South Bay Boardriders crown Kings of the Beach
Sets crept up on competitors throughout a blustery Saturday. Photo by Steve Gaffney
Gallery photos by Steve Gaffney.
The South Bay Boardriders “King of the Beach” end of season contest, hosted by Spyder Surfboards last Saturday, started smooth with sizeable swell and swiftly progressed into the some of the more rugged wind conditions the contest has ever seen.
The talent on the beach, however, sliced through the wind and overhead surf with impressive hacks and sky high floaters like it was another glassy day.
Megan Seth, a crowd favorite and a participant for three years straight, glided through bumpy corners and placed 2nd to Bethany Zelasko, a junior pro out of San Clemente. “Of all the contests, this one was definitely the windiest,” she said. Her demeanor was nonetheless unfazed.
Megan’s dad, lifeguard captain Tom Seth, participated in a total of five heats, including back-to -back finals. He took his division by storm, nailing a 1st place in Legends, as well as solidifying his standings as season champion.
The ocean took a very sudden turn at approximately 11:20 a.m., when the sky immediately grayed and the water and the air could barely be differentiated. Within minutes, offshore, light winds flipped and produced crumbling towers.
“I couldn’t tell what was wakes or waves,” said Dave Schaefer, who blasted through six heats sick with what he later found out was pneumonia. Schaefer put on an impressive display in open longboard, snapping his fins out in impossible sections and hanging 10 down gargantuan faces. He went on to collect season champion award for open longboard – securing that title for the 5th year in a row.
Club President Tom Horton was working away between his heats with contest director Wright Adaza, and Mark Cole on the mic had everyone’s ears perked waiting for their check-in times (and for some occasional comedic relief.) The bundled-up judges stuck it out through the wind, and from set-up to score calculating, another perfectly run contest marked the end of a full- of-stoke season.
Olivia Lusby and Lisa Boos’s perma-smiles. Photo by Brian Doremus
Olivia Lusby, a pint sized shredder with an infectious grin who practices every day, said she loves the contest and is sure to be back next season.
“I love how everyone comes together as a community to compete and everyone is friends and cheering each other on,” she said. “And the burritos are really good.”
Skateboards were given away to first place finishers by Spyder, and hundreds of surfers, from micro groms to legends, participated throughout the year.
The Boardriders held an End of Season party held by sponsor Subaru Pacific and organized by Lisa Honea and Karen Tominaga. Trophies were given to top three finishers in each respective division, and prizes were raffled off, including a surf trip from AST Adventures, which both Megan and Tom Seth won – for the second year in a row.
See all photos from Steve Gaffney at https://stevegaffney.smugmug.com/SBBC (password – surfing)
