Bourgeois Complies And Dominates The 2009 Foster’s
Belmar Pro By Jon Coen; Photos by Donald
Cresitello
TURF: 2009 Foster’s Belmar Pro Presented By Eastern Lines/
ASP Pro Junior Grade 1M Fins Junior Pro; 16th Avenue, Belmar, NJ; September 12th-13th,
2009
ENERGY: Jumping
Jesus on a pogo stick! What conditions didn’t the Belmar Pro see this year? The
element that grabbed the headlines was clearly the coastal low that fired up
massive storm surf prior to the contest. Event director Don Tarrant watched
Kyle Garson catch a triple-overhead black wall on Thursday, around the same
time the event scaffolding almost went down to Davey Jones’ locker. The unnamed
storm continued to lash the Jersey Shore on Friday, postponing the start of the
contest until Saturday, essentially leaving two days to run the 80-man Pro
Men’s, the Fins Junior Pro, the Pro Longboard, and the Pro Women’s divisions.
Saturday morning looked like
the biggest letdown since Star Wars:
Episode I, with onshore winds, low tide, and otherwise nauseating
conditions. But as the tide filled in at 16th Avenue, overhead peaks showed up
and the wind eased. Under dark skies, there were beefy pits, longer walls, and
more ramps than the X Games. Sunday produced the same a.m. hangover, but as the
sun started to shine, the offshore wind ironed out two to three-foot lines with
occasional bigger sets. When does it ever stay offshore in September? It turned
out to be one of those surreal Jersey Shore days.
FIRST TIME AT FIGHT CLUB: Shea Lopez, once a card-carrying member of the ASP World
Tour Top-16, took advantage of the opportunity to pal around with his
Jersey-based sponsor, Ergophobia. He arrived to some fanfare and blazed
straight to the semifinals, but the real winners were the hundreds of kids who
got to meet the ripping legend. This year’s Belmar Pro and Fins Junior Pro was
also a first for Santa Barbara, CA’s, Spencer Regan, who seems to know that the
East Coast is actually the place to be during late summer. Not only did Spencer
get the best of Hurricane Bill, the ECSC in Virginia Beach, Tropical Storm
Danny, and this September low pressure, but he also made the Pro and Junior Pro
finals, surfing eight heats on Sunday. His speed floaters and gash to
double-grab air in the first round was pure filth.
SLIDE: With
action condensed into two days, the Pro Longboard and Pro Women’s divisions
were moved to 18th Avenue, which got far deeper by the afternoon high tide.
Basically the women had to angle in and hope for the best, before every wave
dumped on the sand. New Jersey native and Outer Banks, NC, transplant Jamie
DeWitt Battinger edged out Manasquan girl and former champ Ryan McGrath for the
win.
The longboarders had a
slightly better time, picking off a few rogue feathers on the outside. Mikey
DeTemple actually got five toes over three different times on a wave that never
broke, and even managed to hang heels in the shorebreak. But this was Ty Roach’s
day, as the stylish Tarheel gambled outside on the less consistent lefts and completed
more radical turns for the victory.
It was also a good day for
the Vah Beach boys. Philip Goold jumped several spots in the ASP North America
Junior Men’s ratings in one fell swooping turn in the Fins Junior Pro final.
Goold’s 6.33 for that maneuver elevated him over Regan in the final, 13.66 to
12.16. Fellow VB kid Michael Dunphy (10.97) took 3rd and Jeffrey Lukasik (7.16)
claimed 4th.
The Pro basically ran
through 300 heats on Sunday alone, finishing in the fading twilight. The only
two Jersey heroes in the semifinal were Dean Randazzo and Sam Hammer, the Yoda
and Luke Skywalker of Garden State surfing. But those who left the beach to watch
the New York Giants play the Washington Redskins at 4:00 p.m. totally blew it,
missing Ben Bourgeois posting an 18.16 heat total in the semifinal. No matter
what type of criteria you adhere to, Benny B’s surfing was near perfect,
including two of the best backside turns executed on the East Coast this year
for a 9.83.
