Arnette Cash Pot Surf Series Stops Traffic On The Outer Banks By Matt Pruett; Photos by Mickey “2M” McCarthy
TURF: Arnette Cash Pot Surf Series Stop #7; Blackman
Street, Nags Head, NC; August 19th, 2011.
ENERGY: For its inaugural Outer Banks touchdown, the
Arnette Cash Pot beat the Rip Curl GromSearch (by a day) as the officialstart of comp season around these
parts. The weather was still hot, the tourists still annoying, and the waves
still knee-high, but with so much emphasis instantly shifting from making money
to what was going on in the ocean, local surf energy was buzzing like Andy Capp
on a pub crawl. Autumn had arrived, a month early.
FIRST
TIME AT FIGHT CLUB: “Matt Pruett,
please check in for your heat.” I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again until
it’s no longer true: I suck at surfing, and thus would never dream of donning a
contest jersey with such names as Cormican, Rogers, Heverly, Myers, and Dunphy
on the brackets. So why was contest emcee and Arnette East Coast ambassador
Travis Ajay calling my name? The patronizing, giggle-laden “good lucks” from my
buddies only added insult to inquiry.
He wasn’t. Travis was actually calling for “Matt Hewitt,” a visiting Kiwi
shredder to the umpteenth power whose distinctly stumpy phenotype wasn’t too
different from my own. He almost won this thing, placing 2nd to humble Ocean
Isle Beach, NC, overachiever Mike Powell. Salivating over his perfect frontside
roundhouses all day, I should’ve let the lie run itself all the way up the
coconut wireless to blue-collar infamy: “Hey
Pruett, we heard you were ripping today!”
SLIDE: “We used to do the All Day Antics,” said Arnette
Sports Marketing Manager Brent Bearden, “which were free events for kids under
18, but we wanted to reach our more core consumers. So I thought, ‘Let’s have a
free event and give out money [$2,500 purse] for winning heats or doing amazing
tricks.’ It’s really been a success. We’ve maxed out at every event. We had 96
here, the highest turnout of any stop, and we have three on the west coast,
three on the East Coast, and one in Hawaii. The way it works is if you win your
first round heat in the Pro division, you get $40, $20 for the Boys. Then in
the quarters, we get creative depending on the surf and offer $50 in each
division for the biggest move or the highest wave score. Then all the finalists
win money.”
THE PAIN: In the 20-minute-long Boys
final, which allowed a 12-wave maximum per surfer, exactly 16 frontside air-reverses
were attempted, none of which were landed. Owen Wright doppelganger Taylor
Clark switched it up in time with a series of mature backside verts and made
the rest of the kids look like… well, kids.
THE MAN: Mike Dunphy’s 9.17 for two apex predator hacks
(hey, it was only knee-high) set the performance pace for the day. A wee
superman from Eros Exahrou with 30 seconds left stayed the course. Gorkin did Gorktacular
things on the right ramps, while Fisher Heverly showed exactly why he deserves
his slot in the upcoming Quiksilver Pro New York Trials. But no one matched
Outer Banks Renaissance man Mickey “2M’ McCarthy for endurance. He shot from
land, shot from the water, filmed the beach scene, snapped mugshots for
shameless parents’ Facebook albums… all day long with a 95-degree heat index
sweltering down on his thinning, gray hair.
YOU DO
NOT TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB: “Our reps did such a good job of promoting this. We have a lot of the
same talent that’s also here for the Rip Curl GromSearch, so the groms
are like, ‘I can enter a free contest before that and win some cash.’ We all
seem to benefit from the other contests that are around. Darren Brilhart and
his crew run all our events, as they did the ECSC later in the week. They work
with the ESA to get flags and the sound system, and we always use ASP-certified
judges, which is probably why we haven’t had a single complaint about the
judging all year.” –Arnette Sports Marketing Manager Brent Bearden
FINAL RESULTS OF THEARNETTE CASH POT SURF
SERIES STOP #7:
PRO 1. Michael Powell, $500
2. Matt Hewitt
3. Cam Richards
4. Michael Dunphy
5. Travis Beckman
6. Fisher Heverly
BOYS (16
& UNDER) 1. Taylor Clark, $250
2. Luke Gordon
3. Eros Exahrou
4. Tristan Thompson
5. Knox Harris
6. Ethan Carlston
: ADVERTISMENT :
: ADVERTISMENT :
IN LOVING MEMORY Flagler Beach, FL’s, Haley Watson Honors Her Mother At May Day Memorial Surf Classic
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
