April 1998
by Will Church
BoardZ Checks Out the USSF/WR 4 Star Surf Contest at Steamer Lane, Santa Cruz Ca.
Jason Hines
Even though the calender said that it was the end of April, "El Nino" had still been bringing in plenty of rain and inclimate weather for most of the month. The week prior to the contest was a good one for snowboarding (I live up in Tahoe). The surf had size but was really stormy. On Friday, the weather finally eased back and so did the surf. Saturday, the weather was clear and warm, the surf had dropped even more but was adequate for competition. The heats at high tide were pretty slow but the show went on. I managed to get online before my heat and was able to confirm that the predicted swell was indeed coming. The outer buoy was showing that the swell was 13 feet every 20 seconds just a few hundred miles offshore. Everybody kept asking me: "Is it coming?", "How big will it be?", "13 feet every 20 seconds; what does this mean for the waves here?", ect... I would tell them: "Well over head to double over head." The buoys did not lie, Sunday morning the surf was pumping - easily double over head on the sets. The weather was even warmer with highs in the low 80's. I guess all the southern Californians brought their good weather with them. The water was typically cool for Santa Cruz (mid 50's), but the waves and weather were so beautiful that I did not hear any complaints.
There was so much surf that it was hard to get your 3 waves in the 15 minutes of a heat. I barely got 4 low scoring waves in my semi-final and I thought my day was done, but one of my fellow competitors only got 2 waves because he was caught inside for the last half of the heat.
The finals were 20 minute heats with still only your top 3 waves being added to calculate the results. Feeling lucky just to be out there surfing juicy surf in a contest on home turf, I had nothing to lose and every thing to gain by just having fun. By the time our seniors (we dislike this name for our division; how about: Veterans or Legends) heat started, the tide was coming in which helped make the faces of the hefty waves a bit more open and shreddable. I nabbed a pretty good open faced wave off the point and rode it to the inside of middle peak. At that point, I could have run around and jumped off the point again, but I wanted to get out to middle peak where I had spied some nice walls before my heat. On my way back out I could see Pat Mulhern carving it up up at the point and I knew I had to up the ante to have any chance of winning. I made my way out to the kelp beds and out of the inside current as a larger set came that worked a couple of my fellow competitors. Poor Rocken Fig was almost all the way outside when that set tagged him; I did not see him on the outside for the rest of the heat. I got a couple of nugget open faced waves at middle peak by the time Pat and the other competitors got out there to try to top my waves. On my way out from my 3rd set wave, I was witness to Pat Mulhern laying down some lines on our NorCal juice. Beep, Beep!! The heat was over. 20 minutes goes by so fast when the surf is pumping.
I ran to my car to change and grab my camera to get some images of the other divisions. I got back just in time to have them announce Pat Mulhern as the winner and myself in second. I thought: "Those ones he got that I saw, he was ripping - 2nd is cool - stoked!" Then they called us back and re-anounced the results with Pat in 2nd and myself in 1st. I thought: "Oh yea, those nice turns I did on those set waves. Yea OK - Stoked!" It was an honor to surf with these guys and Pat is such a good sport; he was still stoked even after they had him in 2nd. Fortunately for the USSF/WR that this happen to us seniors and not to any of the younger age groups where winning can mean something to their potential carears.
The USSF/WR runs a pretty tight ship for a grass roots organization that has matured. The heats runs on time, they often use highly qualified judges, and yet they still have that freindly grass roots atmosphere. They could use some work on their presentation, promotion, and they really need one or more large corporate sponsors to help finance need 1 and 2.
Check out the USSF Championships on July 12th through 19th, 1998 to be held at Oceanside Ca.
Zack Boon and Pat Mulhern
Unidentified Open Women and Jason Hines
Zack Boon and Unidentified Boy
Jason Hines Floater
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"BoardZ" Online MagaZine
Created: June/20/96 Updated: 6/9/98
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