The 5th Annual ESeMMY AWARDS
Compiled by Matt Pruett, Chris Towery, Dick Meseroll, Tom Dugan, and Jimmy Wilson

1. ESM COVERSHOT OF THE YEAR:
JUSTIN JONES BY LARRY POPE (MARCH 2006, VOL.15, #111), as voted by ESM's in-house staff and Senior Photographers)

"Sebastian Inlet is a left; it always has been. I hate to break it to everyone." So quoth East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame boardbuilder/ surf photographer Larry Pope. And peeping at the cover of Issue #111, who can argue with that seemingly contrarian observation after he gave ESM the privilege and honor to run his shot of one of the sickest Right Coast lefthanders ever to grace any surf pub and, debatably, the best-ever single image from the Inlet?  

The real kicker, though, is the fact that after a self-imposed, 25-year exile from shooting, LP decided to get back into the game with a used Nikon film body and an old manual focus 600 mm lens "dating back to the Johnson Administration" as he self-deprecatingly likes to point out. Eschewing much easier-to-use, technologically dialed-in digital gear where a Ph.D. (Press Here Dummy) in surf photography can be purchased for about $12,000, and which nearly takes all the thinking and physical dexterity out of the equation, Larry Legend started hitting Sebastian for the first time in over a quarter-century and picked right up where he left off -- by snagging one of the best of ESM's 118 front page pics. He hands-down takes this year's coveted Covershot of the Year Award by doing it the old school way -- with skill, knowledge, a good eye, and a deft touch. So take note, kids, because you just can't buy those kind of things from B&H Photo. 

2. THIS GIRL IS DEFINITELY NOT FROM VENUS -- ESM GIRL OF THE YEAR:
JENNIKA BY CHAD MARTEL (NOVEMBER 2006, VOL.15, #117)

Picking the ESM Girl, if not the best part of our day, is usually one of the hardest. We get photos from boyfriends, models in training, moms who are looking for a last hurrah to show their husbands they're still hot, companies trying to promote a product, or if we're lucky, just the odd, drop dead gorgeous girl wanting to be in the mag. With a group vote, we pick the photo we feel makes the girl look the best and will reproduce well in our magazine, then send it to the art director, place it with the advertising company's logo, add some cool fonts and an extra splash of color, and viola!  

We always get immediate feedback on the ESM Girl from sources all across the country, and the world, for that matter. Good or bad, everyone has their opinion on how hot she is. It's especially funny when we go into restaurants or surfboard factories up and down the coast and see her glued to the walls. It shows us that people really appreciate the beauty a pretty girl can offer.  

When Jacksonville, FL-based photographer Chad Martel sent down a disc with around 100 photos, our panel of experts looked, picked, and voted on the resulting photo of our November subject, Jennika, as our ESM Girl of the Year. Here's looking at you, kid... and we hope all you out there in magazine land agree with our collective vote. If you have a better photo of a hotter girl in contention for next year's award, our address and e-mails are in the front of the mag. But for now, no one rocks our world like Jennika! 

3. REUNITED AWARD:
JOSH WILSON AND PRO SURFING

When Josh Wilson was an amateur, he was on a path to become just as successful as Kelly Slater. With three back-to-back U.S. Championships and an NSSA National title under his belt by the time he was 18, the Cocoa Beach, FL, native appeared poised to bust down some major doors as a pro.  

But just three years later, he found himself homeless, sponsorless, and strung out on drugs. He eventually landed in prison, where he spent the next three years contemplating just how far he'd fallen. After doing his time and getting cleaned up, Wilson devoted his life to helping others avoid the same mistakes he made and began working as a surf coach for Central Florida groms, while slowly getting back into competitive surfing himself. Today, at 26, the kids Wilson instructs are tearing up the local contest scene, and Josh himself is posting solid results in both amateur and pro events. He's even picked up sponsorship with Cape Surf and Viking Surfboards and is landing in magazine advertisements on a regular basis. He may not be another Kelly Slater, but more importantly, he's once again proud to be Josh Wilson.

4. BIG BALLS TO BIG WALLS AWARD:
CHARLIE KUHN

During an ESM summer trip to Costa Rica in 1996 with a still grommet-aged CJ Hobgood, our dear old friend and East Coast expat Charlie "Chuck" Kuhn took us by hired boat to a mysterious set of breaks north of his Playa Hermosa homebase. He had been reconnoitering this area with partner Johnny Futch for some time, and now a solid, six to eight-foot-plus swell hammered the still-unknown reefs and slabs there, while completely closing out Hermosa like a junior Puerto Escondido. With the whole "tow thing" just beginning to take shape and take off, it seemed impossible to scratch into these waves with the equipment on-hand. "How the hell can you get into these outer reef beasts?" we wondered aloud while heading back to the safer confines of alternative breaks our boards could deal with. To which Charlie replied, "Easy. We're thinking about getting jet-skis and towing into them. But it needs to be a lot bigger to make it worthwhile." "Oh, riiiiiight, jet-skis... and bigger. Whatever you say Kuhn-dog..." we said, thinking that the Costa Rican heat had finally rendered him Troppo as we stared down the massive, freight-training walls from out the back.  

Well, we should've known better, a lot better. Because some 10 years later in the Summer of 2006, it happened. After working out the kinks and honing the technique in near-secrecy, our longtime hellman compadre -- who has tackled closed-out Waimea and was an ASP World Tour standout for years -- and his elite crew (which included Jim Hogan, John Futch, and Shea Lopez along with Surfing Magazine/ ESM lensman DJ Struntz) encountered and conquered a defining day in Central American surf history as the biggest Costa Rica ever photographed. It was a moment of waveriding lore, which easily earned this Cojone Grande posse of Right Coasters our BBTBW accolade. 

