I have to give it up to all involved in making the titles such a success. It was very well run and a ton of fun. I had a great time both at the contest and at Duke's each night.
We had very contestable waves both days, great surfing as usual. I met alot of people I have only seen in pics. And got compliments from people I didn't know on pics I've posted.
We have a great group of people on this site,and I thoroughly enjoyed myself, especially representing Kneelo Cove in the team event. Go Cove Crew
Thanks for all the hard work you guys put in to make it happen, congrats to all the winners and all who competed
P.S. The Juniors have improved like you wouldn't believe, all of them KILLED IT
Max
Thanx KSUSA for faciliting the event and to all involved in orginizing,and putting on the contest/festival. I am sure it took alot of planning and executing and cutting thru HB'z beurocratic red tape, in getting this venue and running it so smoothly and proffesionallya special Thanx to Big Tony for a stellar job,for all hiz time putting it together for us at Dukes,all the shwag and the hard work with Primo keepin the boyz Primed,and all of the behind the scene work and az alwayz, a Great Freind!
I had a Blast ....
(well would have liked to have won that "Blast" BoB ) and waz so stoked to met all you guyz and the genuine warm welcome I received from every single one of you! You made me feel part of,and I look foward to in my travelz or yourz meeting and shredding and sharing some Barrelz Alwayz up for both road tripz and serious exotic expoditionz in quest of the uncrowded barrelz in places you never wanna come home from Thanx again to ALL and Peace to ALL! and until then
"Be Seein Ya From The Inside Lookin Out"
~GreG "swivel" Holtz~ ps And Max & Ler, Your Freindshipz, Generosity and Aloha Spirit haz blown me away :shock:Thanx Bro
Last edited by greg "swivel" on Mon Feb 01, 2010 8:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
My hats off BIG TIME to the whole organizing crew of Mark Robertson, Tom Linn, Brad Colwell, Ed Dimmick, Randy Morris, Big Tony, and Don Harris (sorry if I missed someone key!) for a well-organized event that didn't just include a thrilling contest in great surf, but a whole lot of stoke for the entire kneeboarding enterprise.
This year was different for me since I saw the whole event more through the eyes of my constant companions: my wife, Pam, and two best friends, Janet and Jimmy Jones. They were there through both days of the surfing and each of the evening events. Though all three understand something of kneeboarding, none of them do it (Jimmy rides a smooth longboard). Yet, they definitely picked up on the palpably present good vibe. Janet summarized it best: "this is unlike any contest I've been a part of..." They readily see you guys for the bizarre characters you all are, but it's great how everyone works to unite on what we enjoy together. And they also really noticed the support for the groms and the juniors.
The first night at Dukes, I think it was Don that said, "This event isn't really so much about the contest, it's about the gathering together." Okay, it was something like that. But he right on. The contest is obviously of central importance to the event--there's no way 65 guys, plus a handful of alternates, plus spouses, kids, et al, come together just for a simple Gathering. Competing is, after all, a lot of fun--I think most of us really hope to surf well under pressure in front of each other and advance to the next round. But it's even more the excitement on the beach reliving each other's great waves (even for a competitor in the same heat!), lots of pats on the back, and universal stoke for the groms, juniors and women, all of it coalescing around our evening event together: the raffles, the chatting, the taunting, or just getting caught up on each other's non-surfing lives... It just goes beyond the contest and, in turn, makes the contest that much more fun.
In a first ever experience for KSUSA, a contest of standup surfers was happening simultaneous to our event the entire second day of our competition. Directly next to us, they were using the same judges stands, P.A. and facilities. They surfed the peak we used the day before (mostly rights) while we worked the peak of mostly lefts just a few yard to the north. We heard their heat results announced and they heard ours. We had the unmatchable Ed Quinn deftly and humorously calling the kneelo action on the P.A. They had one of the contest crew occasionally piping up with some tepid commentary. They had their own family and friends on the beach watching, too, but what a difference in crowd response: just a constant stream of yelling, screaming, hootin' and hollerin' at good rides, and peels of laughter constantly ringing out from the kneelo community on the North side. And a few yards away, on the South side, it was friendly enough, but rather quiet and subdued. They really could have used a Mike Fernandez. Heck, they really needed the entire crazed "Lucha Libre" masked Huntington Beach kneelo crew to liven things up there!
Special HUGE thanks, too, to Capt. Ron Marran and his committed crew for taking the whole event to a new level through hbkneelo10.com. Assembling the pre-contest interviews, blogging daily up to the event, offering twitters and Posterous updates, having downloadable audio of the finals, along with raw video footage of the finals themselves (you just gotta pause the video at 3:42 to appreciate the "impossible" fins out, nose up freefall that Beresford smoothly lands!) within just a few hours of the contest conclusion--do you have any idea how much work that is?! And they have some really amazing (and hilarious) footage around the heats, the team relays event, and the evening awards that they will hopefully make available to us all at some point in the future. It's a level of commitment to media that none of us have ever dreamed of undertaking personally.
Could say more, probably left out some thanks. Oh yeah, a big mahalo to Bruce Hart for the unbelievably cool mid-80's Slab he donated to the event raffle, which I was lucky enough to win! It's both retro and futuristic in some of its design aspects. I'll ride it sometime this winter just to check it out and try to post a pic or two. Then it'll hang in my house in some honored place.
See everyone, I hope, in mid-January back up at the Lane in Santa Cruz.
Congratulation to all involved in pulling off a 5 star event ,it really stoked me to check the ksusa coverage,the new hbkneelo 10 site followed by the pictures of maxb and others what an effort ,wished i could have been there to experience the whole vibe but im here in Oz for a few more sleeps as the call to Indo beckons ,but now im undecided should i stay or should i go or will i come back for the Woollongong event and mingle with some kneelos i know and meet some i dont ,right now im coming back just enough time [Tom] to make a new board surf it out with the Indo kneelo tribe gain some fitness and get with the commaraderie that kneeboard contests have always had great to see it is as infectious in the U S A as it has been here in Oz
Congratulations again to all who made it happen Hey hey my my..............
will never die
maxb wrote:We have a great group of people on this site,and I thoroughly enjoyed myself,
scott wrote:... Janet summarized it best: "this is unlike any contest I've been a part of..." They readily see you guys for the bizarre characters you all are, but it's great how everyone works to unite on what we enjoy together. And they also really noticed the support for the groms and the juniors.
[quote="greg "swivel""]You made me feel part of,and I look foward to in my travelz or yourz meeting and shredding and sharing some Barrelz Alwayz up for both road tripz and serious exotic expoditionz in quest of the uncrowded barrelz in places you never wanna come home from Thanx again to ALL and Peace to ALL! [/quote]
stevea wrote:... get with the commaraderie that kneeboard contests have always had great to see it is as infectious in the U S A as it has been here in Oz
ps And Max & Ler, Your Freindshipz, Generosity and Aloha Spirit haz blown me away 