New Smyrna Beach, FL’s, Nils
Schweizer was pretty brutal all day, as well, holing up in a legit barrel and
sticking an air-reverse with extra butter on the side en route to the final, which
included himself, Benny B, Jeremy Johnston, and Fins Junior Pro runner-up Regan.
The only performance Benny B couldn’t beat was his own a round earlier, but
since he didn’t have to surf against himself, he won the final handily over
second-time Belmar Pro bridesmaid JJ, 14.93 to 11.73.
THE PAIN: As
the tide deepened, each afternoon looked like a mid-‘80s OP Pro at Huntington
Beach Pier, as that all-important shorebreak finish would make or break one’s score.
Case in point: JJ took a deep clamshell gash to the tummy in the semifinal, while
Belmar’s Brian Dalton lost a head-butting match with the sand in the Pro Longboard
competition. But neither injury hurt as much as Surf City, NJ’s, Randy
Townsend’s. Randy owned his Round of 32 heat and took the lead in the quarters,
surfing flawlessly all day. With a few minutes left, he fell to 3rd-place,
where he remained, needing a 4.43, as the ocean went flat. Five seconds after
the horn sounded, Townsend executed a frontside no-grab air-reverse that would
have been more than enough to advance.
THE MAN: The
well-known acronym BENNY — which stands for Bayonne, Elizabeth, Newark, and
New York — signifies the towns of origin from which hordes of visitors
take over the Jersey Shore each summer. While the local economy thrives on
these guests, “BENNY Go Home” becomes a popular rallying cry each August. Most
of the New Jersey locals would have liked to see Benny B go home to Wilmington
or California or wherever the hell he lives these days, but in reality, Bourgeois
is actually a born-and-bred Jersey Shore native with family in Ocean City. He
doesn’t wear gold chains, though; instead, he’s one of the best surfers in the
world.
YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB: “Oh, shit. I have to call out of
work.” –Pro Men’s quarterfinalist/ professional waiter Randy Townsend,
realizing his next heat was going to overlap with the dinner hour at Yellow Fin
in Surf City
“I crashed at S-Turns a
couple weeks ago and got pretty worked. I actually had whiplash and went back
to California for a while. But I’ve got tons of family around Ocean City, so
when I saw this storm lining up, I entered at the last minute. I flew to Philly
and saw my family, so winning was just the icing on the cake.” –Humble
Pro Men’s victor/ New Jersey native Ben Bourgeois, giving the local crowd pause
before chanting “BENNY Go Home!”
“The day’s over. I don’t
have anything to do tomorrow, so I can just talk shit to him all night long.”
–Pro Men’s runner-up Jeremy Johnston, relishing the fact that he beat fellow
New Smyrna Beach charger/ longtime friend/ traveling partner Nils Schweizer by
two spots
FINAL RESULTS OF THE 2009 FOSTER’S BELMAR PRO
PRESENTED BY EASTERN LINES
PRO MENS 1. Ben Bourgeois, $5000
2. Jeremy Johnston, $1300
3. Spencer Regan, $1100
4. Nils Schweizer, $1000
5. Sam Hammer, Lucas Rogers,
$500
7. Dean Randazzo, Shea Lopez,
$400
PRO WOMENS 1. Jamie DeWitt Battinger,
$800
2. Ryan McGrath, $350
3. Quincy Davis, $250
4. Haley Watson, $150
PRO LONGBOARD 1. Ty Roach, $800
2. Mikey DeTemple, $350
3. Cory Kisiel, $250
4. Alex Fawess, $150
FINAL RESULTS OF THE 2009 ASP PRO JUNIOR GRADE 1M
FINS JUNIOR PRO 1. Philip Goold, $2000
2. Spencer Regan, $900
3. Michael Dunphy, $600
4. Jeffrey Lukasik, $500
5. Balaram Stack, Fisher
Heverly, $300
7. Tayler Brothers, Jacob
Halstead, $200
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
