Either/ Or Team Surf Cup Results!

The 1st annual Either/ Or surfing team cup took place September 15th and 16th, 2007 at Road’s End State Park in Lincoln City, Oregon. The event featured great conditions in the six to eight foot range and was a benefit for a 7th - 12th grade school water club.

Jason Garding, event organizer, describes the unique team event. “The bottom line was you had to get all 4 surfers on the team to score at least one decent score per heat. You may be the biggest ripper in the whole contest but you’re only worth 10 points out of a possible 40 per heat. After you get a good (wave), you’re better off rooting your teammates into a few. If you’re sitting on a solid six point wave you’re probably not going to improve on that much. It’s better to make sure your buddy who may only have a 3 improve his score. It was interesting to hear the communication going on between the teams out in the water. You don’t hear a surfer telling another surfer to go on a wave in the middle of a contest very often.”

Jason further describes the highlight of the weekend. “One of the coolest things I saw this weekend was Buzzy Morales and Tony Perez working together on the same team. Who would have thought that a guy who prays before every surf and a guy who spray paints his boards black and draws demon heads on them would come together for the common good of the team. Yeah, we broke down barriers this weekend. I felt the love.”

Winners for the First Annual Either/ Or Surf Team Cup include:
1st Place Team: Oregon Surf Shop (OregonSurfShop.com)
Team members: Buzzy Morales (Salem) , Kenny Wilson (Lincoln City), Tony Perez and Jason Garding (Lincoln City).

2nd Place: Seven Surfboards (SevenSurfboards.com)
Team Members (all from Pacific City): Bryan Bates, Ryan Merton, Dustin Judd and Sylas Stephens. Additionally, Ryan Merton was awarded the $100 best single wave for the event.

3rd Place: Gorge Performance (GorgePerformance.com)
Team Members: Kainoa Casco, Bobby Ruleau, Matt Spencer, Rex Adams.

4th Place: ASV Productions (AwesomeSurfVideos.com)
Team Members: Mattie Star (Lincoln City), Andy Hensley (Lincoln City), Stew Williams (Eugene), Zach Booth (Eugene).

Tied for 5th Place:
Ossies Surf Shop, Otter Rock Surf Shop, Double Vizion Photography and Gallucci’s Pizza.

Sponsors for this event included BK Mulligans Sports Bar, Awesome Surf Videos, Oregon Surf Shop, Fox Riders Company, Xcel, Rebel Boards, DoubleVizion Photography, ERA skateboards, Ossie’s Surf Shop, Right Front Burner and Russo Surfboards. Volunteers included Jason Garding, Ken Wilson, Keri Garding, Sean Johnson, Mattie Star and Andy Hensley. Judging was provided by Jedi Jonny, Hannah Nichols, and Stan Michaels.

Movie Fundraiser this weekend in Newport, OR

On Friday, September 14th at 7:00 PM the non profit Surfrider Foundation Central Coast chapter will be hosting a Surf Movie Night featuring the surf movie Bowlful of Chile. The movie will be shown at the Newport Visual Arts Center (777 NW Beach Dr. Newport). The movie will be the grand kick off for the Surfrider Foundation’s participation in the SOLV Great Oregon Fall Beach Cleanups which will be held on Saturday, September 15th. A Bowlful of Chile was recently released by Seven Films and features top surfers tackling a huge slab wave in Chile. A suggested $5 entry donation entry for the movie will go towards the Surfrider Nye Beach Water Quality watershed improvement program. Food and beverages will be available for purchase, and movie watchers can bring their own snacks as well. Come early and meet members of the Surfrider chapter immediately before the movie! The chapter has a short meeting before the movie, starting at 6:30 PM at the Visual Arts Center.

The annual SOLV Great Oregon Fall Beach Cleanup will be held on Saturday September 15th, from 10:00-1:00 PM. Members of the Surfrider Foundation Central Coast Chapter will be captaining at 3 different sites: Ona Beach (8 miles south of Newport), Lost Creek (7 miles south of Newport), and South Beach State Park (2 miles south of Newport). Participation by Surfrider volunteers in the Great Oregon Fall Beach Cleanup coincides with an international beach cleanup event. Surfrider chapters across the globe will be participating in beach cleanups, paddle outs, and beach and ocean awareness events. All Oregonians are encouraged to come out and participate in the statewide cleanup efforts happening along the entire coast this weekend! For more information on the beach clean ups, contact Charlie Plybon CPlybon@surfrider.org 541-961-8143.

