Celebrating
Its 11th Birthday, The Buddy Pelletier Memorial Longboard Classic Puts The
“Care” In Carolina By Matt Pruett; Photos by Brad Styron/
www.BradStyronPhotography.com
TURF: 11th Annual Buddy Pelletier
Memorial Longboard Classic Presented By Atlantic Beach Surf Shop; Oceanana Pier and Resort, Atlantic Beach, NC;
July 24th-25th, 2010.
ENERGY: There’s
a playground at the south side of Oceanana Pier, directly between the parking lot
and the shoreline, where children can literally slide into a future of surfing.
Ground zero for the Crystal Coast waveriding scene, the scattered peaks here
will not be ignored — taunting kids who might be wasting time in their
terrestrial fantasy worlds, intent on turning them into full-blown grommets.
They can’t escape its salty influence, not while swinging from the swings or
hanging from the monkey bars or even sulking from the picnic table. The waves
at Atlantic Beach’s most popular break wield a powerful magnetism. And the
spirit of its favorite son, the late Buddy Pelletier, looms everywhere.
FIRST TIME
AT FIGHT CLUB: I must
admit, when I first rolled up to AB, I thought I’d be spending the weekend leafing
through a bunch of dusty old scrapbooks with a bunch of old hippie surfers
reminiscing about the good old days. You know, full waterworks every time a waist-high
zit pops on the horizon: “Oh, dear Lord, it was forecasted to only be knee-high
today, and it’s a full waist-high! Must be the ghost of Buddy blessing the contest
zone!”
But what I found was just the opposite: Youth. Youth eating ice cream, youth making
sand castles, youth frolicking in the playgrounds (both of them), eager to
charge chaotic, tummy-high windswell on surfboards far bigger than they. “It
does take some of the pressure off knowing it’s a longboard event where
everyone can get a decent ride,” says Lisa Pelletier-Harman, Buddy’s lovable sister
and the Buddy Pelletier Surfing Foundation’s (BPSF) Public Relations director. That
means all boards used here, in the Buddy Pelletier Memorial Longboard Classic, must
be 9’0” or longer, reflecting Buddy’s latter professional incarnation.
“Buddy was as close to me as a brother,” says Bill Roach, a Crystal Coast icon and Buddy’s best
friend since Roach relocated to the area in 1968, his last year of high school. “He was
always a natural who made surfing look so easy. He was one of the hardest guys
to judge or photograph because he was so damn smooth. And he could basically
ride anything. I remember one contest that Pete Dooley put on where Buddy rode
a mid-range board and all the other pros were getting all mad because he was
winning everything. Of course, Buddy just sat in the back listening to everyone
bicker and fuss and fight and just goes, ‘Hey, Pete, just tell me what you want
me to ride.’ So he shortened his boards down to what they wanted and, of
course, he was still whipping ass.”
One might think holding a surf contest in the
middle of July on the East Coast is a crapshoot, and it is. Unless you’re a
south-southwest-facing beach that picks up every dribble of summertime slop and
turns it into a contestable platform. This year was no different: plenty of waves,
plenty of sunshine, plenty of kids (obviously), and probably more soul than any
single surfing competition on the Eastern Seaboard.
SLIDE: The last two weeks of his life in 1995,
Buddy Pelletier didn’t sleep a wink. The former APS standout-turned-competitive
longboarder had returned home to Atlantic Beach from a trip to Hawaii, where he
surfed in what would be his last professional event, the Ocean Pacific
Longboard Invitational. “Something’s wrong,” Buddy told his sister Lisa. “My body
wouldn’t do what my mind was telling it to do.” His stomach started bothering
him to the point where he was downing antacid tablets by the handful. Shortly
thereafter, Buddy underwent surgery, where doctors discovered a cancer so rare
and so aggressive they couldn’t pinpoint where it originated. It was the
starter horn to his final heat. One he would not lose.
“He did a lot of soul searching those last two
weeks,” Roach adds. “A lot of wondering what he had done right and wrong in his
life and all. At a Sweet Willy’s contest down in Emerald Isle, word got around
that Buddy needed help. The outpouring of money from the community was more
than what he really needed, so he said, ‘Man, we need to do something good with
this money.’ We were all pretty wild boys, but Buddy always seemed to be a step
ahead of what was going on to keep us out of trouble. He wanted to help out
surfers who maybe were in a bad situation money-wise or wanting to go to
school. Buddy doubted himself, and there was a lot of stuff running though his
head over things he had done. He really wanted to do something good in his name,
and give back to the same people who cared so much about him.”
For 14 days in 1995, Buddy and his buds scripted
didactic blueprints for what would be his legacy, the Buddy Pelletier Surfing
Foundation, to assist East Coast surfers with scholastic and humanitarian aid: How
would this work? What sorts of events would this involve? Who would benefit? It
was a Herculean task where no detail was too trivial. There would be no loose
ends. After he was done laying out his master plan, Buddy Pelletier breathed a
sigh or relief and told his family, “It’s done, you can take me to the hospital
now.” He died later that night.
“The foundation board is composed of local surfers,
business owners, and friends and family members of Buddy,” Lisa says. “As far
as who earns the scholarships and the humanitarian aid, it’s all relayed
through the coconut telegraph, which is very effective in the surfing world. We
hear about surfers in need, injured or sick people without health insurance or
unemployed surfers with families, whatever, decide who’s the most deserving or
in the most dire situation, and then we deliver the money. Of course, we are a
nonprofit, so we have to report everything we make… ‘BLAGHH!’ [makes vomiting noise]. But other than
that, we keep it hush-hush so people can retain their dignity. This is exactly
how Buddy laid it out. And as far as the scholarships, Buddy always said, ‘I
don’t want it all to go to straight-A students or just the best surfers, but
maybe the B or C students who have to work jobs to contribute income to the
household, or the kid who made some mistakes in the past but still wants to go
to college.’ Buddy knew exactly what he was doing all along.”