5. WORD OF MOUTH AWARD:
MATT KECHELE ON THE CLARK FOAM SHUTDOWN
(JANUARY 2006, VOL.15, #110)

"It's a weird feeling. Like you're waxing your '57 Chevy for the last time, just before you drive it off a cliff." ­Matt Kechele on what it feels like to shape the last of his Clark blanks.

In the closing weeks of 2005, after Gordon Clark bushwhacked the surfing world with the surprise shutdown of the industry's only true monopolistic business, Clark Foam, the levels of panic, fear, "ding-dong the witch is dead" pontificating, shady maneuvering, "the sky is falling" rumor mongering, and wildfire-hot speculation that scorched our sport was unparalleled in our modern history. Everybody had an opinion -- most of them extremely negative -- and it was damn near impossible to cut through the bullshit and rhetoric and put it all into some perspective, which we feel Kech did with just the right amount of humor and poignancy, letting us all enjoy a little smile in a drowning sea of sad and confused faces. 

6. WELL, SHUT OUR MOUTHS -- BEST EAST COAST COVERAGE BY A WEST COAST MAG: SURFLINE.COM

Someone once said, "You can't wipe your ass with a website." Well, maybe not, but you can research how to build your own bidet.  

In 2006, the big three -- Transworld Surf, Surfer Magazine, Surfing Magazine -- all put up their share of obligatory Hurricane Season coverage; they all incorporated East Coast surfers -- unsurprisingly, it was usually our WCT guys (Kelly, Cory, and the Goods) -- into their travel stories, photo features, and big item spread shots. And all threw the Eastside a bone when it came to regular departments like TWS's Epilogue, Last Words, Check Out, Destinations, Quivers, and Pop Quiz; Surfing's Whipped, First Look, Surf Shop of the Month, Wipeout, At Random, ElimiDUDE!, Trip, and How To; and Surfer's The Human Touch, The Perfect Day, Exposure, 5 Questions, Session Notes, Finals, and Dispatch. Each also emblazoned Right Coasters on a few of their covers. But across the board, the East Coast love, while noticeably a notch higher than it has been in the past, was still a little soft and placating.  

So this year, we went outside the box... uh, we mean triangle, to find this ESeMMY winner not in print, but electronic media. And no website even comes close to doing the East Coast, and the global surf community in general, justice with consistent, updated, in-depth coverage of our glorious sport and lifestyle than Surfline.com. Be it a contest, swell event, surf trip, press release, interview, breaking news story, season outlook, storm summary, character profile, or Surfline's innovative audio-narrated photographer portfolios, if you can't find exactly what you're looking for (or at least something related to it) on Surfline.com, it probably didn't happen. With celebrated surf journalist Marcus Sanders at the helm as Managing Editor, they stayed on it all year, often enlisting ESM's very own writers and photographers to cover the Eastside beat: tow-at sessions, New England winter surf escapades, all kinds of major and not-so-major swell events, pretty much every major East Coast pro contest, heartfelt eulogies for lost brothers and sisters, surfbreaks in danger, environmental victories,

standout pros and ams, El Nino predictions, Hurricane Season wrap-ups, and so much more -- often including direct links to related stories, surf cams, forecasts, video clips. 

While the Cali print mags continue to cherry-pick their ideas of who and what matters over here enough to pay attention to, Surfline.com bombards you with all of it, and let's you decide.

7. INDUSTRY INFILTRATION:
THE HOBGOOD TWINS AND CORY LOPEZ OPEN THEIR OWN SURF SHOPS

Traditionally, professional surfers have seamlessly crossed the line of sport and business in just about all levels of the industry. You've got ex-pros like heavy-water hellman Evan Slater as Editor of Surfing Magazine, 1976 World Champion Peter Townend coaching the U.S.A. Surf Team, former ASP Top-16 competitor Todd Holland working as a surf travel agent at Surf Express, and countless other top athletes employed in some capacity or another with just about every major brand out there. Up until now, though, pros waited until their competitive careers were over, or at least waning, before making the move into the business side of the equation.  

But things changed this year, when Cory Lopez and the Hobgoods launched their own surf shops -- Nekton Board Shop and The Goods Surf & Skate, respectively -- while still going strong in the WCT. These guys are taking advantage of their current ratings while they're still red hot and giving back to the communities in which they were raised. And if they're successful enough, it may also give professional surfers an entirely new outlet for investing in their own futures.

8. PHOTO SLORE OF THE YEAR:
ALEK PARKER

Surfer Magazine said it best in their annual "Hot 100" scouting report (in which Alek Parker ranked 44th): "He's determined to get out there and see the world, but he probably won't be wearing a jersey when he does it." True, it seems like Alek hasn't won a contest since the invention of the steam engine, but truth be told, competition is a very small part of professional surfing these days. Tons more pros make their living getting in front of a camera than getting on top of a winner's podium. That's just the nature of the business, and for Parker, business has been good. Very good.  

Ad shots up the wazoo, double-page editorial spreads in Transworld Surf, a "Human Touch" profile in Surfer Magazine, a hilariously self-deprecating cameo in Jamie O'Brien's video Freakside, a spot on the Fuel TV show "The Daily Habit" and photo trips to Italy, Indonesia, and everywhere in between. If that weren't enough, the kid scored his very first cover of Eastern Surf (November 2006). And no one was more visible this Hurricane Season, as Parker pitched the incredibly ambitious idea to Transworld Surf of sending him up and down the East Coast -- along with TWS Senior Staff Photog Seth Stafford and filmer Jerry Ricciotti -- to catch and document the best tropical swells for a story titled "Hurricane Hunters" (which ran a healthy 16 pages in their latest issue). And we don't even have to tell you who got the most shots in that feature. If that weren't enough, A.P. started his own surf production company, 321 Entertainment, assuring himself even more exposure in the future.  

