Photo Album:
"oceanbeachsurf-02-04"
"Heh Squid Boy! Get Outta My Way!" Check out this near death collision between the surf ski guy and the play boat. Don't forget to check out the AMAZING VIDEOS!
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Photo Album: "oceanbeachsurf-02-04" |
"Heh Squid Boy! Get Outta My Way!" Check out this near death collision between the surf ski guy and the play boat. Don't forget to check out the AMAZING VIDEOS!
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The heats. 5 heats, 3 to 4 kayakers per heat. 21 kayakers total. These guys are EXPERTS, and include many of the US Surf Team Champs. |
Doug shows us how it's done. |
Laura listens to Doug explaining how it's done. |
Rainer and I were going to surf my 2-man double SOT dubbed "Loki 13". Alas, taking a double SOT into soup like we were seeing struck us as, well, imprudent. So we stood on the beach and took pictures instead. |
The first guy launches off the beach. |
The illustrious judges. Moe, Larry, Curly, and Shemp? |
First off the beach, first into the breach. |
Paddling into doom. |
Zowie, down the wall! |
The cowbell girl. She hails from Austin Texas (really) and is in town to watch some surfing (really). |
What's that yellow boat doing in that gray soup! |
And another prepares to bite dust. |
Into the tube. Almost. |
That's a slippery slope of soup! |
Nice brace as he floats in on a cloud. |
The Cow Bell Girl temporarily wears the cowbell on her head. |
The trick is to stay IN the boat! |
Facing the wall O' water. |
Brace, Dude, Brace! |
And back for more. |
Paddle, Dude! |
Up and over. |
His head is showing. That's about it. |
Kelly, I think. He must be hot because he's going for a swim! |
Don't stop. Stopping just scares you! |
Barely visible in the soupy fog. |
Heh, what's this.... |
A SOT surf ski thingie. Sortof. |
Back into the breach. |
Doesn't seem to have seatbelts.... |
The sole female kayaker drags her boat back. |
Kelly is the manager of The Sports Basement, one of the main sponsors of the event. |
Kelly does hand gestures. |
Up the Wall O' Doom! |
And over the other side. |
Up... |
And over. That's the secret. |
But you gotta get off the beach, first. Which is a challenge with today's tide. |
Rainer tells Fred how it's done. |
Someof Da Gang. |
Thru the wall. There's board surfers in here to contend with! |
Kelly and da Gang. |
Heh, he's gonna do it. |
Down the wall... |
And down more of the wall. |
Breaking at the peak.... |
Wwwwwwwwwipe out.... |
NOT! He stays on. |
Into the curl. |
Nahhh, that's not a curl, that's breaking soup. |
Wwwwwwwwwwipe out.... |
NOT!!! He STILL stays on! |
Heh, another guy goes for a swim. |
Up and over. |
And thru the wall. |
Out the other side. Note the surfer's head. |
Over he goes. |
But recovers nicely... |
To fight again another day.... |
Today is not a good day to die.... |
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There goes another surf ski guy. |
He'll probably fall out of his boat.... |
See Yah! |
But, wait, he's back. |
And he's plowing down the wall of water behind him. |
Wow, he's riding it... |
Into the curl... |
And curling more. |
Gadzooks, this guy is GOOD! |
And he keeps coming. |
And coming. |
And coming. |
"Heh Squid Boy! Get Outta My Way!" Check out this near death collision between the surf ski guy and the play boat. Don't forget to check out the AMAZING VIDEOS! |
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Back for more. |
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Ahhhh, the smell of victory. Or is it the smell of donuts? |
And, a great end to a great day. |
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The Event Report for Ocean Crush's Urban Big Wave Paddling Contest
By: Dean McCully Ocean Crush's Urban Big Wave Paddling Contest ( http://www.oceancrush.com ) A Benefit for "Healing Waters" ( http://www.hwaters.org ) Saturday, March 21,2004 Ocean Beach, San Francisco, CA SEE SOME AMAZING VIDEOS HERE: http://www.eyeyak.com/photogallery/kayak/oceanbeachsurf-02-04/mpg/index.htm See a thread on paddling.net about this link http://www.paddling.net/message/showThread.html?fid=advice&tid=169694 Also see some OUTSTANDING pictures from Richard Blum (taken with a real camera with a real lens, not like the puny low-res camera I use). His pix are here: http://techtutor.net/digital_images/images/surf_HTML/index.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Bzzzz Bzzzz Bzzzz" went the alarm clock at 6am. It was time to get up, load my leaky, weather-battered, plastic 2-person kayak onto my monster van, and head out to the kayaking karnage du jour. My destination today was San Francisco's Ocean Beach. I, my van, and a very beat up plastic sit-on-top kayak were headed for the 2004 Ocean Crush Urban Big Wave Paddling Contest. As I barrelled down Hwy 280, I passed CHP like they were standing still. Well, actually, they WERE standing still, writing tickets for other speeders. They can't catch me, I thought, as the Heavy Metal CD in my van's player egged me onward. I wondered if my adept kayaking cohort, Rainer would indeed rendezvous with me on the beach at 9am. We had agreed to meet an hour before the first surfing heat, assess launch conditions, and decide whether we wanted to participate in the surf contest. "Loki 13", my yellow, 2-person sit-on-top ex-rental kayak, was to be our vessel for this mêlée. Loki 13 holds the dead-last award for finishing 13th place out of 13 in the 2003 Sea Gypsy Race. But consider this. 21 racers started the Sea Gypsy race, but only 13 of us finished. 