Hurricane Swell, Third World Come-Ups, Gromson, & The Best Longboarding The
East Coast Has Ever
Seen Mark The Biggest ECSC To Date By Matt Pruett
TURF: 48th
Annual Coastal Edge East Coast Surfing Championships
Presented By Vans And Monster Energy; First Street Jetty, Virginia Beach, VA; August 25th-29th, 2010.
ENERGY: “Danielle,
you trick bitch.” This was the sweetest Facebook posting I found — from
Crystal Coast, NC, shredder Matt Hardesty — which helped me breathe a
little easier knowing Rudee Inlet’s First Street Jetty, which resembled totally
good Trestles the last two days of the ECSC, was receiving Danielle’s VIP rate.
Meanwhile, Hatteras was Chunky Monkey, Florida was Weird Harold, Jersey was Strange
Brew… As funny as it may sound, nowhere could’ve been better than Virginia
Beach this weekend: head-high, glassy, tropical groundswell for the oldest,
most prestigious pro/am on the East Coast.
As for the other stuff — the jailbait and parties and whiffleball tourneys
and dunking booths and Tent City minutiae — none of it stood a chance at
diverting any true surf fan’s attention from the lineup. Granted, the ECSC did originally evolve from a 1961 Gilgo Beach,
NY, beer blast, but for the sake of brevity, this report will focus strictly on
the surfing. As if Danielle’s flirting wasn’t enough, a spicy international
contingent including Venezuela’s David Villarroel, Jamaica’s Icah Wilmot, Brazil’s
Lucas Silveira, and 1991 ECSC Pro Men champ Alan Burke (who was escorting
several members from the Barbados Junior Surfing Club) showed the ECSC knows no
regional or national boundaries. And the 43 surf/ skate companies flashing
their respective colors and signs here showed that — at least conceptually
— the ECSC knows no corporate favorites despite any official sponsorship.
In other words, come one come all, catch waves don’t fall.
FIRST
TIME AT FIGHT CLUB: While
surfing renaissance man, style champion, and former two-time ASP World Longboard
Champion Joel Tudor was gracious for
the pulse he was receiving, it was the audience who should’ve felt privileged,
as Tudor chose this town and this event to debut his Joel Tudor Duct Tape Invitational
Presented By Vans, which required that 16 contestants ride leash-less,
plug-less single-fins, with a 9’2” minimum length and a 12 lb. minimum weight (yes,
they do weigh in your board) for a share of a $10,000 purse. After taking out a
noseriding comp in Oceanside, CA, last week, former amateur multi-titlist from
Neptune Beach, FL, Justin Quintal was granted the last remaining wildcard
entry. His elegant footwork found favor in the Pro Longboard final, which he
won with ease right before dominating another 30-minute final over Australia’s
Harrison Roach, Florida/ New York split-timer Mike DeTemple (who’s currently
rehabbing a broken ankle), and California’s Tyler “Pickle” Warren.
“I’m really proud,” Tudor beamed, “because all
of the contestants surfed exactly the way I wanted them to. I think this
division really complements the shortboarding divisions, too, because they’re
so contrasting in principle. What the shortboarders have to do to get the
scores is totally different from what we have to do to get the scores. So I
think this actually makes them both look good on the same stage. If
longboarders were riding tri-fins and trying to emulate what the shortboarders
are doing, it wouldn’t make sense, because our boards are less maneuverable. It
would be insulting. But all these surfers killed it, and it was so entertaining
to watch. Also, Kassia Meador did an incredible job of representing the girls,
which for me was a big deal. I brought her here on a whim, and on Saturday, she
didn’t just beat the guys a little bit. She kicked their asses, surfing exactly
the way I hoped she would. She really stepped it up and made women’s surfing
look good.”
Tudor is currently negotiating with Vans about
adding a women’s division once his series gets its sea legs. In the meantime,
the next JTDTI is scheduled for October 12th in Montauk, NY, followed by a TBA
venue in Hawaii — the latter contest’s criteria altering slightly to
accommodate heartier wave conditions.
“It wasn’t like I didn’t have a run,” said
Tudor, when asked if he himself will be donning a jersey. “I had a really good
20 years, and I had a lot of good people orchestrating that for me —
Gerry Lopez, David Nuuhiwa, Nat Young, Donald Takayama — many of whom are
about the same age distance that I am from some of these kids. Now it’s my turn
to give back. There’s no ego involved, and I actually really dig being on this
side of it. I will compete in different things in the future, but never in my
own event.”
To further accentuate the communal aesthetic of
classic surfboard riding, Joel dropped an extra grand on the table for the best
doubles wave, ultimately snatched up by Warren and Roach’s communicative
cross-tracking. Say what you will about the logs — surfing has never
looked so fun and so natural as it did on this day, in this heat.