That deliverance system appeals to competitive
hotshots like 22-year-old David Taylor, who’s embarking on a School Public
Health degree in the ECU Graduate Program. “The BPSF does an incredible job of
giving back to the community, from the Buddy Pelletier Surf Clinic to the scholarships
it gives to underprivileged kids,” Taylor says. “The truth of the matter is
surfers may enjoy life a little too much sometimes, and even though they may have
gotten a bad rap or they’re not first round draft picks to Duke, they still
deserve a second chance to excel. A lot of them are extremely brilliant but
might’ve screwed up here and there in the past, and they need someone who isn’t
gonna exploit what they’ve done wrong, but accentuate their potential.”
THE PAIN: Mindy Fitzpatrick is quite chirpy
and bubbly now that her new knee had given her some shelf life in the water and
on the basketball courts. Mindy was sidelined for longer than she would’ve liked
the past few years, and her lip-busting dominance in the Women’s final here
left local rivals like Beth Schub flabbergasted: “She did the same thing to us
in the last contest!” We’re sure Carteret County ballers everywhere are feeling
the same pain.
THE MAN: Like I said, kids everywhere, and usually they
came in sets of siblings. The finals brackets emblazoned three familiar names:
Ognovich, Mancuso, and Horner. Thomas and Alyssa Horner bested the Menehune and
Junior Women’s finals, respectively, while Katie Ognovich won the Girls final
ahead of sister Jackie. And while Wood Mancuso handily won the Boys, his
brother Ruffin would have to settle for 4th in Menehune behind Horner. And in a
hotly contested Senior Men’s final, Jeff Nelson paddled in victorious, perhaps
even surprising himself. But there was no surprise in the marquee Pro Open
final, where the best competitive longboarder on the East Coast — Kure
Beach, NC, sensation Tony Silvagni — added one more to his trophy case. “I missed The Buddy for the past couple years because
I was away competing at the U.S. Open,” Silvagni explains. “This year it came a
week earlier, and I’m stoked because this is one of my favorite events to do. I
was actually in one of Buddy’s movies with Mojo Collins back when I was 10 or 11
years old [laughs]. I really enjoyed
my weekend here — spent some time with my mom and some friends from
Wisconsin. There’s just such good vibes when you’re involved with the whole
longboard culture. I want to see us all grow together and try to develop
something more long-term. Between these contests and teaching surf camps at
home, I’m in the ocean almost 24-7. It’s the best life one can possibly have.”
POSTSCRIPT: Racing to make the
awards presentation, this writer decided to get crafty and park up front and
center at the motel beside the contest site, rather than take the quick stroll across
the street, through the parking lot, around the gate… “Excuse me,” drawls a
gentleman who I assume is the motel owner. “Did someone tell you you could park
here?”
“Uh, yeah,” I lie, “I’m covering this contest for the magazine. Lisa said I was
cool to park here.”
“Oh, really?” he counters. “Lisa said
that?”
I was soooo busted. What’s worse, I may have busted Lisa. “Did I say ‘Lisa’?” I
fumble. “I meant to say ‘Liz’… Yeah, Liz said it was cool, and uh, er…”
“It’s okay,” the man spares me. “You’re okay to park
here now. Go do your thing. But you gotta slow down in the parking lot, buddy.
You were goin’ a little fast… Lots of kids to look out ‘fer around here.”
YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB: “Crockett punched a shark? Doesn’t surprise me one bit. The only
thing that surprises me is that he didn’t bite the thing.” –Women’s champ Mindy Fitzpatrick,
on Chris Crockett tattooing a spinner shark during a preliminary Pro Open heat
“The Mini-Groms was the heat of the day on
Saturday, easily. The Weaver kids are little animals. They were sideslipping, full
tube stance… the only problem is they had to share a board. I hope they’re not
gonna have to fight over it for the final.” –Esteemed judge and Emerald Isle, NC,
ripper Erik Schub
An enormous round of thanks goes to the following
sponsors: BB&T Beam Cooper Gainey, Knucklehead Kustoms, Action Surf Shop,
Emerald Isle Surf Shop, Playa Graphics, Sign Central, Ocean Athlete, Carl
Heverly Surfboards, South Swell Surf Shop, Brad Styron Photography, Chris Jones
Surfboards, Ioanni’s Grill, The Perfect Surfer…
…and contributors: The Friendly Market, Sub Tropics,
Chick-Fil-A (Morehead City), Ballyhoos Restaurant, Dr. Lewis Barnum, Indulgence
Salon & Day Spa, Sound Bank, The Cabinet Shop, Amos Mosquito Restaurant,
Bushwackers Restaurant, Auto Brite Car Wash, Concepts Jewelry, Fish Bouffant,
Expressions, Marsh’s Surf Shop, Town of Atlantic Beach, Sign Central, Oceanana
Pier and Resort, Juanita’s House of Flowers, Eastern Offset Printing, R&D
Ricky Carroll Surfboards, Chris Burch Surfboards, ESA-CNC District, Island
Furniture, and Surfboard SKINZ.
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