8 racers, some world class surf ski champions, dropped out after their boats broke or the waves overwhelmed them. But Loki 13 finished the race. She's a tad broad in the beam, and is nothing much to look at. But she's a solid boat, having survived Sea Gypsy thru Mavericks and many seasons of boat rental abuse at Monterey Bay Kayak. She is a vessel tried and true, so I reckoned that she was worthy of the challenge of Ocean Beach. Until I arrived at the beach, parked, and saw the waves this morning, that is. Sure enough, Rainer was already on the beach, staring out to sea and shaking his head. Rainer whispered, "Shhhh, just watch the waves," as I sidled up to him. Rainer is an expert at reading such conditions. I usually can't judge waves from a hole in the ground. But today, even I could tell that the waves were ENORMOUS! I watched, but I watched in anxiety. They say that you should never turn your back to the ocean. But this day, as I heeded Rainer's advise to watch the enormous cacaphony of confounding waves, I was tempted to turn my back and high-tail it for home. Ocean Beach is known for its impossible rip currents and impassable mountains of water. Rainer seemed mesmerized by the briny abyss and was shaking his head at the sand-filled gnarl breaking just offshore. On a "normal" day, Ocean Beach is nearly unlaunchable, especially in a long sit-on-top kayak. But tide was high today, so the surf was beach-breaking much further inland than it would on a "normal" day. As the huge, short-period swells encountered the offshore shelf, Father Poseidon's hydraulic fury was being hurled skyward in a conflagration of bewildering ire. As her inrushing wrath gushed over the long, level, ocean floor, the low-tide-exposed shelf amplified the ferocity of hydrodynamic terror. This was no day to tempt Mother Ocean in a beat up old ex-rental kayak. Better for us 2-legged mammals of the elderly pursuasion to remain on dry land while watching the youngsters of our species wage war with the roiling rage. Kelly Starrette (manager of Sports Basement) blew a horn and called the competitors together for a safety briefing. Kelly really got our attention when he announced that he had posted no "safety boaters." WHATATTTT?!?!?! Surely Rainer would join me in my double as a "safety boater". We fell silent as Kelly told us that they had no paramedics or ambulances or medical crews standing by. The nearby fire house had been notified, but that was it. Yikes, 21 kayakers in some of the world's most unpredictable water without medical crews? Surely Rainer would be a safety boater when he realized that I have completed 16 hours of "Wilderness First Aid" training. But Rainer STILL wasn't budging. Rainer is wise, that way.... The contest was divided into 6, half-hour "Heats". Each "heat" was 30 minutes long. This was an open class event. That is, boaters were not divided into categories. Judges took boat design into account when judging, so the super-fast boats theoretically had no advantage over the slug-boats. I prodded Rainer to consider that fact and reconsider his ill-timed decision not to surf with me in my 2-man sit-on-top. By my reckoning, if the judges handicapped per boat construction, my fiendishly slow sit-on-top boat should surely be handicapped right into first place. If we could even get that boat OUT thru the briny waters being hacked toward shore by Poseidon's vehemence, and if we could return alive, the judges would surely consider awarding us first place. Right? Rainer was firm in his conviction that "Discretion is the better part of valor!" I just think that he didn't want to show up the youngsters and hurt their feelings by outsurfing them. At that point, Kelly spoke up and said, "This race is, obviously, for expert kayak surfers only. If you are not an expert, then you will not be allowed to participate." Hmmmm, experts we aren't, so we gave up entering. The judges' starting horn wailed to start the surfing revelry. Like Pavlovian lab animals, the first 3 drooling kayak surfers responded to the bullhorn and commenced their knuckle-dragging traverse across the beach. Into the sea butchery they flung themselves, wondering if they would soon become human chum for shark patrol. Perhaps, a bloody gift of human sushi from Mother Ocean to her beloved pelagic inhabitants? Only the day would tell. Struggling to punch through the multi-directional breakers challenged even the strongest paddler. Much of the 30 minute time alloted to each heat was splurged in the brawl through the wake. Reaching the breakers congregating at the offshore shelf was the goal, but few kayakers reached their destination as quickly as they'd hoped. The clock was ticking, as the surfers burned precious seconds working their way out toward the massive sea ogres to start their rides back and win points from the judges. At the end of the day, the sit-on-top surf skis did, by far, the best. Some of those surf ski guys were fabulously adroit at weaving their way through the conflagration that irritated Mother Ocean was hurling at them. Up one face, and down the other, those guys were AWESOME! By the end of the day, all competitors walked away from the beach, unscathed. Oh sure, Father Poseidon got the best of the egos of a few master kayak surfers. But some of the performances were outstanding! Kudos go to the volunteers who did a great job at making this fledgling event flow incredibly smoothly. This first-year event raised more than $500 for Healing Waters. See Yah All Next Year! Dean McCully PS Thanx to these folks, and many more: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Event Organizer ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kelly Starrette (manager of Sports Basement) kstarrett@sportsbasement.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Healing Waters Staff http://www.hwaters.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Healing Waters PO Box 410293 San Francisco, CA 94141 415-621-7529 http://www.hwaters.org Karen Nemsick karen@hwaters.org Executive Director 625 Third Street, 4th Floor San Francisco, CA 94107 415-621-7529 x2984 Pier piera@hwaters.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Surf Kayakers ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Heat 1 Jeff T. - yellow Corby - pink Erik G. - red Heat 2 Brad L. - pink Ed K. - yellow Matt F. - red Heat 3 Kelly S. - pink Graham - yellow Tim H. - red Brooke B. - blue Heat 4 Demany S. - pink Kyle N. - yellow Sue N. - red Kristen - blue Heat 5 Ben S. - pink Wayne W. - yellow Bill C. - red Leon R. - blue Heat 6 Kenny K.. - pink Gaylen - yellow Mike A. - red ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unofficial Photography ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Martin Sundberg Photography 510-410-2217 http://www.martinsundberg.com |
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