5th Annual Zeke’s Lil’ Rat Surfcus Returns Surfing To Its Purest, Most Joyful Roots By Jeffrey Myers; Photos by John Wright
TURF: 5th Annual
Zeke’s Lil’ Rat Surfcus Brought To You In Part By To Write Love On Her Arms And
Hurley; First Street Jetty, Virginia Beach, VA; June 19th, 2010.
ENERGY: The
Zeke has always been blessed with fun surf running five years deep, and although
this year’s conditions were barely minimal at best, it was truly amazing how
well these little guys ripped the small surf Mother Nature provided. With warm
sunny skies and refreshing water temps in the upper 60s, it was another
beautiful June summer day in Virginia Beach.
FIRST TIME AT THE FIGHT CLUB: More than a surfing event, this is a community
gathering celebrating our dearly beloved friend, son, and brother Zeke Sanders.
Zeke was a professional surfer hailing from Virginia Beach who was very well
respected and loved by our entire community. This memorial surfing event brings
together the masses to celebrate Zeke’s life and impact on our community, all while
being aimed at giving back to the youth with divisions targeted for children 18
and under.
THE SLIDE: The
contest entry to participate in Zeke’s Lil’ Rat Surfcus is a canned food
donation that will be donated to the less fortunate and homeless. With
charitable sponsors like TWLOHA, Hurley, Arnette, Oakley, Freedom Surf Shop, WRV,
O’Neill, Skullcandy, Watermans Sunscreen, The Boxx, and Side Street Cantina providing
free competitors T-shirts, a free lunch, incredible prizes, giveaways, and
goodie bags for everyone who made the event, this represents the true
heartbeat of a celebration more so than the strategy and drive of your typical
surf competition.
With Zeke’s Lil’ Rat Surfcus
aiming to please today’s youth, this year’s competition Tees were themed with
color-your-own fabric logos donated by local artist and Virginia Beach staple
Crimo, allowing the kids to customize their own designs. Did I mention the
squirt guns, slip and slides, every color of fabric marker known to mankind,
and free tacos provided by Side Street Cantina and pizza for days courtesy of
The Boxx? How about a free entry and incredible prizes for the finalists? This
event may go down in history as the world’s most kid-friendly competition ever
held. Take, for instance, the rule that stated that if a surfer caught more
than the ten-wave limit, they were “corn dogged” rather than penalized with
point deductions. Party waves were encouraged with zero interference rules, and
with VB legend Jon Kleintop and former television host Nick Pepperoni on the
microphone, there were nonstop laughs throughout the entire event.
It was also pretty amazing
to see former pro surfing legends Wes Laine and Jason Borte’s kids battle their
friends throughout the competition. Overall, I think it’s safe to say that the
future is looking very solid when it comes to Virginia’s generation next. This
is where the story takes a humorous turn…
With the final heat sheets
being misplaced and accidentally thrown away following the award ceremony,
there was no way to recover the actual contest results. If you’re reading this
right now and feel as if you have been done an injustice by these misplaced results,
then you’re losing focus on what this event is all about. Something tells me
Zeke had his hand in this whole little “misplaced results” scenario, and
wouldn’t want it any other way. Zeke would rather want us to take away from all
of this a full day of surfing spent with our community and youth, far more than
another weekend of bragging rights and surf contest results.
THE PAIN: There
is very little pain that comes with a fun-loving celebration surrounded by the
next generation of VB’s surf stoked groms. And although we all play the role of
being strong for our family, friends, and community, deep down we all suffer a
great loss without Zeke’s presence on the daily. He was a mentor throughout our
community and a damn good human being, and his spirit will NEVER be forgotten. The
legacy of Zeke Sanders will always be shared as a celebration of life, far
before ever being labeled as a loss throughout this community. Thank you Zeke,
we love and miss you brother.
THE MAN: We
all know this is an event to celebrate Zeke’s life, so technically he is and
always will remain the man. But we as a community would sincerely like to thank
Jamie Tworkowski and his organization To Write Love On her Arms for playing a
tremendous part in helping fund and support the Zeke this year. And what Jamie
wrote after the fact will surely bring even the strongest person to tears:
“A town is a place where
people come together, live and tell stories tying into one another. Moments
that are hilarious, terrible and amazing inspire nicknames and so on. People
gather at their favorite places telling their stories to form a bigger one.
This is the story of a surf town, Virginia Beach.