SLIDE:Traditionally, this is supposed to be the longest, most detailed
part of any “Fight Club” story. Today, we feel the need to get right to the
point: New Smyrna Beach, FL, surfer Jeremy “Gromson” Johnston was an NSSA National
Champ by the time he was 13 years old. He literally grew up in a contest
singlet, ruining careers bracket by bracket from the Sunshine State to Orange
County. He’s done the editorial photo surfer thing, the sponsor’s advertising
campaign thing, and the traveling freesurfer sans sponsor thing, but it’s
competition that really blows his hair back. In the past four years, he’s
tasted victory at nearly every Eastern break that hosts a pro contest: Sebastian
Inlet, New York, Wrightsville, the Outer Banks, New Smyrna, South Florida, Jax,
St. Augustine… No human on
this coast is more groomed, more electric, and more ruthless in a heat than
Jeremy Johnston. He is not one of the
best competitive surfers on the East Coast. He is the best. Period.
THE
PAIN: Interferences and
underscoring are the surfing competition equivalent of death and taxes. They will happen, for sure. With a
smile on her face, Flagler Beach, FL, wahine Haley Watson burned diminutive amateur
sensation Quincy Davis like an incense stick in the Pro Women’s final, drawing
an interference and basically handing Davis the victory. But in all honesty,
Davis was clearly dominant despite her opponents’ best efforts. And on another note…
“I’ve never seen that kid bummed in my life,” bewildered Outer Banks, NC, pro Billy
Hume about happy-go-lucky Melbourne Beach, FL, surfer Mark Dawson, who stormed
up the beach noticeably pissed about a questionable score early in his
quarterfinal bout against Sean Moody, Aaron Cormican, and Nils Schweizer.
“I’ve never in my life gotten mad surfing
before,” Dawson said. “I actually think they didn’t even see the first air-reverse
I did and only scored the turns, because it was right at the start of the heat.
I never complain, ever, but a 3.0 for an air-reverse and three turns? That’s
way low-ball. The truth is, though, even with a well-deserved score I couldn’t
have taken out Nils or Gorkin in that heat.”
It should be noted that the unsponsored darkhorse scored an 8.67 the day before
for a single maneuver, a mental full-rotation backside 360 air, instantly summiting
him from 4th to 1st ahead of heavies Lucas Rogers, Asher Nolan, and Fisher
Heverly. So advancement or no, finals berth or not, ECSC victory or none, at
least Mark Dawson proved he’s one of the most technically gifted surfers on the
Eastern Seaboard today.
THE
MAN:In 2002, a little-known 15-year-old Brazilian
named Adriano De Souza enjoyed an unlikely coming-out party at the ECSC,
devastating a stacked field on his way to 2nd-place in the Pro Men and 3rd-place
in the Pro Junior. He went on to do some pretty big things. You may have heard
of him.
In 2010, a 20-year-old Tican named Jairo Perez, built like a brick shithouse but
with wholesome, childlike metal braces on his teeth, had an equally ominous
presence here. Fast, powerful, radical, spontaneous, flexible, smart,
tenacious, small, brown, muscular, feisty, stoked…
If a Central American surfer shall ever qualify for the ASP World Tour, it
should be Jairo.
YOU DO
NOT TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB:“All you goons on the outside creeping into the
contest zone, and we mean this in the nicest way possible, beat it! We know you
all think you’re in a hip-hop video, but we’re trying to hold a contest.” –Vans
voice/ event organizer Joel Tudor
“Kyle Garson just got an extra half-point by
running over a swimmer near the jetty — totally functional.” –Coastal
Edge voice/ Virginia Beach icon Wes Laine
“If I get a wave, I’ll get the score.” –Jeremy Johnston, prior to
the Pro Men’s final, confident in the outcome
FINAL PRO RESULTS OF THE 48TH ANNUAL COASTAL EDGE EAST COAST
SURFING CHAMPIONSHIPS
PRESENTED BY VANS AND MONSTER ENERGY
PRO MENS 1. Jeremy Johnston, $2500
2. Kyle Garson, $1000
3. Nils Schweizer, $800
4. Andrew Doheny, $700
5. Jairo Perez, Aaron Cormican, $600
7. Michael Dunphy, Oliver Kurtz, $500
PRO
JUNIOR 1. Jairo Perez, $2000
2. Michael Dunphy, $1000
3. Andrew Doheny, $600
4. Tayler Brothers, $400
5. Evan Barton, Rob Kelly, $300
7. Michael Ciaramella, Philip Goold, $200
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
