Jacksonville Retailer Maintains Stranglehold On Oakley Surf Shop Challenge Southeast Qualifier By Zander Morton; Photos by Duce Smith
TURF: Oakley Surf Shop
Challenge Presented By Surfer Magazine Southeast Qualifier; New Smyrna Inlet,
New Smyrna Beach, FL; August 18th, 2010
ENERGY: Though the Monday
preceding the event saw New Smyrna Inlet “as good as it gets,” the fun late-summer
northeast swell lingered just long enough to provide the Oakley Surf Shop
Challenge Southeast Qualifier with highly contestable waist-high-plus peaks all
day long. Considering most everywhere else on the Florida coastline was a
dismal one-foot, it was once again a testament to how one-of-a-kind special New
Smyrna Inlet really is.
FIRST TIME AT FIGHT CLUB: No one,
really. There were a shitload of sharks (surprise!), bikini-clad young’uns (no
way, not in Smyrna!), and a who’s who of Florida surfing competing for their
respective surf shops from every corner of the Sunshine State. Seeing as how
this event has been running for a few years now, every single competitor knows
what is at stake and takes this thing seriously. A free trip to California and
a shot at $10,000 is nothing to shake a stick at.
SLIDE: Entering this event,
Jacksonville’s Sunrise Surf Shop and their self-described “Dream Team” of Asher
Nolan, Ryan Briggs, Garret Carmichael, and Dane “Jah” Jeffries had already won
this contest (and the California grand prize) two times, and have pretty much maintained
a stranglehold on all shop challenges the last few years.
This
year, nothing changed.
Despite
onslaughts from other shops with talented surfers like the Schweizer brothers
(Red Dog), the Johnston brothers (Quiet Flight and Salty Dog), Cheyne Cottrell
(Island Water Sports), Bryan Hewitson (Quiet Flight), Tayler Brothers (Inlet
Charley’s), Jody Davis (Aqua East), Eric Taylor (The Surf Station), and many
others, an upset just wasn’t to be. Sunrise downright dominated, winning Heat One
with solid scores from Carmichael and Briggs, before Asher’s 8.33 “double
whammy” was pretty much all she wrote for every other team. In the final, it
was more of the same — Asher opened up with a 6.93 but chose not to claim
it, before Hewitson put Quiet Flight temporarily in the lead with the event’s highest
wave score, a 9.5. But Asher answered with an 8.5 “double whammy” (before the
entire Sunrise team had surfed, mind you), Briggsy pulled an impressive 7.27,
and Jeffries secured it with a 6.33. I left after Asher’s final “double whammy,”
but I knew it was over, and a text from Nolan 15 minutes later confirmed it:
Sunrise had won for the third straight year.
THE PAIN: Honestly, if you were in
this event and your team name wasn’t Sunrise, you felt the pain. The free pair
of Oakley Florida Marlins signature glasses for every competitor was a nice
parting gift, though they would have been a thousand times cooler if they were
Jacksonville Jaguars glasses! And this event was well-planned and a lot of fun as
always. Team events are really cool, and props to Oakley rep Rich Rudolph for
putting this one on. Our team, The Surf Station, had a complete shocker this
year, but we’ll be back with a secret weapon in 2011 (cough, cough, Gabe Kling, cough) and we’ll be gunning to knock
Sunrise off their pedestal.
THE MAN: The entire Sunrise team
is solid, and any one of them could arguably be “The Man,” but for the sake of
this article I’ll give it to Asher Nolan. Asher is clutch, every time. In all
the years of watching him compete in these team events, I’ve never seen him not
score at least an 8-point ride in the “double whammy” position. As long as
Sunrise has Asher, they will always be tough to beat.
YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT
FIGHT CLUB: “I just got offered $50 to put my face in that chick’s butt!” –An
anonymous competitor who unfortunately didn’t take the offer
“Why
is your team blowing it so hard, Nuggets?” –Evan Geiselman to author Zander
Morton (whose nickname is Nuggets because of his love for chicken), after
Zander entered the water last needing an impossible 14 out of 10 points to win the
heat for The Surf Station
FINAL RESULTS OF THE
OAKLEY SURF SHOP CHALLENGE PRESENTED BY SURFER MAGAZINE SOUTHEAST QUALIFIER: 1.
Sunrise, 35.03 points (Asher Nolan, Ryan Briggs, Garret Carmichael, Dane
Jeffries)
2.
Red Dog, 25.27 points (Noah Schweizer, Michael Howard, Nils Schweizer, Larry
McGong)
3.
Quiet Flight, 25.17 points (Jeremy Johnston, Javier Rovira, Bryan Hewitson, Jon
Cangenella)
4.
Inlet Charley’s, 22.35 points (Devon Tresher, Tayler Brothers, Shamon Burton,
Eric Templeton)
5.
Maui Nix, 17.87 points (Dustin Richardson, Bryan Smith, Ben Magovera, Tyler
Crawford)
South Carolina’s Cam Richards Steals 12th Annual
Tommy Tant Memorial Classic Men’s Pro Title From Florida Vets; Cody Thompson, Amy Nicholl,
Noah Schweizer, And Dan Worley Also Win Big
VQS
HITS THE JACKPOT AT CASINO PIER Jellyfish Surf Series Winners Include Local Boys
Hammer, Schmidt, Vanaman, And Siganos, Along With Florida Girl Emily Ruppert
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
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