Zeke died five years ago,
his death a suicide, a choice and moment just like millions more, except the
kind that's all too final, the kind that leaves no room for others. First
Street, this ocean, this place, is where his ashes were scattered. Men who love
the land, you give them to the land, but surfers do it different. Surfers paddle
out, hold hands and make a circle, ashes to the water along with flowers. And
then we scream and splash and say goodbye. Perhaps we scream because it's
impossible. Zeke's friends did this on a freezing cold January day in 2006, two
hundred people in the water and as many or more standing on the sand.
I wasn't there that day, but
I was there yesterday, for the 5th Annual Zeke's Lil' Rat Surfcus, a unique surf
contest meant to make kids smile. Creativity is often born from suffering.
Zeke's family and friends are doing their best to create something special in
his honor — beauty born from pain.
The kids arrived and the
contest began at 8:00 a.m. I watched as Zeke's mom, quiet and humble, worked to
make sure everything was perfect for the kids. Every kid got an official
contest T-shirt, black and white so that they could add the colors. She set up
a table with fabric markers so that they could make their art. Zeke was always
drawing and painting so this made perfect sense. She brought bubbles and water
guns so that the kids could be kids, so that they could play and smile. This is
crucial because as we get older we forget how to play, and the pain and worry
replace our smiles. Mothers, the good ones, they fight to let us keep our
smiles. Zeke is gone but his mother is still a mother.
Midway through the morning,
she walked away without announcement, away from the buzz and noise and laughter
of the contest. She walked alone, away from the tents, across the sand toward
the rocks that form the jetty. She walked with flowers. Nicole told me they
were sunflowers, because you give sunflowers to the people that you truly love.
The kids near us cheered and screamed for reasons unrelated, the surfers surfed
and the announcers added noise. She moved slowly to the end of the rocks,
stopped and threw the flowers to the sea.
‘She does this every year,
today, on his birthday and on the day he died,’ Nicole told me as we watched.
She paused for just a moment
before walking back wiping her eyes. Later that day, I sat down in an empty
chair beside her.
‘Today must be bittersweet
for you,’ I said, after small talk and some silence. ‘Every day is bittersweet,’
she replied.
We sat for some time, often
without words, under a burning summer sun. I didn't offer answers because I had
no answers to offer. When we did talk, we talked about family, pain, and change.
We talked about her wonderful, brilliant grandson and we talked about my
sisters.
I was friends with Zeke when
we worked together at Hurley, and his Nicole has become my friend over the last
year. I came to Virginia to give her support and to meet the other characters,
the friends with nicknames, his family, his town. I didn't know it when I
bought my ticket but I came to watch a mother remember her son, to say in her
own way, that she remembers, that he was significant, that she is still his
mother.
Every single kid who surfed
in the contest left with information about TWLOHA and a TWLOHA T-shirt. There
was no epic speech but it moved me to know that every single kid left that beach
with a bag marked ‘Hope is real. Help is real. Your story is important.’
The hope in all of that, the
reason TWLOHA exists, is to keep the flowers from the sea. Death will come for
all of us but let us fight to live. Let us bury our mothers and them not us.
And if it should happen the other way or if it already has, I hope you get to
know the privilege of seeing them remember. I hope you get to sit with them in
silence, the silence simply honest and neither of you alone because the other
is there. In Loving Memory: Zeke Sanders. Rest in peace.” –Jamie
Tworkowski
YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB: “Zeke had the biggest heart in
the smallest body of anyone I have ever known. His heart was full of passion
for a lot of things, but surfing filled a huge chunk. We do this contest to
remember that passion and this guy that we all loved. I hope that this day
brings a smile, and can spark a passion in all the kids that join us on the
beach. I know that would make Zeke smile.” –Nicole
Orsargos, Zeke’s forever better half and co-organizer of the 5th Annual Zeke’s
Lil’ Rat Surfcus
“I
truly feel blessed for the time and love I got to share with my friend and
brother. The groms’ parents love the event, and there are a million ‘thank yous’
from the parents. While that feels so good and is greatly appreciated, it can't
compare to the true smiles of joy on the kids’ faces I get to see all day long
on the beach.” –Junior
Majetich, Zeke’s best friend and brother/ co-organizer
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Noah Schweizer, And Dan Worley Also Win Big
VQS
HITS THE JACKPOT AT CASINO PIER Jellyfish Surf Series Winners Include Local Boys
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DUBIOUS RECORD The WRV
Outer Banks Pro Presented By Hurley Offers Locals Genuine Perspective & More
Money Per Square Foot Of Wave Than Any Surf Contest In History
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By Matt Pruett and Nick McGregor;
Photos by Matt Lusk