To sum up, Alek Parker shows you don't necessarily need a 3-star, a 4-star, or even a 6-star... to be your own star.

9. ENVIRO HERO:
BILL ROSENBLATT

As a psychologist in Loch Arbor, NJ, Dr. Bill Rosenblatt is well-known for treating chronic pain without narcotics. Within the surfing community, however, he's known for easing New Jersey waveriders' suffering from environmental maladies like poor water quality, restricted beach access, and coastal armoring. For 20 years, Rosenblatt worked tirelessly with Surfrider Foundation and other conservation groups -- both as an individual member and as Mayor of Loch Arbor -- to help protect and rehabilitate Jersey's shores. But this year, after being appointed as Chair of Surfrider's Board of Directors, he's in charge of looking after the entire U.S. coastline. With an East Coaster in such a powerful office, when it comes to our beaches getting a clean bill of health, we can rest assured we're in the best of care.

10. UNLIKELY HERO:
MARSHALL ALBERGA

Marshall Alberga is a mutt. That's right, a mangy, half-breed mongrel sniffing around the Brevard County dogpound looking for any treat he can get. Oh sure, he can run, jump, and bark with the best of his fellow Ocean Avenue pups. But this 18-year-old (people years) wasn't even considered when organizers composed the invite list for the inaugural Sean Slater Invitational in Cocoa Beach -- a sort of Best In Show of Florida hounds with heavy names like Shea Lopez, Aaron Cormican, and Kelly Slater gracing the heat sheets. But winning the previous week's AAU National Championships earned Marshall a wildcard slot in the event. And he went absolutely rabid, pouncing on each and every opponent all the way to the final, where he faced off against top dogs Shea-Lo and the newly crowned 8-time ASP World Champ himself. After chewing through a couple lefthand scraps, Marshall suddenly found himself on the victory stand, taking $3850 for his first professional win and an incalculable amount of respect. Which just goes to show -- every dog has its day, even the mutts. 

11. BEHOLD A DARKHORSE -- WHO DA GUY AWARD:
WARREN SMITH

Starting with our very first issue, ESM has always featured the much sought-after Who Da Guy column as a way of showcasing the Right Coast's up-and-coming talent and underground heroes. These short questionnaires, where we allow the surfers to construct their own profiles rather than giving our take on them, provide readers with a glimpse into both the featured person's surfing accomplishments as well as their personalities. And the responses are as vast and varied as the individuals themselves: sometimes they're outrageous and funny as hell, sometimes they're wry and witty, and other times they're pensive and to the point. Occasionally, we stumble upon a true character -- a person who's so off-the-wall, so full of life, we just know they're destined for something big. This year, that guy was Warren Smith. The Panama City, FL, native-turned-Cali transplant's totally outlandish answers, which we've reprinted a few of above, had us doubled over with laughter.  

But the most amazing thing about Warren is that his surfing is just as insane as his way with words. Immediately following our coverage, he started popping up everywhere. He was featured prominently in Surfing Magazine's travel story on South America, "Sauino Chile," as well as showing up in their International Surfing Day article. Transworld Surf ran a sick, full-page shot of him surfing the Tuamotos, as well as featuring Warren's musical taste in their Top-10 "iPod Hit List" column, which is usually reserved for marquee pros. Lastly, our newsprint counterparts at Happy were so impressed with his language skills, they tapped him to write the text for his sponsor Insight's travel story on Australia. Although many of our Who Da Guys go on to become international stars, rarely does one do it so quickly. The next time you see Warren Smith plastered across the pages of a magazine or starring in a video, just remember who found him first.

12. IRONMAN AWARD:
DEAN RANDAZZO

Hoisting a $2000 check high over his head after winning the Brave New World Pro-Am at Manasquan Inlet, NJ, this September, you'd never know Dean Randazzo was hospitalized only five weeks earlier. But the University of California at San Diego's Thornton Hospital in La Jolla, CA, was exactly where Dean spent most of the summer -- undergoing chemotherapy and stem cell transplant treatment after Hodgkin's Disease, a deadly form of cancer that attacks the lymph nodes (which he was first diagnosed with in 2001) returned to plague him once again this year.  

But Dean refused to dwell on the setback, sucked it up, and did what had to be done. And while toughing out his own battle in bed, he established dialogue with others afflicted with the disease and helped build upon his own "Surf For A Cause" event by instituting two more fundraisers -- "Drink For A Cause" and "Golf For A Cause" -- which enabled the Dean Randazzo Cancer Foundation to give over $43,000 to cancer patients. In an ESM Q&A with Dean, the man who will not break ended with a matter-of-fact, "I should be back in the water in a few weeks. Then I'm going to win something."  

And he did just that.

13. BEST NEW CONTEST:
SEAN SLATER INVITATIONAL

The Slater family has brought more notoriety to Cocoa Beach than NASA, I Dream Of Jeannie, and Ron Jon's combined. But when the eldest sibling came up with the idea to hold an invite-only pro surfing contest -- the $10,000 Sean Slater Invitational -- in his hometown to benefit cancer research, he was looking to bring attention to the disease that took his father's life. But in typical Slater fashion, the event exceeded all expectations. Not only did 24 of Florida's top professional surfers -- including big names like Shea Lopez, Kyle Garson, and Kelly himself -- show up and put on quite the show, but the contest also raised thousands of dollars for the World Skin Cancer Foundation and turned an 18-year-old surfer from Melbourne Beach into an unlikely hero. Gaining entry to the competition as a wildcard, Marshall Alberga was hardly seen as a threat. In fact, his own sponsor, ...Lost, even posted an ad on their website mocking his chances of beating the 8-time ASP World Champion. However, Marshall got the last laugh, taking down Kelly in the final. It was a near-impossible feat, but since the Slater legacy is one of the biggest underdog stories in surfing history, it was the perfect way to launch the new event.

