“IT NEVER GOT WEIRD ENOUGH FOR ME” Gordon, Richards, Rupp, Lineback, Moffett, And The SNC Tag Team Flip The Switch
At The ESA Easterns By Matt Pruett; Photos by Tom Dugan
The first thing I noticed when I moved from North Carolina to Florida eight
years ago was the waves were a lot worse and the surfers were a lot better. Any
freesurfing session or, more frightening, contest at New Smyrna or Sebastian
will show you that. I’ve indulged my share of Carolina claimers who’ve come
down to Florida with great expectations only to get nuked by men twice their
age, or girls half. Then again, I’ve listened to even more Florida fabricators raving
about standup barrels… on chest-high days, at 2nd Light, in July. So whenever I
hear the words “top to bottom” down there, I carefully consider the source.
But when arriving at Cape Hatteras Lighthouse on Saturday morning, with 20 mph
ENE winds, mold-grey skies, and spurts of drizzle literally dampening the mood,
I looked for some illumination from the Sunshine State contingent. Florida has
traditionally made the ESA Eastern Surfing Championships its chew toy. Anarchic
visions of Asher Nolan obliterating temperamental Hurricane Luis stormchunks
while taking out both Hobgood brothers, Sam Hammer, Frank Walsh, and Ben
Bourgeois in 1995 to grab the first of what would be two marquee titles for the
Atlantic Beach, FL, native set a freakishly high performance bar that has
rarely been met by anyone since who didn’t ride into town with Florida plates.
And Florida did, in fact, account for several Youth Division titles here.
Hailing from the ESA-Central Florida District, 2008 SIMA/ Surfing America
U.S.A. champ Nikki Viesins subdued a rampaging Darsha Pigford to win Girls;
Patrick Nichols’ leadfoot carves and featherweight floaters won him the
Menehune Longboard crown for the ESA-Palm Beach Florida District; and ESA-CFL
District’s Tommy Evans recovered from a nasty pearling faceplant to win Junior
Longboard. But all the premier divisions — Menehune, Boys, Junior Men’s,
Junior Women’s, Open Shortboard — went to North and South Carolina
surfers. Meanwhile, Puerto Rico’s perennial Open Bodyboard victor, Jorge Colomer,
flew back to the 51st State with yet another win… easily. Largely marked by
chop-hindered spinners and faulty el-rollos, the Menehune Bodyboard final was
no showstopper, but it was still worth ESA-Central New Jersey District sponger
Zach Greaser’s time, as he took out district-mate Dan Tighe and two locals en
route to the title. “Bodyboarding’s still alive,” asserted fellow finalist
Morgan Taylor Leavel after the final. “There are much better breaks for surfing
than shorebreaks for bodyboarding, so there’s definitely more surfers. I don’t
think there’s even a pro purse for bodyboarders anywhere on the coast right
now. But the ESA is still offering a division here. I actually heard they were
thinking of bringing back the Kneeboarding division.”
No confirmation on that just yet, but ESA-Virginia District’s Kate Easton
needed no confirmation about the task that lay ahead of her. ESA-North Florida
District’s Mallory Turner is the current SIMA/ Surfing America U.S.A. Women’s
Longboard champ, and Turner already won the Women’s Shortboard division earlier
in the week here in Hatteras. Easton toppled Turner anyway, a major scalp for
the young Virginian.
That’s when, as Asher Nolan might say about an off-the-record nighttime
misadventure, “things got weird.”
Nine-year-old Luke Gordon from the ESA-Northern South Carolina District looked
uncomfortable standing on the beach prior to the Menehune final, awkwardly
sponsorless compared to his more touted and fully branded opponents Stevie
Pittman and Luke Marks. On top of that, Luke was riding a big gun (every inch
of 4’10” compared to Pittman and Marks’ hotdogging 4’7”s). But two snakelike
lefts to the beach gave Gordon all the juice he needed to convincingly thrash
his detractors. A leg up in Boys, Gordon’s ESA-NSC District teammate Cam
Richards sought an ESA crown to go with his multiple NSSA East Coast titles.
ESA-CFL District standout Corey Howell fought hard with clean style and crisp
rail work, but a sudden, below-sea-level dredger that sucked out and stood up
to allow Cam five solid maneuvers (and a 9.3, the highest scoring wave of the
event) put the nail in the coffin to give the longtime PacSun U.S.A. Surf Team
member his first Easterns accolade the day after his 14th birthday. “I guess
I’ve done better in the NSSAs because most of the time the waves are better
during the NSSA,” said Cam, adding to the weirdness (Sebastian Inlet better than Hatteras? Do go on!). “But
here at the Lighthouse you have to be lucky and get a good one. I kind of just
waited out there for one that had a wall and not take off on sets that weren’t
worth it. I’ll be going for it again here next year, but it will be weird not
having [older brother] Cole around. It’s his last year of school, so when he
goes off to college, it’ll be a little sad because he’s always watched all my
heats.”