Surfrider’s focus on cleanup efforts in the South Beach area are part of an ongoing “Adopt-a-Park” partnership between the Surfrider Central Coast Chapter and South Beach State Park. The chapter recently installed new dog waste bag dispensers, and Surfrider members provide ongoing park cleanup and trail maintenance support. Surfrider members also conduct water quality monitoring as part of their Adopt-a-Park partnership with South Beach State Park. “This is essentially our backyard, we should treat it as such and teach others to do the same,” says Surfrider volunteer Joe Haxel. Charlie Plybon, the Oregon Field Coordinator for Surfrider, notes “The statewide cleanups represent the spirit of Oregonian beach stewardship. The beaches are more than just a place we recreate, they are part of our identity as coastal Oregonians”.

August 31 2007 Short Sands

Nothing worth noting today- beyond the beautiful jelly fish in the water. The jellies were clear with red tentacles, rather short ones, on the edge. There were quite a few in clumps (5-10 per clump) across the water.

The water was chest to head, but closing out in nasty shore break. So, not really ride-able for me with the longboard. The teenage shortboarders were moving it out for short little rides before the waves turned into foam balls.

Either/ Or Surf Cup Sept. 15 and 16 2007 Lincoln City

BK Mulligans and Awesome Surf Videos Host Surfing Team Cup

The 1st annual Either/ Or surfing team cup has been scheduled for the weekend of September 15th and 16th, 2007 at Lincoln City, Oregon. This event is a benefit for a 7th - 12th grade school water club in the Lincoln City area. A surf themed raffle, surf movies filmed with local Oregon surfers and live music will be offered on Saturday night (September 15th ) at BK Mulligans Sports Bar, starting at 6 PM. The Saturday night event will be free and open to the public.

Four man teams will compete against each other for the coveted Either/ Or Trophy. Jason Garding, one of the event organizers, notes the winning team will also get a plaque “so years down the road you can show your grandchildren how rad you used to be”. This one of a kind event is limited to 32 surfers total in 8 teams, and will utilize a unique team format. The event will run with two teams per “game” (or heat), with each team surfing two quarters per game with the winning team moving on towards winning the team cup. Each team member will have their best wave score combined with the best wave score for their other team members. The team with the highest cumulative score wins the event and the coveted trophy. Another different aspect of this event is that the only other surfers in the water during each heat will all be on the same team, and surfing cooperatively with each other as opposed to the surfing against each other as is seen in every other local surf event. Surfers in the Either/ Or team cup are encouraged to share strategy and to change water approach tactics to maximize the best surfers for the best conditions during their heats. 

The event will run a total of eight hours of heats, with each heat scheduled for at least fifteen minutes. Teams will surf two heats each. Teams must have at least two shortboarders (boards 7’4” or shorter) and one longboarder (boards more than 9’). Teams must register in advance as team space is very limited. Individual team riders will be registered the day of the event in a beach registration process, or at BK Mulligan’s Sports Bar Friday night between 6-8 PM. The entry fee for each team will be $150.00. Checks for team registration can be mailed to Jason Garding at Either/ Or Team Cup, 1745 NE West Devils Lake Rd., Lincoln City, OR 97367. Include the team name, a team contact person, a contact phone number and e-mail address with the team registration check. Judging for this event will be provided by the surf judging group Pacific NW Judges, headed by Sonny Owens.

The location for the event will depend on ocean conditions on the day of the event. The selected areas for running the event are D- River Wayside, Road’s End, Canyons, Nelscott, Otter Rock or Mulligans. The selected event location will be posted on AwesomeSurfVideos.com on Friday, September 14th. In the event of severe weather conditions, the team cup will turn into a pool tournament at BK Mulligans Sports Bar, which is why the event is called the Either/ Or Team Cup (either a surf event or a surf oriented pool tournament).

Sponsors for this event include BK Mulligans Sports Bar, Awesome Surf Videos, Oregon Surf Shop, Fox Riders Company, Xcel, Rebel Boards, DoubleVizion Photography, ERA skateboards, Ossie’s Surf Shop and Russo Surfboards.

Contacts:
Jason Garding (Registration, logistics) jasongarding@charter.net
Ken Wilson (Logistics, web site) ken@awesomesurfvideos.com
Pamela Clark (Media) clark_pamela@yahoo.com

Saturday July 28th Short Sands

Man... did every board rental place sell out today? It was madness at Short Sands- there were two separate line ups today (one inside, one outside). It reminded me of California. The waves were pretty small (two to three) with a few fives rolling through. Pretty thick, you really had to be on the peak and almost inside to get things going.