14. SIGN THE APOCALYPSE IS HERE:
EASTERNS TO BAIL ON THE BANKS IN 2007!?!

It hasn't happened as of the deadline for this January Surf Expo edition of ESM, and (heaven help us) it still might not in the end. But imagine peanut butter without jelly, Martin without Lewis, a surfboard without fins, the Yankees without the Red Sox, or (Did you just feel the Earth move off its axis?) the Eastern Surfing Association not coming to terms with the National Park Service and deciding to move 35 years of unrivaled amateur competition tradition to, say, Ocean City, MD, or New Smyrna Beach, FL!?! ...Dude... 

15. LEGENDARY SESSION:
MOUNT STREET, BAYHEAD, NJ, DURING AUTUMN NOR'EASTER

Mid-October to mid-November 2006 saw a spate of classic southeast swells meeting head-on with west winds to make the Mid-Atlantic in general, and the Jersey Shore in particular, light up like the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. It had been a relatively dry Hurricane Season up until then, so these early offerings from King Neptune were truly a gift to Garden State surfers, with the most memorable session going down on November 17th at the Mount Street Groin with good-as-it-gets, stand-up barrels firing off the tip of the town's southernmost rubble jetty. In attendance: a hard-charging crew including the Pollioni brothers (Al and Clay), Ryan Daly, Dano Woliner, Jeff Beverly, Skeeter Norling, and the surfer pictured to the left, Sam Hammer (who called this day a "9.5 out of 10, and the best stand-up tubes I got in New Jersey this year"), along with some of New York's finest including Dave Juan, TJ Gumiela, Balaram Stack. And of course, ace ESM Photog Mike Nelson fired away from the land and water, while fellow Senior Staff shooters Ray Hallgreen, Brian Nevins, and Donald Cresitello set up on the beach to document this Legendary Session -- one that proves Florida might have the oranges, but Jersey's got the juice.

16. THE "HOLY CRAP WHERE'S THAT PLACE?" SECRET SPOT AWARD:
BLACKWOOD COVE

When longtime ESM Senior Photographer Mickey "2M' McCarthy pointed out this fantasy, Indo-like setup to Tom Dugan and Matt Pruett, we assured him and our single-engine pilot Eric Dreelin that we would keep its name and location strictly confidential. To our surprise, 2M said it was actually okay for us to expose the place, as that particular sand buildup happens only once every ten years or so. Still, if you want to know where this is, you'll have to beat it out of Mickey, 'cause we ain't saying. However, we will give you a few hints: blue crabs, pirates, the Midgetts, BBQ, Wilbur and Orville, Busch, Skoal, F-150 pickups, NASCAR, barrels. Good luck, y'all...

17. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN EAST COAST SURFER (HOME):
RYAN HELM

Here's a little-known fact: Jupiter, FL's, Ryan Helm was the very first kid to be profiled in ESM as a Who Da Guy (Vol.1, #1), our lifelong column spotlighting the East Coast's unsung, underground surfers. And it's weird that even today, nearly 16 years later, people are still asking those very words, "Who is that guy!?!" Often when they're left stupefied by his incredible speed and flair in the water. However, those are usually just the spectators. Florida's top pros have always known who Ryan Helm was -- that quiet guy who showed up at the contests with no stickers on his board, took everybody's money, and went home. But it's a lot harder to call him a darkhorse these days, as big things are happening for Helm. And as evident by his thrashing streak this year, they're happening right on top of each other.  

The following is Ryan Helm's '06 dossier: •January: Freshly supported by Del Mar Media/ World Ocean Management (the same firm whose clients include the Lopez brothers), he backs up breakthrough '05 Globe Sebastian Inlet Pro performance (where he placed equal-5th) by advancing to the quarters in the upgraded 4-star event. •Early-February: Advances to the Round of 32 of the Monster Energy Pro at Pipeline (WQS 4-star), making him the highest-placing East Coaster and the second highest U.S. Mainlander behind winner Rob Machado. •Late-February: Wins 2nd annual Dirty South Surf Contest Pro division and the Airshow in torrential conditions, taking home a cool grand and two Viking Surfboards. One competitor even claims, "he looks like he's surfing on a motor with no fins." •July: Selected to represent the East Coast Team at the ESPN Summer X Games in Puerto Escondido. Though the team loses, Helm impresses all attendees with his tuberiding skills in the sidelining freesurfs. •Mid-September: Wins $900 for "Best Air and Combo" in the Airshow at the 8th annual Unsound Pro, plus another $600 for making the semifinals in the Pro division. •Late-September: Wins five skins at the inaugural Quiksilver/ Aqua East Jackpot Skins Pro ahead of favored stars like Gabe Kling and Asher Nolan, pocketing $1250. •November: Racks up six skins for $1440 on his way to a solid runner-up finish at the 11th annual Quiksilver King of the Peak, while also grabbing another $325 for winning the ESM Airshow (making him a three-time winner of that event). •December: Sponsored by Quiksilver, his most lucrative contract to date, Ryan Helm earns the "Best Performance By An East Coast Surfer (Home) ESeMMY... for obvious reasons. •January 2007: No one asks "Who Da Guy?" around Ryan Helm ever again.

18. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN EAST COAST SURFER (AWAY):
SUNRISE SURF SHOP AT THE QUIKSILVER SURF SHOP CHALLENGE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

Let's see... the Right Coast holds nine ASP Men's World Championship titles, eight ASP Women's World Championship titles, and dozens of national and international amateur titles. What else is left for us to win? Well, in 2006, while Slater was busy claiming his eighth WCT crown, the employees and team members of Sunrise Surf Shop out of Jacksonville Beach, FL, were taking down shops from up-and-down the Eastern Seaboard, California, and Hawaii to win the Quiksilver Surf Shop Challenge National Championships in California. Sunrise's Jason Motes, Adam McGill, Dane Jeffreys, and Ryan Briggs blazed through their heats at Oceanside North Jetty and were ahead by 26 points just minutes into the final, making it an easy victory for our side. For their superb performance, the squad was awarded $10,000, a full-page ad in Surfer Magazine, and a bounty of loot from Quik. Moreover, they proved that when it comes to competitive surfing, the Right Coast simply has no equal.

19. BIGGEST SHOT FOR EAST COAST SURFING:
GABE KLING QUALIFIES FOR THE 2007 WCT

St. Augustine, FL, was our nation's first city. So what does that say about its most successful surfer, Gabe Kling? Well, after eight years or so of playing chutes and ladders on the WQS, Gabe is also a first. After being ranked first on the 'QS for a large chunk of the year, he is now the first North Florida surfer to ever qualify for the Association of Surfing Professionals World Championship Tour, and the first Eastsider of the millennium. Gabe's entrance lifted the number of East Coasters on the 2007 WCT to five -- one more than either California or Hawaii -- making the Right Coast first as far as American representation in our sport's most elite ranks. Let's hope that #1 trend carries on for Kling.

20. DIRTIEST MANEUVER:
BLAKE JONES' RODEO FLIP AT THE NSSA NATIONALS

He's a nice kid, but sometimes he flips out on people. What we mean is, when 18-year-old Blake Jones clicked on his e-mail the night before his Airshow final at the NSSA Nationals, his eyes widened like tiny Venus flytraps as the link to Surfline.com showed New York adoptee Ryan Carlson spinning an incredibly money 540 rodeo flip at the Matix Sun Diego Pro/Am, held just a few weeks earlier. It was the first one ever stuck in competition, and stuck it did, in Blake's mind the next day, that is. With fellow finalist Eric Geiselman ordering him to "Do a flip!", Blake dropped in on a wedging left, eyed his section, angled off the bottom like Carlson's mirror image, and nailed the most progressive single maneuver in NSSA history. The judges threw the Melbourne Beach, FL, grom a 9.5 for the effort, easily handing him the win. It was a lonely bright spot in a championship event otherwise marred by a feeble-at-best Eastside showing (we failed to claim a single other champ), helping our coast save face in front of the most talented ams in the country. As Blake said later, "I had to bring one home for the East Coast."

21. EPIC EVENT:
UNSOUND PRO PRESENTED BY OAKLEY

How do you determine the success of a surf contest? By the waves? How does clean, overhead surf caused by two separate swell systems (Hurricanes Florence and Gordon) sound? Maybe by the names on your heat sheets. Former WCT warhorses from out-of-state like Dean Randazzo and Shea Lopez, along with postmodern freaks like Ryan Carlson and Brian Toth certainly can't hurt your reputation. What about a few sidelining exhibition events -- you know, a little something extra to make the flight worth your while in case you bomb out in the first round? OK, we'll throw down $1450 rewarding different maneuvers in the Airshow, and another $1600 for the same deal in the Red Bull Tow-At. And we'll even put up $1600 for a Gromz Pro, $1100 for a Womens Pro, and $1500 for a Longboard Pro. But there's no WQS points, so what's the real catch here? Well, for starters, we're offering $10,500 for the Pro winner, the largest 1st-place check in East Coast surf competition history.  

Yeah, we think it's safe to say Unsound Surf Shop co-owners Dave Juan and Mike Nelson are on to something here. And if they keep thinking this way, then the Unsound Pro, which has been dubbed "the surfer's contest," will remain just that for some time.

22. JOHN HOPE SWELL OF THE YEAR:
HURRICANE FLORENCE

Hurricane Season 2006 was more about quality than quantity. While we didn't see nearly as many storms as the past couple years, the ones we did get brought epic waves to numerous spots along the Right Coast. Of those tropical swellmakers, Hurricane Florence had Right Coasters hooting the loudest. Spinning hundreds of miles offshore, Flo meandered her way north along the seaboard, sending over a week's worth of big, juicy groundswell up and down the East Coast. Although a single storm typically focuses all of its energy on one region, the way Florence perfectly shadowed the shoreline ensured that at some point during her life span, every top spot from Puerto Rico to Portland, ME, was smoking. And best of all, the distant track not only helped keep conditions nice and glassy, but it also saved us from seeing any damage to life or property. For the first time in two years, we scored all the glory with none of the consequence.

23. MILESTONE OF THE YEAR:
MEZ STEPS DOWN AS ESM PHOTO EDITOR

After more than 15 years and 112 issues of photo editing Eastern Surf, pub cofounder Dick Meseroll handed over the Photo Department's slide loupes and iMacs to incoming Photo Editor Jimmy Wilson and longtime Assistant Photo Editor Mark Hill. Says Mez: "In a lot of ways, being the Photo Department guy is a dream job, but it is also a lot of pressure because Tom Dugan and I set very, very high standards for both the visual imagery and ­ just as importantly ­ the written word from Issue One, Year One. Fortunately for me, I've always had Doogs' invaluable input and unique photographic perspective, plus ESM has always been blessed with a super hardworking, talented staff, as well as a dream team of contributing photographers who are all a huge part of that process. So I'm comfortable we have, together, maintained those standards on 'my watch.' Tell ya the truth, though, I'm stoked to not have to look at photos all day long now and be able to take them more often." 

24. LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT:
LARRY POPE

As one of our sport's more outspoken and articulate elders, we could easily give Larry Pope -- longtime boardbuilding devotee and seminal East Coast surf photographer -- ESM's Lifetime Achievement just for calling it as he sees it in an industry oftentimes filled with hype, half-truths, and hypocrisy. His riffs on the biz are legendary, and more often then not, spot-on. The man could, and probably should, write a book, and then God help us all. But that will be another accolade for another time because this particular ESeMMY Award is to acknowledge Pope's two colorful careers spanning over three decades, careers that have heavily impacted our surfing world in two very key areas of "this thing of ours" -- crafting surfboards and capturing surfing on film. You can call him a surfing Messiah, Methuselah, or his personal favorite, a Lunatic, what you can't call him is undeserving of this award. While querying William "Larry" Pope himself for deep background to put his accomplishments in some semblance of context, we received a classic Pope rundown via e-mail summing up his working life in detail, while also letting you in ever-so-slightly on his under-recognized sense of humor, which is probably the main reason he's survived for 36 years in the surf industry. Here is the breakdown according to Pope: 

•Started surfing: 1963. •Surfed ESA-3A Division: 1969-1971. The entire state was one district. Many heats before the finals. Honors always hard-earned. Much pride in this. No poseurs allowed. When you hang with Loehr, Crawford, and Tabeling, you learn a lot. •Walked away from surfing myself: 1979. •Started working in the surf industry: 1971, sander, Thanks Dick Catri and Donny Mulhern. •Jobs worked in surf industry: shaper, laminator, glosser, sander, rubout, hot coats, fin guy. •Number of boards sanded: lost count at about 250,000. By 1992, sanding well over 100 boards a week during Golden Age of the '80s. •Years as staff shooter for Surfer Magazine: 10, throughout the '70s. •Surfer I shot the most: Greg Loehr, more than everyone else I shot combined. He was just that good. •Started shooting: 1965, through 1980. •Re-started shooting (big mistake), 2003-present. •Years running East Coast Operations for Clark Foam: 10, 1977-1987. •Number of blanks unloaded (by myself) per container: 1500. •Number of containers per month: 1-2 times 10 years equals approximately 200,000 blanks. •Number of surf factories worked at: Approximately 35. •Number of factories worked in, at the same time: 8. •Most boards sanded in one day: 64, at Fox Surfboards in Palm Beach during Summer 1985. Used a 8 hp/ 6000 rpm sander with an electric cord as big as a fucking garden hose. •Number of boards handled by me for the past 36 years: Over 350,000, conservative estimate. •Number of days of work missed by me in 36 years: 0. •Number of people who will believe this: 0.  

Well, our advice to you the reader is you can take him at his word, and that all those numbers add up to one indisputable thing -- our Lifetime Achievement Award for Larry Pope.

25. PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR:
SETH STAFFORD

Unfortunately for Seth Stafford, we don't have an ESeMMY for "Most Genuine Person," so he'll just have to settle for Photographer of the Year, his second-best characteristic. Scoring one ESM covershot (August 2006) this year and three Transworld Surf covers (February, April, and August 2006), two of which were fisheye water shots from Pipeline, it wasn't a hard decision to pick Seth. The West Chester, PA, native quickly became one of the world's best in surf photography after only shooting a few short years. With so many photos coming into the office everyday, we rarely get over enthused. But with every submission from Seth, it's a different story. "WOW!" We're surprised every time. ESM Photo Editor Jimmy Wilson and Seth speak in code when they talk. "Seth, you get any good photos today?" Which he usually replies with a modest, "Not really... maybe a few cool ones..." Which typically translates to him having captured at least a couple cover-worthy images. And when he says, "Nah, I didn't really get anything," that usually means a couple guaranteed spreads from the session.  

That's just Seth. He's one of the most likable people we know, and it's taken him all over the world, because the world's best surfers enjoy his company and want him documenting their travels. Says Transworld Surf Photo Editor Peter Taras: "Seth is one of the most well-rounded people I know. I don't only mean photography-wise, either. He just shines happiness. It's funny because he really flies under the radar, so no one would know how incredible his photography is. He doesn't hype himself up, or go looking to get noticed. Seth just cruises, lives life on his own terms, and is happy from head to toe with what he does."  

Which makes him an easy choice for one of our most coveted ESeMMIES... Photographer of the Year.

26. WAHINE OF THE YEAR:
AMY NICHOLL

While her older surfing sisters Karina Petroni, Connie Arias, and Kira Sheppard basked in a much brighter spotlight when they were amateurs, 16-year-old wahine Amy Nicholl, of New Smyrna Beach, FL, has been content to steadily climb her way up the ranks of East Coast women's surfing without much fanfare. And even though she's several years their junior, Nicholl has already beaten each one of those girls, and she's won just about every major East Coast amateur comp in the book. The scary thing is, at such a young age, she's only going to get better. This year, she did just that. First, she won the East Coast's only title -- Under-16 Girls -- at the Surfing America U.S.A. Championships, which qualified her for the U.S.A. Surf Team for the second year in a row. Next, she claimed the number one spot in Girls 16 & Under at the Rip Curl Gromsearch Nationals. And to top it all off, she secured a firm foundation in the industry by inking her first major sponsorship with Rip Curl.  

With such solid results and backing, look for Nicholl to do big things at next year's ISA World Junior Championships and beyond. After all, it's the quiet ones you have to watch out for most.

