Salt Creek Contest - April 4, 2009

[Ler]

[quote="SFKneelo"]TOADs, eh?

So... what's it like 'on the other side?'

White lights? Long hallways? 72... ah, nevermind.

I mean, you walk on water just great Ler, but coming back that many times?
Have fun![/quote]

I just broke a new world record. I officailly have had more comebacks than CHER.

[southpeakbrad]

Final tune up for NZ tomorrow at Salt Creek! Will be a good test with a strong field signed up.

I'll have limited shirts, hoodies, hat, beanies for sale. This may be your only chance to get some TEAM USA gear.

[eqKneelo]

Afternoon update.

Great day down at the beach!
Hot and sunny with 2'-4' foot dredging beach break barrels coming through.
A lot of solid surfing and some sick barrels and horrible wipeouts (One dislocated shoulder... get well soon, mate).

If you want to get down to the final, it's gonna start at 5pm.
"Kneeboards at Sunset"... Perfect way to end the day.

Finalist are:
1) Seann "Bru" Noone
2) Sam "Mid-Cal" Coyne
3) The LerDawg
4) South Peak Brad
5) Jack The Ripper
6) Since I had to leave, whoever is surfing for me. (You better f@#$ing WIN!!!!)

Good luck boys.

EQ

P.S. Joel made his way up from O'side to shoot (Thanks Brother) so we should have some pics soon.

[randiego]

The contest was fun as always - great to see people you never get to otherwise

Like EQ said, chest-high sets and shorebreak barrels.

6-man 15 minute heats are tough especially if there's no waves during your 15 minutes

[maxb]

randy i agree with you on the 15 min heats. my best waves were the ones i got free surfing at day break. very fun barrels. wish i could have gotten one of those in my heat
great to see everyone and meet some new people
anthony i hope that shoulder is nothing serious
max

[kneelingBROTHA]

Awesome contest! I left midday around 12:30pm, but it was really awesome to see different styles of kneeboarding, and getting to watch the freesurfing of quality kneeboarders was a treat.

I'd like to thank everyone I talked to for being hospitable, especially Mike (with the battle-scarred back-in-black board), Max with the Romos, and MetalCostie (I believe it was Jeff or Josh? Sorry about forgetting your name!), the latter of whom I talked to when I was about the leave with my buddy Tim.

All of you guys were super chill, and I'm stoked I actually caught a swing-wide fresurf set wave between sandbars that I was able to swing a nice cutback on. The two other waves I caught weren't too good (no comment), but getting the last one made it all worth it.

Hopefully I can catch a few waves with some of you all sometime and learn some more technique pointers in our esoteric sport!

Take care all...and congrats to whoever wins!

[randiego]

Just got a call from Brad.

The 20-minute final went off a little while ago. Final placing:

1) Jack
2) Ler
3) Sean Noone
4) Brad
5) Sam Coyne
6) Joe Coyne (surfing for EQ)

Nice work boys!

[stonefish]

great guns it was so much fun! thanks for the good time! some really good waves, some a little more particular! congrats to the finalists! the kneeboarding was amazing to watch. hope to see all you guys in the water soon. newport point started showing good waves this morning!

[Jack Beresford]

Here's a brief summary (others, please fill-in where I missed). The Kneeboard gods mostly smiled on us again - we had shoulder-high clean waves under sunny skies and temps in the mid-70s.

The lefts off the point started kicking in just about when our first round heats hit the water. Highlights included heat 1 winner Seann Noone using his local knowledge to score a clean righthand barrel to hoots from the beach. Sam Coyne, who drove down from SLO at 4 a.m., was going vertical on everything. EQ sat on the left and was rewarded with a few nice ones including a couple super-clean hits on the inside. Southpeak Brad's training for the World Titles was obvious and he worked hard to win heat #3. Others had their moments but getting two high-scoring waves in 15 minutes while sharing the lineup with 5 hungry kneelos was a tall task.

In the Repo all the boys were going hard and it was very tight. EQ caught some nice sets. Sam kept hitting the lip and going for airs. Ler did some clean roundhouses and then sent the beach in a frenzy by doing a huge reentry going right..right into the rocks! It takes more than a few rocks to frazzle Ler who came up unscathed - other than a busted up nose on his black spray-painted board.

After a few freesurfs and a long wait the final hit the water as the last heat of the day. Brad was charging from the start - and seemed to catch all the sets doing solid turns all the way to the shorepound. Joe aka "EQ" Coyne seemed to wish he was back at Blacks. Sam woke up in time and caught some nice ones as well - pulling a clean air on the inside. Seann sat deep and waited for quality. Ler, board #2 in hand, stayed away from the rocks and represented Kneelo Cove with pride. I caught some fun ones but didn't feel too confident about the result. It seemed like everytime I was paddling out Brad was dropping in on another perfect set!

Thanks to everyone who showed - both those who competed and others who came to say hello. Joel shot the first round - so hopefully we'll post some photos later.

Our best to Anthony Abhari who busted his shoulder freesurfing in the infamous Creek shorebreak. We hope you heal quickly and can get back in the water soon!

And best of luck to all our TEAM USA guys headed overseas this week for the Worlds!

Jack

[WayneK]

Congrats to Jack and Ler, wish you both were joining us in NZ at the Worlds.

[eqKneelo]

Of course, Jack is being ridiculously modest.
He was surfing with power and grace as always.. linking turns... flying over sections... and pulled a couple fins out 360's in the shore pound that drew hoots from the beach.

Great day boys... this new relationship with the WSA is awesome. Looking forward to the next one.

[tahiti_nui]

grabbed the first edit of contest videos and threw it up on youtube,
search wsa salt creek.
they lack final cut, clean up and audio,
but you can hear captured audio from site.
enjoy.
classic south county day & surf.
congads's jack
fins up team usa!

[DEZDIG]

What started as a great day, kind of turned bad. My shoulder is ok but my collar bone is fractured . Out 4-6 weeks, should of pulled out of that wave a little sooner. Oh well %$#@ Happens, dam Salt Creek shore pound. I'll be cancelling everything for New Zealand , that's a long way to go just to drink. Thanks for all the support, see ya all in the water in June.

Anthony A.

[joe]

Here's a link to the videos posted by tahiti_nui.

KSUSA WSA Salt Creek heats
WSA Salt Creek Repercharge
WSA Salt Creek Finals

That EQ impersonator in the finals sure looks good but can't surf to save his life. Must've been the head injury.

[southpeakbrad]

Hey Tahiti, Thanks for the video Your efforts are really appreciated!