There was one guy out there on a red longboard with dark hair who was working it- hanging five on the drops, beautiful foot work. He was great and it was fun to watch him!

I saw a tiny little brown fish in the foot deep water, maybe a halibut or something.

And, there are some really interesting priest lamp mushrooms that have appeared on the walk down to the water. They are freaky little things with no chlorophyll, just a glowing white. I've never seen them before so that's always fun- to see something new.

Thursday July 26th Indian

Back at Indian- the waves were smaller, making for more of a scratch to get out. The surf guys were there again, and we surfed for about four hours. Waves were in the three to five foot range again and the mood was friendly and polite.

Oregon surfers are the best- we don't have many wave hogs or localism.

Or maybe I've finally turned into a local... hmm......

Wed July 25th Indian

First time to surf with Sonny and the other surf guys in a long time. And it's always great to catch up with everyone!

Indian was great. The waves have a longer interval now which makes for an easier paddle. Sonny coached me a bit, mostly on working on a nicer pivot during a switch stance (versus my little hop now) and on some paddling techniques.

The waves were in the three to five foot range and it was nice and sunny.

Yay for summer!

Chick Surf! Saturday July 21st Short Sands

Oh yeah... Chick Surf!

Many thanks to Katie B. for hooking up the group of girls who made it down to the coast this weekend. The group stayed in a house and it sounded like they had a blast. I met them for a day surf on Saturday at Short Sands. The water was pretty crowded, but that's what happens in summer. Most people stayed inside and played in the foam lines as the waves were just big enough and frequent enough to make getting outside a bit of a challenge.

And, honestly, catching perfect wave face is sometimes not in my ability tool kit. I can catch waves, but haven't yet perfected figuring out when a wave will collapse over (resulting in just a foam line) or will break right or left (resulting in a nice wave face). I'm working on it- hopefully that skill will develop over this year!

Thursday July 19 Short Sands

Bit bigger than yesterday, but still disorganized. The interval between waves has been pretty short lately and that makes for a long paddle out!

Wed July 18 Indian

Made it out early, and was in Ecola state park by 9 AM. It was awesome, and I saw a black tailed deer on the paved road between the ranger station and Indian Beach. The waves were a bit disorganized, but it was small and fun.

Julia Updates for July

Man, miss a few weeks on baby updates and a novel is needed.

About three weeks ago, Julia said "DaDa". That means Rachel won the bet and we owe her some beer. Good call, Rachel!

About one week ago, she went into open water for the first time (a lake in Eastern Washington state). We put her in a baby float thing (like a inner tube, but with netting inside so babies can just hang out and float with water up to their waist). She LOVED it and immediately figured out that kicking her legs would make her move. She just took off, laughing and chattering to everyone. She's been in baby swim classes here in P-town, so we knew she liked the water, but finding out she's OK in colder water was a nice surprise as well.

About two days ago, Julia started eating bananas and cheerios (her first real food, not just baby food). She's just not that into food, still working on understanding what chewing is, and we finally just made her eat. She watched some other kids eat Cheerios and that was the end of that- of course, she wanted some then and thinks they are very entertaining.

About two hours ago, she cut her next two teeth. Her top two teeth are coming in at the same time, and they just pushed through the skin today.

Go, baby girl, go!

CSO Surfing Contest Last Weekend

The CSO event was awesome on Sunday, July 1st. It was held at Road's End state park in Lincoln City and the second day of the event was beautiful and sunny. The waves were quite small but that worked out well for some of the divisions! A photo badge has been created and is on the left hand border of this blog.

Tue June 19th Short Sands and Bald Eagle!

Went to Short Sands today to go surfing. It was a beautiful, beautiful day. Small waves, friendly crowd, clear water with crabs scrabbling around below, and I busted out my "cover girl" Walden Wahine board (yellow with the flowers). Just a magical day-

And then, a bald eagle skittered into the ocean about fifteen feet from the nose of my board, and came back up with a silver fish. It was amazing- the bald eagle was stunning. Our little crowd of surfers was stunned into silence, and then a few of us clapped and a few hooted. It was a very cool experience-

About a half hour after that, a sea lion breached a full air turn. Not like a dolphin, he stayed in the water, but came up to check us out and did a lazy arch of his whole body slightly above the water on his way down. He was right in the middle of the line up.

It was beyond cool- like everyone in the animal kingdom had come to play in the water today.