27. SURFER OF THE YEAR:
KELLY SLATER

The 5th Annual ESeMMY Video Awards

MOST UNIQUE PRESENTATION: FLOW
The signature surf film is certainly nothing new -- everyone from Titus Kinimaka to Brendan Margieson lays claim to one of their own. In fact, if you dig deep enough, you'll find practically every human story is interesting enough to make a movie about. But how many are actually worth watching, worth buying, and worth archiving in your permanent DVD library? If you've ever considered Tom Curren, Rob Machado, Lisa Andersen, Kelly Slater, or Dane Reynolds a hero in any way (and you know you do), bookmark Josh Landon's Flow: The Story Of A Surfing Revolution this instant as a must-have collector's item.  

What makes Flow so unique is not so much in its delivery as the subject itself. Because this time the film isn't centered around the athletes, like those mentioned above, but the man who crafted the magic vehicles which carried them to the pinnacles of their careers, Channel Islands' founder Al Merrick. Complete with three separate discs loaded with music and bonus extras, Flow is one mother of a presentation. The feature alone is a whopping hour and 38 minutes long. And pardon the digression, but the way creators freakishly splice a 14-year-old Kelly ripping an exact replica backside combo with the 28 year-old version is simply uncanny.  

We can't think of any other surfboard shaper who's ever had his very own movie. And when you consider Merrick's supernatural legacy of consistently producing more world champions over the last 25 years than anyone, it's hard to conceive another man as being so deserving. 

COOLEST MESSAGE: FLOW
The relationship between a surfer and shaper has certainly been explored on video before, but never like the connection Kelly Slater and Al Merrick have maintained, which is a major plot component of Flow. From Al being there for Kelly as a sort of second father from an early age -- seeing Kelly through girl troubles, career highs and lows, the pressures of fame, and his real father's death -- to Kelly returning the favor as Al deals with cancer, here is a bond that is forged not just by resin and fiberglass, but by heart and tears. In that vein, by the end of the film you'll agree that Flow is not so much about talent and persistence as it is about respect and love. If we could all have one relationship in our lifetime like these two have, the world would seem as perfect as one of Merrick's thrusters. 

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN EASTSIDER: DAMIEN HOBGOOD IN SECRET MACHINE
"I had to write in to say that of all the surf movies that have come out in the past year, Damien Hobgood's part in the the new Globe movie (Secret Machine) blows the doors off anyone with a video section this year... well, the Dane Reynolds movie (First Chapter) is just stupid. But Damo's clips are ridiculous..." 

So said Pat Stublen, highly acclaimed co-producer of Destined For Second and Back To The Front, in an e-mail to the ESM office this fall. And who can argue with a two-time ESeMMY Video of the Year Award winner like Pat Stublen? Well, we can actually... How about Cory Lopez in Smash It Up or Aaron Cormican in Separate Volume?  

But after watching Globe's blockbuster hit, Secret Machine, particularly Damo's clips from scattered sessions with teammates in Indo, Oz, and beyond (and let's not forget his solo backside clinic at a triple-overhead Baja righthander), who's going to argue with the younger twin's surfing? Not us. He may have placed a commendable 7th on the WCT in 2006, but when it comes to video segments this year, to us Damien has no equal. 

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: SECRET MACHINE
No disrespect to our coin-minded ghetto boys out there -- who often tend to turn out topnotch videos and show a learning curve unparalleled to any other job in the surf industry -- but let's face it: most of the time, a bigger budget means a better movie. And just as it won "Best Cinematography" at the 2006 Surfer Video Awards, Secret Machine earns the same accolade here. This movie has to be seen, perhaps several times, to grasp how truly mesmerizing film king Sonny Miller's footage is. But suffice to say, Secret Machine offers a sort of astral projection to a higher plane in the surf celluloid paradigm. The imagery alone takes you there. And it's the best imagery money can buy. 

BEST RECORDED MANEUVER: ARON GIEGER IN CREEPY FINGERS
Oh, he's creepy all right -- that low, predatory style, the skeletal rashguard, that heinous hairstyle... But Puerto Rican tech-body Aron Gieger's weird aerial-ish, floater-esque, fakie-thingamajig in Creepy Fingers (Volcom's first team flick since Football, Shmootball) is pretty damn nasty. To be fair, if Aaron Cormican pulled that alley-oop sex change-to-varial in Separate Volume (instead of landing center deck and breaking his board in half), he would've taken this accolade hands-down. But as this award is totally dependent on a successful touchdown and ride-away, Gieger gets the nod for his, uh... frontside air-shifty to rock 'n roll floater to... ah, fuck it. You know a maneuver is gnarly when no one even knows what to call it. 

BEST TUBERIDE: CORY LOPEZ IN A FISTFUL OF BARRELS
No, he didn't get it at Teahupo'o, as you might've guessed, but at that spellbinding righthand point Rip Curl invaded for their Search WCT event this summer (which they dubbed "La Jolla"). Frankly, a spot like that needed to get some kind of award in our ESeMMIES, and thanks to Cory Lopez's 28-second-long pit ride (which is shown twice here, from two different angles), A Fistful Of Barrels grabs this one. OK, let's be honest here -- Lopey's not completely covered for the entire duration of the ride. At some points he's deeper than others, but he remains locked in the curl throughout -- meaning there's no straightening out, which to us equates to tube time. Plus, he's going Mach 3, and backside at that, in one of the most amazing, and unlikely, ASP locales in pro surfing history.  

Editor's note: If you're a regularfoot, watch this clip in the mirror. You'll be surprised at the amp-age it provides. 

