THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT Surfing America Prime East Kicks Off
2010-2011 Season With Sizzling Performances In Small But
Fun Ditch Plains
Windswell By Nick McGregor
When Surfing
America Prime made their East Coast debut last year in Montauk, NY, the
best Right Coast amateurs were flung into an overhead Ditch Plains maelstrom
with out-of-control rip currents, strong offshore winds, and frigid water and
air temps. 2010 wasn’t much different — except, of course, for the size
of the waves, which this year barely topped waist-high. But nobody was
complaining about the small windswell, because all week, the nattering nabobs
swore up and down that it would be totally flat come Saturday morning, when the
Vans Surfing America Prime Presented By Got Milk? got off the ground. “Greg
Cruse [from Surfing America] got here on Tuesday and asked if we were ever
going to have waves,” said New York comp fixture Rick Anthony. “And I said,
‘It’ll be contestable.’ Ditch Plains was probably the only place breaking within
25 miles — I’ve been doing contests here for 15 years or so, and I’ve
never been skunked.”
It was
nothing if not a hectic week at Montauk, with the Vans Joel Tudor Duct Tape
Invitational running the two days before Surfing America and countless group
dinners and late-night parties at The Surf Lodge. Which made it almost
refreshing when the vibe changed Saturday morning, with stickered-up SUVs
replacing psychedelic school buses in the parking lot and parents chatting up
their cell phones on the beach instead of crazy-hip longboarders drinking beer
and starting bonfires.
But enough
of the peripherals — everybody knows Surfing America is all about the
action in the water, offering the cream of the East Coast amateur crop a chance
to get familiar with ASP judging, a shot at the 2011 Surfing America U.S.A.
Championships and 2011-2012 PacSun U.S.A. Surf Team, and even an opportunity in
Montauk to receive tutelage from New Jersey legend and competitive veteran Dean
Randazzo.
In the
marquee Boys Under 18 division, a slight shake-up from last year’s Surfing
America Prime results found St. Augustine, FL’s, Keto Burns, Rumson, NJ’s, PJ
Raia, Wrightsville Beach, NC’s, Dylan Kowalski, and Ocean Isle Beach, NC’s,
Knox Harris doing battle in the first final on the docket. Even though the
lefts running across the Ditch Plains lineup were barely topping out at
stomach-high, Raia still found plenty of juice to assault the offshore-groomed
crumblers with his potent backside attack, earning a quick 7.17 and 6.70, both
of which were higher than anybody else’s scores in the 20-minute heat. “It was
small and windy, so I just tried to be patient and wait for waves,” Raia said.
“I found that it was easier to go off the bottom and then off the top more
vertically on my backside than on my forehand, with the wind blowing into the
lefts.”
The Boys
Under 16 final offered the tightest, most action-packed affair of the day,
though, with Knox Harris, Jupiter, FL’s, Giorgio Gomez, Manasquan, NJ’s, Pat
Schmidt, and New Smyrna Beach, FL’s, Noah Schweizer going back and forth right
up until the final buzzer. With sections popping up everywhere and Schweizer
even catching arguably the biggest wave of the contest, there were no less than
three lead changes in the final five minutes, with Schmidt getting bumped by
Harris’ 7.07 for several beautiful frontside wrapping turns, then Schweizer
jumping ahead with a late 6.43 and 4.77. But in the end, it was Gomez’s final
scoring wave, easily the longest left of the day, which allowed him to start with
a fading bottom turn, unleash two good slashes, and end with a quick air over
the inside closeout for a buzzer-beating 7.17 victory lap, which gave him a
12.00 heat total (compare that to Schweizer’s 11.20, Harris’ 11.10, and
Schmidt’s 10.94).
“This was my
first time surfing a contest in New York,” Gomez said. “I was watching the
waves before my heat, and I kept seeing that left peel down the beach, so even
though everybody was sitting farther up from me, I just waited for that last
wave.” And even though many people on the beach were congratulating Schweizer
after the heat, Gomez held out hope that his buzzer beater would truly come
through for him. “I wasn’t sure whether I had gotten it in the bag,” he
laughed. “I felt like I had a solid wave, but Noah had a solid wave before mine
that was good, too, so I was wondering. But when I heard that I won I was happy
as ever. It’s probably my biggest win, and definitely the gnarliest heat of my
life. Surfing America definitely raises the level for us, and has helped me
gain more experience and push my surfing to that next level.”
In Girls
Under 18 and Girls Under 16, however, it was all Montauk local Quincy Davis all
the time. The older division featured New Jersey’s Jessica Kwiecinski, fellow
Long Islander Selena Moberly, and Central Florida’s Emily Ruppert, but when
Davis opened her account with an 8.5 (tied with Keto Burns for highest score of
the event) for two powerful and impressive backside smacks, the other girls had
little chance to catch up in the shifty and windblown peaks. The Under 16 final
had only one name change — South Carolina grommette Emory McClary instead
of Kwiecinski — but it was much closer, with Quincy only managing a 9.50
heat total to Ruppert’s 8.37. But Quincy still employed smart heat strategy,
sticking close to Ruppert throughout the final minutes of the heat so she
couldn’t luck into a potentially lead-changing score.
Speaking of
dominance, Central Florida star-in-the-making Luke Marks absolutely obliterated
the Boys Under 14 division, following Raia’s earlier example and working his
backhand attack across the Ditch Plains lefts to devastating effect. Luke
caught a quick 7.17 to start, and added a late 8.17 to that tally for a massive
15.34 heat total, easily the highest of the event. Luke even ended up throwing
away a 7.10 and 7.00, which is pretty darn impressive considering the next
highest wave score of the entire heat was Daytona Beach, FL, grom Cobie
Gittner’s 5.27. “I had a lot of fun in New York,” Marks said. “I just waited
for the best waves — I didn’t take off on small inside ones, where you
could only do a couple of turns. Instead, I sat in front of the judges and
waited for the lefts that looked like they were almost going to close out,
because the rights weren’t that good.”
Overall, it
was another successful Surfing America Prime East event, even with the small
waves and cold temperatures. “We’re definitely stoked on Surfing America coming
to New York,” said longtime Empire State contest fixture Rick Anthony. “A
couple of our local kids got into the event, and it’s a great opportunity,
because it exposes them to upper level comp surfing. That lets them give it a
shot and see what it’s all about.” Next up on the East Coast docket for Surfing
America Prime are stops in Sebastian Inlet, FL, on March 5th, 2011,
along with a stop on the Outer Banks, NC, on April 16th-17th.
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