July 14, 2012 Saturday

Pacifica	Linda Mar
11:10 am to 11:30 am	3' to 4', sets to 5'
High dropping tide	SW offshore cross wind
Sunny with high clouds - fog on the ridge	Tense session

Kahuna Kupuna Surf Contest

From "Da' Rules" for the 13th Annual Kahuna Kupuna Benefit Surf Contest -

#12 (the last one) The Jack Hansen Rule: Use of words such as "geezers", “curmudgeons," "Old Farts" and other ageist, pejorative terms are strictly prohibited on Saturday, July 14, 2012 before, during and after the contest.

I love the spirit of this contest - light-hearted, don't take yourself serious - just have fun - and help a good cause. A contest for the older set, those surfers 40 years or older. The man behind this contest is Roy Earnest, a gerontologist, local surfer and producer of the classic movie - Surf for Life - the story of ten surfers who had surfed all their lives and were still surfing in their 50's, 60's and 70's. Roy was there this morning in the tower announcing all the heats.

Four of us stood on the bluff watching the waves before our heat. Jack and I were suited up and ready to go. David who rides the Becker board had come down to give us support, as did my son Kevin. We closely watched the contestants in the water to map out a strategy. At 8 am when I arrived it was overcast, stiff offshore wind, choppy and walled. Now at 11 am, our heat was at 11:15, conditions had improved. The tide had come up, the sun was out, and the wind had died and was still blowing across the faces of the waves that were now clean small peaks - my kind of waves. I was gaining confidence watching them. The contest tower was set up near the Taco Bell and the main peak, which broke to the left, was in front of the restaurant. Most of the contestants on the previous heats went out there. But there was also right peak about 20 yards to the north. The left looked better to me because I'm goofy-foot and prefer left breaking waves. Jack had his doubts; he kept watching the right.

"I don't know, that right is getting better," Jack kept saying. "I think I'll go over there."

One contestant was over there and the other four were on the left peak. The guy on the right side was very good. He sat way inside, took off late and smoothly cruised down three steep curls. Jack reminded us that the maximum number of waves is four. They score the three best out of four. But after four waves you have to leave the water. This guy quickly cruised down his fourth wave, straightened out and came on in. He caught four waves in eight minutes - there was still seven minutes left in his heat. Meanwhile, the left waves weren't as steep. They initially broke hard and then turn into a soft shoulder that would quickly die. I noted that several times contestants would paddle hard for waves that were cresting, begin to slide into them and then the waves would flatten out and die. Since they didn't stand up these waves didn't go against their wave count, but the surfers had lost precious time by nearly missing them.

"So, Jack, what's the call? What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to follow Greg and Eddie. Wherever they go, is where I will go."

Only four contestants were in the "Legends" group (65 to 69 yrs), thus our heat was a "final" and all of us would get trophies. Greg is the ambassador of Linda Mar, he lives nearby and surfs here everyday. Eddie just turned 65 and was in our heat for the first time. He too was local and a good surfer - he was also entered in the Legends Shortboard heat.

"I'm going were the locals go," Jack repeated.

The double blast of the horn sounded meaning five minutes left in the current heat and time for the contestants of the next heat to paddle out. I hung back so that I could watch Greg. He started drifting left as he walked out into the water and then definitely paddled towards the left peak, and so did Eddie, Jack and I.

Once out in the line-up, Greg and Eddy started encouraging the non-contestants to leave the contest area. With such a beautiful Saturday morning, light winds and nice gentle waves, the water was crowded with surfers and several non-contestants were spilling into the contest area. At age 67 my hearing is beginning to fad, so I didn’t hear the one blast of the horn marking the start of our heat. I saw Greg stroke into a wave and figured that we were on. Within one minute all four of us caught a wave. With only fifteen minutes to catch three waves, the heats were sprints, thus I focused on my efforts and was oblivious to what was happening to the others.

My first wave was my best ride – a nice waist-high left shoulder that went on for several yards. A few minutes later I connected on a set wave and cut right down a head-high face. With speed I locked into the curl, but a second later I was on a collision course with a non-contestant who was paddling out. I quickly straightened out to avoid him and my ride ended. After jockeying around for a few minutes I paddled into a wall that quickly closed out in front of me. While paddling back out I heard the double blast of the horn marking five minutes left. I was feeling good because I had my minimum three waves and I had five minutes to catch one more. I confidently stroked outside to connect with a big one, but it never happened. I looked around, only Jack was in the water, Greg and Eddy had caught their maximum four waves and had paddled in. At lease four times I paddled for waves were cresting but didn’t break. A set wave came through that I was positive would close out and thus I let it go by. Kevin later told me that was a mistake, the wave peeled perfectly to the left. I tried for a couple more but didn’t catch them and then the final horn blew ending our heat.

“Loren, I’m sure you beat me,” Jack said as I walked out of the water. I didn’t believe that for a second, me beating Jack, no way. He was discouraged about his performance – unlike last year when he came in first place. I was feeling good about the two decent waves that I did catch, maybe I did do well, but I had no idea because I didn’t see any of Greg or Eddy’s rides. Since our heat was a final, the results would be announced at the contest’s dinner that evening. Jack was going to attend and promised to pick up my trophy and email me tomorrow with the results. I was not about to hang around Linda Mar for another seven hours.

Instead, son Kevin treated me to a good lunch at the Distillery in Moss Beach. All in all it was a good day. I felt good about the contest, had a good meal and chat with Kevin and enjoy the beautiful ocean scenery on the drive home.