Also representing the ESA-NSC District, defending Junior Women’s champ Keenan
Lineback waited until the heat’s halfway mark before riding a single wave,
which wound up being enough (plus a lil’ backup score) to hold off Brevard
County wahines Jasset Umbel and Savannah Bradley, who were doing the
Rocky-and-Apollo-circa-Rocky 3 thing
up the beach toward the groin while Keenan decided their fate all by her
lonesome. As for the marquee Shortboard finals — Open and Junior Men’s
— it was a pair of Brunswick County (yeah, it’s south of Wilmington)
locals, Owen Moffett and Nick Rupp, who made the already weird downright
bizarre. You’d be hard pressed to slip a fortune cookie ribbon between Rupp and
ESA-PBFL District standout Christian Miller’s respective scores. It was that
close. While Dylan Kowalski was completely lost in the maelstrom of wind and
whitewater, and ESA-Puerto Rico District helgie Hector Santamaria’s lightfooted
wafts had a hard time translating to such ugly terrain, Miller and Rupp went
tit for tat. In the end, Rupp’s lengthy backhand experience at the Lighthouse
(which looked eerily reminiscent of prodigious Floridian amateur Eric Taylor in
any number of Sebastian Inlet events) found favor with the judges, giving him
his fifth ESA Easterns title. Which begs the question: why is Rupp still an
amateur? “Pat Emery just made me Team Captain of the Allstars,” Rupp said. “He
wants me to keep in touch with the under-14 kids and see how they’re doing.
There are some good kids like Stevie Pittman and Luke Gordon who I want to help
out as much as I can and give them some pointers and things I didn’t know when
I was their age. I’ve always done the best in ESA competition, so I’m not
trying to do anything different, except some more Junior Pros. Maybe when I
turn 18 I’ll go to college. What happens then, I’ll be happy with whatever
plays out.”
The last thing I noticed when I left the beach on Friday was that the waves
looked bad. Real bad. A lot like bad, windy Florida when it’s big, stormy, and
just… bad. Oh yeah, and the Carolina kids actually ruled the Easterns.
How weird is that?
FINAL YOUTH RESULTS OF THE 42ND ANNUAL ESA EASTERN SURFING CHAMPIONSHIPS
MENEHUNE 1. Luke Gordon, ESA-NSC
2. Luke Marks, ESA-CFL
3. Stevie Pittman, ESA-NSC
4. Jesse Gregory, ESA-NFL
MENEHUNE LONGBOARD 1. Patrick Nichols, ESA-PBFL
2. Daniel Glenn, ESA-CNC
3. Sam Duggan, ESA-CFL
4. Steven McLean, ESA-CFL
JUNIOR LONGBOARD 1. Tommy Evans, ESA-CFL
2. Bradley Rose, ESA-SNC
3. Michael Agnew, ESA-VA
4. Zach Tomlinson, ESA-SNJ
WOMENS LONGBOARD 1. Kate Easton, ESA-VA
2. Mallory Turner, ESA-NFL
3. Chelsea Gresham, ESA-NFL
4. Chandler VonCannon, ESA-SNC
MENEHUNE BODYBOARD 1. Zach Greaser, ESA-SNJ
2. Morgan Taylor Leavel, ESA-OBNC
3. Cyrus Lewis, ESA-OBNC
OPEN BODYBOARD 1. Jorge Colomer, ESA-PRC
2. John Heyman, ESA-NY
3. Matt Landon, ESA-DMV
4. Morgan Taylor Leavel, ESA-OBNC
OPEN SHORTBOARD 1. Owen Moffett, ESA-SNC
2. Alex Fawess, ESA-NY
3. Jose Tavares, ESA-PRC
4. Evan Barton, ESA-SNC
ESA
ALL-STAR TAG TEAM 1. ESA-SNC
2. ESA-TCFL
3. ESA-SNJ
4. ESA-NCFL
5. ESA-CFL
JUNIOR IRONMAN
Daniel Glenn, ESA-CNC
SENIOR IRONMAN
Jason Motes, ESA-NFL
JUNIOR IRONWOMAN
Allison Parks, ESA-VA
JUNIOR HOT WAVE
Cam Richards, ESA-NSC
SENIOR HOT WAVE
Jorge Colomer, ESA-PRC
DISTRICT
ABBREVIATIONS CFL-CENTRAL FLORIDA
CNC-CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA CNJ-CENTRAL NEW JERSEY
DMV-DELMARVA FCFL-FIRST COAST FLORIDA
GA-GEORGIA GRLK-GREAT LAKES
NSC-NORTHERN SOUTH CAROLINA
MD-MARYLAND
NCFL-NORTH CENTRAL FLORIDA
NFL-NORTH FLORIDA
NNE-NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND
OBNC-OUTER BANKS
SNC-SOUTHERN NORTH CAROLINA
SNE-SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND
SNJ-SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY
SSC-SOUTHERN SOUTH CAROLINA
SAFL-ST. AUGUSTINE FLORIDA
TCFL-TREASURE COAST FLORIDA
VA-VIRGINIA
WFL- WEST FLORIDA
PRC-PUERTO RICO
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