horizon offshore. A little after 12 noon, heavy sprinkles began falling making everyone scramble to get things under cover. Then the wind joined the fun. Those on the beach with empty hands grabbed tent poles and became anchors as the gusts came and went. At about one o'clock when it seemed that the wind had leveled back down to a whisper, suddenly the lid blew off as one of our tents became airborne flying back about 20 feet, just missing Mr. Burd (Halley's father). The team from Sunset Cliffs who were camped next to us witnessed the same thing to two of their tents. Up and down the beach it could be seen that several other teams had suffered the same fate. By 2 o'clock, the sun was back out shining again, the earlier excitement just a memory. The contest continued.
The Semi Finals Pablo Smith surfed his four waves with as much aggressiveness as he could muster with the hand he was dealt, but only managed a 5th place showing in the Men 50-59 group. Speaking afterwards, he said that it was all a case of bad positioning during the entire heat. Out of position, out of contention. Game over.
The Finals
Black magic I tell you. Or, were we just plain out surfed this year? Call it what you want, but that's the way it went for us this time around. We'll lick our wounds and be back again next year when hopefully the right kind of magic will be with us once again. Thanks to the Malibu Boardriders Club for another class event, and thanks to the other clubs in the Coalition for demonstrating great style in the art of longboarding for another "Call to the Wall."
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By late afternoon
when the finals began, the conditions had steadily improved to
the point that the waves were now reaching shoulder high and
almost glassy. Surviving
to the end and carrying the team's last best chances for a place
in the
money were Travis Long in the Men 30-39 division, Travis again
with his partner Halley
Burd in the Tandems, and Bobby Challenger
Thomas in the Men 60+ heats. One by one as the finals
went down though, improved conditions didn't improve our chances
for glory this year
as Travis
finished 5th in his singles heat, equaling his 5th in the Tandems
with Halley. Bobby finished 6th in his final showing.
UPCOMING COALITION EVENTS Oceanside Longboard Contest: August 19-20; Oceanside Longboard Surf Club; Oceanside Malibu Surfing Association Classic: September 9-10; Malibu |
OTHER UPCOMING EVENTS
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This month's
lead photo is by Travis Long. It was taken in the water while
Travis
was following Nick Hastings on a tasty little Malibu offering.
For more, visit the PB Surf Club website at: http://www.pbsurfclub.org
Copyright
2006, Pacific Beach Surf Club, San Diego, California
Editor & Designer: Richard Steadham
Got news? Send it to rlsteadham@mac.com
