Kneeboard Surfing USA

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KSUSA Titles 2003

By ksusa_admin on December 29, 2015 in Contests
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In November 2003, Kneeboard Surfing USA (KSUSA) organized it’s first annual Kneeboard Surfing Festival and Titles at Pleasure Point in Santa Cruz, California.  This event marked the rebirth of competitive kneeboard surfing in the US under the KSUSA banner.  Jack Beresford earned the Open division champion title.

KSUSA hosted it’s first annual Kneeboard Surfing Titles and Festival at Pleasure Point in Santa Cruz, CA. The contest took place eight months after this web site was formed by Don Harris. Jack Beresford earned top honors as the first KSUSA Open Champion.

Results:
Open: 1. Jack Beresford, 2. Bob Schiff, 3. L Taylor, 4. Greg Little
AAA: 1. Chris Anderson, 2. Jose Maldonado, 3. Ed Quinn, 4. Don Harris
AA: 1. Jason Foster, 2. Danny Robertson, 3. Darcy Murphine, 4. A Schwarcburg, 5. John Searski

2013 marked the tenth anniversary of KSUSA and the tenth KSUSA hosted kneeboard surfing contest.

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The following article by Terry Rodgers appeared in the San Diego Union Tribune.


 

Kneeboarders Rise From Obscurity

Kneeboarder: A surfer who rides waves on a stunted fiberglass board in a position usually reserved for changing a flat tire, riding a magic carpet or praying. Kneeboarders inhabit the remote fringes of the surfing world. Quirky and often eccentric, they are to be approached with an open mind. They prefer a steady diet of heavy waves. Will answer to “hey, kneelo.”

Thirty-eight-year-old Jack Beresford of San Diego, the newly crowned 2003 United States kneeboard champion, doesn’t seem to fit the Mr. Moonbeam image of his breed of surfer.

He’s married with two kids and lives in the ‘burbs. Sharp and articulate, he’s employed as director of communications for San Diego State University. Despite his demanding job, he slips out to Black’s Beach in La Jolla to snag thumping A-frames.

He rides a 5-foot-8-inch fiberglass board with four fins designed by Eric Schoelkopf of Oceanside. A squishy rubber pad is embedded in the fiberglass deck to ease the pressure on his knees.

“I’ll surf in anything,” he said. “With a job, kids and etc., I don’t have the luxury of waiting for the waves to get good.”

As you peel the onion, he seems even more grounded.

“My friends and I were the first generation of Boogie boarders,” he recalled.

“Ten or twelve of us switched to kneeboards in July of 1981, when I was 15. We used to ride Boogie boards on our knees, so it was an easy transition.”

He and his buddies weren’t aware of George Greenough, a leading-edge kneeboarder, innovator and photographer from Santa Barbara. But they admired and emulated San Diego’s then-radical kneeboard stylist Rex Huffman.

But perhaps the sport’s greatest influence was San Diego surfboard designer Steve Lis, who revolutionized kneeboarding and stand-up surfing with his split-tailed “fish” designs. Lis’ fishes were short and thick with twin-finned bottoms. They were quick and turned like race cars.

“The influence of the fish design still has a lot of bearing on what kneeboarders are riding today,” said Beresford.

While others took up bodyboarding or stand-up surfing, Beresford stayed loyal to the sport and competed on his college surf team at UCSD.

His greatest rival was his younger brother, Chris, also a kneeboarder. The two pushed each other to get better. And they did.

By the mid-’80s, U.S. kneeboarding began to fade into obscurity. Two rival kneeboarding associations fought for members and ended up canceling each other out.

“It really lost its momentum,” Beresford remembered.

Soon, kneeboarding was dropped from nearly every amateur and pro contest in favor of bodyboarding.

As knee riding lapsed into obscurity in America, the sport maintained a modest but steady interest among surfers in Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.

During this doldrums era, Beresford won a half-dozen U.S. kneeboarding championships. Sometimes, the title was decided by a mere six participants in a single heat.

Banished from the pro surfing contest scene and ignored by American surfing magazines, dedicated kneeboarders burrowed deep underground.

Then, quietly, almost unnoticed by the surf industry, American kneeboarders in 2001 began to organize “gatherings” where they would meet at various California beaches and surf together.

A major boost came six months ago when Sausalito kneeboarder Don Harris created a Web site for brethren kneelo enthusiasts: https://www.ksusa.org

“We already have 300 registered members, which is pretty good for an eclectic group,” said Harris. “We’re a very unique population.”

For the first time in a decade, kneeriders gathered in Santa Cruz to hold a U.S. championship contest on Nov. 5-8. It was as much a harmonic convergence as it was a competition.

Fifty-nine men and one woman, Darcy Murphine of San Diego’s Clairemont community, competed in modest waist-to chest-high surf. Beresford placed first in all five of his heats to win the Open Division over his former college roommate, Bob Schiff.

“I like surfing in small waves. I find it a challenge,” the champion said. “The key is knowing how to find the pockets of energy that are in every wave and being able to find that little burst of speed.”

Beresford’s friend and co-worker at San Diego State, Jason Foster, won the AA division for competitors with lesser experience.

Asked why his breed of surfer is known for being unconventional, Foster offered this explanation:

“Kneeboarders are a special breed bound by a certain combination of passion and resolve.

“You have the ability to handle the funny looks and drop-ins you experience, to deal with the scarcity of good equipment, comrades and recognition by outside entities, to resist those who insist you should ride waves ‘their way,’ and focus on the pure joy of what you do.

If you’re in it, you’re in it. You’re devoted to it.”
Terry Rodgers: (619) 542-4566; terry.rodgers@uniontrib.com.

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