Surfrider Foundation's Longboard Team Challenge 62nd St. Ocean City, MD July 13, 2002 "ASC's First Team Contest Event"

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ASC Competed and Stomped!!!
(Pics added down below)

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We were Last… but definitely not least!

Well, the phones lines were buzz’n on Friday night.  Todd was already down at the beach and he advised me that there was nothing to ride.  “One foot mush and the wind is all wrong.”  Pat called to see if everything was a go.  “Yeah, just heard from Todd, guess we will go down and pick up our t-shirts –nothing to ride.”  Then Missy called and said that she wanted to go and meet the rest of the club since she has finally broken away from the busy ice-skating schedule.  5:00am came early and Pat pulled up to my house sucking down a soda.  We loaded his board and left to pick up Missy.  Got out on RT50 and bolted for the contest site.

We pulled up to the beach and found the contest site ready for battle with waist to shoulder high peelers breaking on two different peaks.  Whoa…. we were definitely not expecting such conditions for the contest.  The day was looking up already.  Todd and Doug joined us on the beach and we quickly paddled out for a warm up session.  Nice stuff but crowed due to everyone else's warm up session.  We caught a few and headed in to set up camp.  We were then joined by KC (our fifth team member), Sean, Foon, Rod, Kirk, Amy, and Bruce (who had been there early due to his head judge status).  Kirk brought a brand new ASC Banner that looked great and helped adorn our beach encampment made of sunshades and beach umbrellas.  The call for team
captains came over the bullhorn.  I decided that it was time for the fun to begin.  I reached in my bag and pulled out a large zebra stripped, pimp style hat.  I proudly placed it atop my receding hair and strutted in Pimp Style to the Judges table for the drawing of our heat placement.  I figured we had no chance of winning this thing…so we mind as well compete with style (cheesy…but style nonetheless).  I pulled number nine, which meant we competed first on beach B.  Cool, cause that was right in front of our ASC party camp.

The horn blew and the five of us paddled for the breakers.  I was still wearing the Pimp hat. The rest of our club cheered us on from the shore.  I caught two waves with that hat before losing it in a wipeout.  Not a total loss, cause it weighted about 20 pounds when wet.  Pat and Doug took a few waves, KC and Todd took few as well.  We were all tired beyond belief. The nerves of five surfers in their first-ever competition heat, were starting take their toll on the boys.  Tired as could be, I paddled for the wave of the day.  Had to be close to head high.  KC and Todd were in the impact zone and I thought I could thread the needle between the two.  I knew that if I went between them I would probably not make the face but that was the only way to go.  I caught it and made the drop but a collision was inevitable.  YIKES!!!! Somehow we made it back out in the line up with only damaged ego’s.  A couple more waves and the heat ended.  We felt good about our accomplishment and the hat was recovered in the shore break.

The rest of the day was basically a huge beach party with a DJ spinning tunes and everyone just chillin and chattin.  Raffles tickets, Surfrider stickers and free CDs were dolled out to the crowd and food was grilled on the beach.  The ASC talked story with each other and other surf clubs.  We also got to know some of our newer members a little better.  Rod was snapping photos right and left.  We can't wait to see them.  We surfed our second heat around 1:30.  It was fairly uneventful.  The waves had gotten smaller and had a funky bump to them.  Everyone caught a few but was unable to do much with them.  My final ride consisted of whipping down my trunks and mooning the crowd before the wave closed out on me.  Yes, once again a pre-planned
style move.  I was modest enough to don a pair of Speedos under my trunks.  Unfortunately, they were a size too small!   :o

After the event, Doug Rhodes and his lovely wife Kate hosted an ASC post celebration party at their home away from home in Bethany.  Thank you, Doug and Kate for such a nice place to retreat and unwind.  You guys have a great place, thanks for opening it up to such a crew as ours.  Sorry we missed Bruce, we suspected he was helping with closing ceremonies.  It was a
long day for the ASC but a fun one.  I will definitely do that contest again next year.  Bruce “will” surf with us next year.  We need his coaching and scoring ability to pull us up from the bottom.

Well done team

Neal (the Pimping Kahuna) 

The Surfrider Foundation Longboard Team Challenge held Saturday July 13, was a certifiable wicked pissah. Everything seemed to come together to make this event work. No surf on Friday became good surf on Saturday. Onshores on Friday became variable winds Saturday and not a factor in the waves. ASC was very well represented in both our team and sexy (liberal) banner. 
Photographer Rod Rodgers snapped dozens of contest pics which he no doubt will post when he returns from a "surf" trip to the Left Coast. I hope he got a good shot of President Big Kahuna, now "Pimpboy" Carver with his distinctive headwear. Many thanks to all who showed up to participate and cheer on our team. Thanks to Doug and his wife for graciously inviting us to their beautiful home for a post contest soiree. I hope none of you broke anything :)

Late comer Snake Gabrielson informed Doug and I Team ASC finished dead last in the standings. I'm certain we will win the "most improved" team next year after more practice and coaching by Snake. I hope everyone made it home safely. I may have more time to comment tonight after I take a nap. I'm sweepy.

-Foon

Being head judge in a bigger contest is really a lot of work.  I think next year I'll just surf and maybe judge a few heats.  Anyway, here is my report on the weekend.

I arrived about 6:30 Friday night for the Pre-Contest Party at K-Coast's Surf Camp.  Derrek decided to go surfing until dark but with my bad back I preferred to simply sip a few, eat and enjoy visiting with the many folks I knew at the party.  Several 62nd St Longboard Club members were there as well as most of the local shop owners and top surfers in the area. 

I had a chance to talk shop with Dave Dalkawitz and also had a long discussion with former RS Surfboards teammate Van Garrad about his future plans.  He has turned pro and will enter his first pro event at the ECSC next month.  He also wanted to use my board for the weekend competition since it was exactly the same design as the RS he had before leaving Florida.  No problem on my end as I was still to injured to surf anyway.

Stayed at the camp's house that night and got to the beach about 6am for setup and organization.  I couldn't lift anything heavy so mostly just held things and helped where I could.  The surf was really hollow and clean.  Plenty of lefts and right in my favorite surf spot.  Others started arriving but no ASCers until Doug got there around 7:30 I'm guessing.  The rest of the crew showed closer to 8am and several headed into the water after setting up camp near the lifeguard tower. Interesting that it was right next to the 62nd St Longboard Club's beach camp.  Derrek had been at an all night college party in Salisbury (I remember those type of parties) so arrived very late.  Fortunately I was able to get him on Josh Merritt's team and he surfed well being eliminated right before the finals.

As for our crew, actually we didn't surf all that bad.  What brought our score down was that not everyone caught 3 solid waves during the heat and other teams all got full wave counts.  Another interesting note was that in the first round, we finished just below the 62nd St team who were also there to have a good time.

I gave some pointers about contest surfing between the first and second heats which I believe a couple of our team may have taken to heart. Don't bunch up, don't try to take off next to a team member unless your really need points, and ride the waves in as far as possible.  Also, in longboard surfing, tricks count for added points. I had to judge nearly every heat all day so only got a few breaks to visit.

The contest went to nearly 5pm with Van's team (K Coast) eventually winning with Chauncey's coming in second. He had a tremendous final clearly showing his talent for high scores in weak surf.  I think the longboard fin first 360 takeoff and then ten on the nose with an arch to end the ride was the highest scored wave I had all day.

When I made it to Doug's everyone but Foon had already left.  At least I had a beer to wind down.

- Snake