Michael
Powell Finds New Reason To Slack At The 6th Annual Reef/ Sweetwater Pro-Am Surf
Fest By Matt Pruett; Photos by Nate Adams
TURF: 6th Annual Reef/ Sweetwater
Pro-Am Surf Fest Presented By ActionSportsNow.com; Oceanic Street, Wrightsville Beach, NC; July 16th-18th,
2010.
ENERGY: “Bodyboarder,
please get out of the contest zone!” Someone had to let contest emcee Brian
Tracy know that this sponger — decked out in cutoff jean shorts and a hockey
helmet and claiming absurdities like no-handed spinners — was actually
Belmar, NJ, upstart Brendan Buckley, who was already entered into the event.
Despite spraining his ankle while attempting to land a lofty stalefish into the
flats during a recent Central American sojourn (Buckley has the photo to prove
it), the kid couldn’t help but be a part of the scene here, one way or another.
Another comp regular grounded with an injury, Melbourne Beach, FL, pro Blake
Jones, echoed Buckley’s fun-first mantra, albeit at the bar, not in a heat:
“Yeah, I got a couple months before I can surf again,” Blake said. “But I came
up here anyway. I can’t stay away from this place. Wrightsville is just too
much fun.”
Pretty easy sell, right? We don’t even have to mention that it was every bit of
chest-high and breaking through all tides throughout the duration of the event…
in the middle of July. “This
has been the worst summer I’ve ever seen in Wrightsville Beach,” said
Sweetwater Surf Shop manager/ event co-organizer Tony Butler, “the least I’ve
surfed in 26 years. It’s the one thing you can’t control for a contest, so to
see it bump up out of nowhere was a real blessing.”
FIRST TIME
AT FIGHT CLUB: We’re
sure former ESM coverboy Carl Wallin
misses the hell out of Charlotte, NC, where he’d been living for the past three
years or so before moving back to Wilmington to beef up his business model for
ActionSportsNow.com (a nationwide database of action sports retailers, shops,
camps, parks, resorts, lesson providers, and other resources). Hey, we like NASCAR
races and late-night Walmart runs as much as the next guy, but knowing it might
take him a while to get his sea legs back after living four hours inland for so
long, Wallin wisely attached himself to the mic alongside Brian Tracy instead
of wandering awkwardly at the water’s edge with a jersey trying to remember
which foot his leash goes on.
SLIDE: He thought he had it all figured out. After a semi-impressive
amateur career, Ocean Isle Beach, NC, surfer Michael Powell figured (and, of
course, we’re paraphrasing his thoughts here), “You know what? I rip pretty
hard for a Carolina kid, but let’s face it: I’m never gonna make the World
Tour. I’m a pretty smart dude, though, so maybe after I graduate college with
this gnarly Finance degree, I’ll try this job thing out, make a shit-ton of
cash, and rip it up later. Yeah, dude, that’s what I’m gonna do. Totally.”
So Powell was
all set to graduate UNC Wilmington, begin his internship with Northwestern
Mutual en route to a life insurance license, and start planning his own
late-night Walmart runs. But something went wrong. Powell started seriously
shredding. Last fall, he logged the best result of his career, 2nd-place to Ben
Bourgeois at the WRV Outer Banks Pro, a Cinderella story of country-fried
proportions. Exams took precedence over heat sheets for the remainder of 2009
and into 2010 before he returned to the Banks with his Sweetwater Surf Shop
teammates, his 8.67 double-whammy ride clinching victory at the Oakley Surf
Shop Challenge Mid-Atlantic Regional Qualifier. A few months later, degree in
hand and a future so bright he has to wear Dragons, Powell won what he figured
would be his swan song, the NSSA National College Men’s Championship. Pretty
cool, but it was against a bunch of college boys like him, not ASP World Tour
freshman. So he figured he’d stick to the plan.
“I just started
working,” Powell said prior to the four-man Reef/ Sweetwater Pro final. “Not
full-time — I kind of make my own schedule right now. But I’m going to
have to make that decision soon. It depends on how I end up doing here and in
all the East Coast contests this fall. Then I’ll make my final decision.”
THE PAIN: That final decision might come sooner rather than later for
Powell. He smoked defending
and 2006 event champ Aaron Cormican here like a Volcano Vaporizer before
avenging his Outer Banks Pro loss to Ben Bourgeois. It’s far and away the best
result of Powell’s career, not to mention giving his quaint, quiet hometown of
Ocean Isle Beach its first professional win. It was Michael’s trademark
backhand hacks that sent Gorkin packing: “I understand that [I’m known for my
backhand],” said the somewhat-square, straitlaced goofyfoot. “And that kind of
gets to me. I really go left a lot more, and pretty much go right by default. I
guess I feel more comfortable getting the score on my backhand.”