CAJONES GRANDES AWARD: EXOTIC NUCLEOTIC
For the first time in ESeMMY Video Awards history, this one goes not to a surfer, but to the actual video producers. Quite frankly, the shit Jason Page and the rest of the crew at Starbird Productions get away with is disturbing. Their latest, and final, release under the Starbird label, Exotic Nucleotic, is actually one of their most benign films to date, but nonetheless dripping with all the expected high-velocity ripping from Florida's finest surfers. Other segues showing guys pissing into department store shoes, silly-string ambushing South Florida chicks, and humoring various bums and smut peddlers keep Starbird on the explicit list, which begs the question: When did surf videos get so fucking serious? As of press time, Page and the boys have another yet-to-be-disclosed project in the works. And you can bet it will outlive the granola complacency and "brooding-dude-peers-over-lineup-while-shadowing-eyes-with-left-hand-and-pointing-with-right-hand-and-mouth-agape" pretentiousness so often stinking up surf celluloid these days. Which should extend their version of excellence in the tradition of Whiskey, What's Really Going Wrong, and the Big Brother videos. Starbird may be dead. But long live their legacy of debauchery. 

TIGHTEST EDITING: SEPARATE VOLUME
"I wish I were fishing right now..." "Back home we give a man's handshake..." "Redneck vs. hip-hop is the story of my life..." "Buuuuurp!"  

Yeah, Aaron Cormican spreads the East Coast charm thick as molasses during the prelude to his part in Oakley's debut surf film, Separate Volume. That's no doubt partially due to Gorkin's childhood chum John Perkins lending a project-saving hand as Associate Producer. In fact, Matt Goodman even said in the bonus director's interview that Perkins was "the best thing that happened to me on this project." The movie does a fantastic job of displaying Gorkin's dizzying small-wave act. (His slob-360, the Gorkin Flip revisited, and an insane nose-pick gaff are particularly insane.) Excellently choreographed with vintage Beastie Boys, this is the first time slow-motion looked cool since Bunyip Dreaming, and funky lifestyle meanderings are kept to a minimum. Hell, we don't even mind the fact that there aren't any clips of Perkins and Gorkin fishing the NSB canals.  

Not to take anything away from Separate Volume, but given the duo's lifelong friendship, we're sure Perkins' virgin solo effort is right around the corner. And it should be tight as a drum... a red drum. 

SICKEST EAST COAST FOOTAGE: HEADFIRST
When it comes to the East Coast, there are only two types of swells -- the quick and the dead. Along the "Graveyard of the Atlantic," those two are pretty much one in the same, and you basically got a day to pay your respects. On 8-14-05, it was Hurricane Irene turning Avon into a bowling alley. On 9-12-05, it was Hurricane Ophelia granting locals at "O'Cock Island" a kegging day of poo-brown A-frames. On 10-15-05, it was a tightly packed low pressure system giving the Lighthouse's First Groin some of the best lefts it had seen in a decade. Then, on 12-18-05, the Lighthouse's Third Groin got its turn -- this time with Kirra-style rights. In between traveling the globe looking for heavy-water ledges to sling himself over, Headfirst Producer Will Skudin documented all these historic Outer Banks sessions in full, taking this award without a thought. With keen sandbar and weather knowledge, a healthy dose of diligence, and a dedicated crew of Tarheel tubesmiths, Skudin's maiden video effort proves the Graveyard still breathes life -- if you can get on it quick enough.  

BEST CONTEST FOOTAGE: FLORIDA HOT SHOTS
Longtime Sunshine State videographer Anthony "Spanky" Passarelli's shelf-life is longer than most, which he proves with his latest, sixth (!!!) production, Florida Hot Shots. While not exactly the most ingeniously titled movie out there, it is nonetheless the best barometer of East Coast contest action this year. Spanky's no stranger to competition himself, having won finals in the NSSA East Coast Champs, among other big-time comps, several times over. And realizing the Florida surfer is often at his best when in competition mode, he includes it all here: the Smith High Roller, two years worth of the Globe Sebastian Inlet Pro, the odd King of the Peak clip... Plus, as far as we know, Spanky's the only guy to run footy from this summer's ESPN X Games at Puerto Escondido (where the East Coast Team lost, but hey, it still makes for a killer video part). If that weren't enough, he also got the Rip Curl Search WCT footage on the market before anyone else. Now that's an accomplishment! To sum up, Spanky's never-ending dedication to his Florida brethren, especially when they're in heat, guarantees him an equally lengthy career in surf filmmaking. 

VIDEO OF THE YEAR: LETTING GO
You know why Kelly earning his 8th, record-breaking world title this year didn't seem like such a big deal. The answer lies here, in Letting Go, which details Kelly's transformation as a competitor and in a larger sense, a human being, as he battles back from the two greatest losses of his life at the same time -- the loss of his father Steven and the '03 title to Andy Irons. It is a compelling, humanizing portrait of a man seen so often as superhuman, and Director Jamie Tierney runs the gamut by interviewing all industry types necessary in painting that portrait. What results is a comp-by-comp tale of Kelly initiating the comeback of the century, regaining the crown, and making this year's eighth title seem... well, not obsolete, but less-than-spectacular. 

The fact is, not all documentaries suck. And neither does this one; in fact, Letting Go transcends surf genre entirely to rank right up there with the best ones -- Rhyme And Reason, Dogtown And Z-Boys, Flow, The Filth And The Fury, Slasher, End Of The Century... The only difference is this time it's one of our own, Kelly Slater. Letting Go -- a shoe-in for the ESM Video of the Year.  

Editor's Notes: We could only review videos that were made available to us at the Eastern Surf Magazine office. If you have a release you'd like us to check out for possible review in our Peepshow column or be considered for future ESeMMY Video Awards, mail a copy with cover art and the following information -- running time, cost, and contact info -- to the following address: ESM Editorial Department; 321 Ocean Avenue, Suite 7; Melbourne Beach, FL 32951.