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| 06/11/09 Sorry I missed my post for last week. But, hey, I’m a surfer so you should know I’m not to be relied upon for much. On the bright side, we had a nice little swell last Friday through Sunday, with Saturday morning being the best of the three days. I’ll call IOP waist to chest on the sets. For some reason, I pulled into the spot where everybody else surfs on Saturday morning and had to share the place with a pretty big crowd. It was a fun session, but from now on I think I’ll drive a few more blocks and surf where I belong. On Sunday, I got adventurous and surfed the Washout. Folly sure has better waves. It’s just a lot of gas and time for me to get there, so I feel guilty when I go. What’s a guy to do? The weekend before last, Mrs. Blog and I went out to the Wahine Classic and helped the ESA crew run the contest and judge heats. Other than putting up with me, Mrs. Blog is a qualified ESA judge, and it was a testament to the draw of the Wahine contest to pull her out of retirement and back onto the judge’s stand. I think the last contest she judged was when Matt Rat was, well, a rat. The surf for the contest was pretty small, but glassy with good shape. Most of the women and girls had to work pretty hard to get anything going in the shortboard divisions, but it was not too bad for longboards. The event had a great turnout and a general high level of stoke. The talent and desire for competitive women’s surfing is pretty high here, and the support of the male surfers for their female counterparts looks strong. There’s no way that I can really measure it for accuracy, but, just by observation, it seems there is more local support here for women by their male counterparts in surfing than in something like soccer or other organized sports where it’s just moms and dads. This bodes well for the progression of the competitive side of the sport and also the acceptance of women in the lineup as surfers. What I mean is that it has taken awhile to repair the damage that movies like Gidget did to the credibility of women who wanted to surf. And events like the Wahine contest continue to reinforce an equal footing between the female surfers and the males out in the lineup. This is especially true here where the conditions are fairly benign and not anywhere as gnarly as spots where a session involves survival, like Mavericks or Waimea Bay. Because frankly, very few guys are prepared to risk a watery death by being thrashed by triple overhead surf on rocks and stuff, and even fewer women are. So here, where there is a relatively easy paddle, guys and gals can enjoy the sport as equals; which is a groovy thing to have settled and leaves plenty of time to ponder the real differences between the sexes — like the willingness to go to the outlet mall and buy shoes vs. eat a ham sandwich in a port-o-let. It’s an easy call — I prefer mine with mustard and lettuce on toasted whole wheat. A couple more thoughts on the Wahine contest before we get to the surf forecast. I had the pleasure of judging the Menehune longboard final. These were girls younger than 12 riding boards almost 3 times their height. The waves on me were about waist-high at the most, but for these little girls, they were almost shoulder-high. The two youngest McClary girls, Marguerite and Emory, blew us away. These girls can surf. I mean, really surf. The little shrimps surfed like contest veterans and had the judges hooting with every ride — and judges don’t usually hoot. If they can keep the stoke going and improve beyond this level, look out world. Not to mention that their big sister, Leldon, got second in shortboard and first in longboard in the girls divisions. Mom and Dad McClary should just go ahead and invest in a bigger trophy cabinet. They’re gonna need it. It was also cool to see Charleston County Schools Superintendent Nancy McGinley surf her way into the ladies longboard finals. Yeah, she can surf. So you little rats out there better be careful who you drop in on. And, of course, this wouldn’t be a contest wrap-up without mentioning the Tanner family. Terri and Kristin made it into every final and walked away with more trophies for the Tanner family collection. The Tanners are a true local surfing dynasty, and if you find yourself in a heat with anyone with the last name of Tanner, you can pretty much go ahead and set your sights on getting second or third at best. As for the weekend surf forecast, the swell direction doesn’t look too sporty. The swell model looks promising until you get to Friday, and by Saturday the arrows get all weird and point in all kinds of different directions. So I’m going to call it less than waist-high and fairly junky. Which is, of course, perfect if you’re one of the McClary girls. The lucky little rats. |
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