But it was Powell’s forehand
that found favor with the judges in the final. While Aussie Reef wrangler Heath
“Nutty” Walker put the core in “corpo” with an impressive, patient study in
precision smashing, Hawaiian helgie Dylan Goodale did the opposite, counting on
his Dusty Payne-inspired backside nose-pick reverses to do the job. But Goodale
couldn’t achieve the length-of-ride, and Nutty didn’t get radical enough. And
surprising as it may seem, Ben’s never won this event. Easily the most
accomplished competitor, Ben sliced away at the tide-dampened lefts and rights
like an escaped serial killer with a shorebreak vendetta.
It wasn’t enough.
“I friggin’ called it,” elated Kill Devil Hills, NC, entrant Sterling King. “I
watched him connect a roundhouse wrap to a sick blow-tail in the quarters and
said out loud, ‘That Powell kid’s gonna win this contest.’”
THE MAN: Since we already slurped Powell enough to earn him his own Larry Flynt Publications film,
we’re gonna give this one to slightly depraved-yet-incredibly gregarious
Australian Reef pro rider Paul Fisher. Read any of the comments trailing
anything The Fish does in the surf industry, and you’ll find quite a few party
poopers, begging the question: When did we 86 humor? Is personality passé? “FAAHHRRKK
NO,” reasons Fisher, who verified the Reef/ Sweetwater Pro-Am Surf Fest as the East Coast’s Raging-est Surf Party, perfectly summing up Wrightsville Beach’s nocturnal
scene, the energy behind this event, and the importance of spreading
deprecating levity amidst heated professional competition that regularly
inspires a tsunami of ego-tripping. “You can be as good as you want at the
sport, but if you don’t have a personality you’re going nowhere,” Fisher said.
“And people on the East Coast seem to appreciate that. This town especially
reminds me a lot of my home, a little place called Broadbeach on Australia’s
Gold Coast near Burleigh Heads. The people here are so friendly and all want to
have a good time. The last three days and nights have been loose, mate. Every
morning we’re waking up hungover, coming down here for a surf, and it’s on all
day. The East Coast just pumps, mate! It’s amazing.”
YOU DO NOT
TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB: “When’s the last time you made a semifinal of
anything, Myers?” –2008 Reef/ Sweetwater Pro-Am Surf Fest champ Jeremy Johnston, to
Jeff Myers prior to Myers’ semifinal heat
“When’s the last time you had a spread in a magazine, JJ?” –Myers’
retort (Editor’s Note: both Johnston and Myers placed equal-5th, and neither
got a photo in this feature)
“Everyone in Wrightsville looks up to Ben. He’s
the celebrity of this town — living the life, making money, doing what
every pro surfer wants to do — yet he’s so down-to earth, humble, and
always up for helping people. So I’m just trying to follow in Ben’s footsteps.” –Top local grom prospect/ newly branded Hurley teamrider Mason Barnes
“To be able to
change the minds of a town from granting a two-block surfing area to pretty
much the whole beach took a lot of hours of work, a lot of ruined vacations spent
talking to town officials. And we’ve changed the whole stereotype of surfing in
Wrightsville Beach, which used to be really negative, and putting it in a
positive light. So having to wear a leash is a small price to pay. I think it gets
in the minds of some of these better pros, who might have justified
superstitions. I know some of them have a hard time with it, but we appreciate
them doing it for the good of the town.” –Sweetwater Surf Shop manager/ event
co-organizer Tony Butler on the contest’s No Leash, No Score rule
FINAL RESULTS OF THE 6TH ANNUAL REEF/ SWEETWATER PRO-AM SURF FEST
PRO 1. Michael Powell, $5,000
2. Ben Bourgeois, $2,500
3. Heath Walker, $2,000
4. Dylan Goodale, $1,500
5. Jeremy Johnston, Jeff Myers, $900
7. Travis Beckmann, Chris Tucker, $700
9. Keto Burns, Rob Kelly, Mark Dawson, Philip Goold, $500
13. Brendan Petticrew, Vince Boulanger, Michael Dunphy,
Mason Barnes, $300
17. Aaron Cormican, Mark Yonkers, Kyle Garson, Eddie Guilbeau,
Mike Losness,
Paul Fisher, Cam Richards, Brian Carpenter, $175
25. Evan Barton, Chris Waring, Shane Burn, Lucas Rogers,
Kyle Busey, Chris
Eaves, Ben Powell, Erik Schub, $150
Sweetwater Leaves It Up To The Grom At Oakley Surf Shop Challenge Mid-Atlantic Regional Qualifier; “Uncle” Andrew Gesler Drives Heritage Win Home In Northeast
By Matt Pruett and Nick McGregor;
Photos by Matt Lusk
