Malibu recap

Malibu or bust. We were looking forward to spending the weekend at Malibu... but then the wave reports started coming in. Small... dismal... tiny... this was on Tuesday of last week. Depressing. Originally we were shooting for a Wednesday departure date... but then it got pushed to Thursday... the next thing I knew, we were departing at 5:30 Friday afternoon. Bad wave forecasts can do that... But with much of the crew already down there, it was time to pack up and hit the road. Some of the Santa Cruz / Pedro Point Crew had already been down there since Wednesday. Troopers... we were beginning to look like serious slackers. 

Putting our heads down I got behind the wheel and we got going. Black Betty sucks gas like it's nobodies business. It costs about 100 bucks each way to get her down to Malibu from Santa Cruz. With her temperamental attitude and sometimes hairy braking, We try to make sure there's always plenty in the tank, lest we give her another reason to cause trouble. 

We pulled into the Malibu parking lot around 2:00am. My apologies to the people that woke up to Bettys thumping engine as we parked and let her cool down. We set up camp in the back- grateful that the police didn't seem to be ticketing the parking lot for camping this year... as has happened in the past, it's not a cheap ticket. 6:00 am rolled around too quickly and we awoke to the sound of cars pouring into the parking lot, people excitedly talking about their upcoming heats and of course Ozstar's car alarm going off... it was sort of an Alarm clock for the whole parking lot... just in case someone managed to sleep through all the other noise. Apparently he had locked his keys in his truck.... it took quite awhile for it to get turned off. Luckily everyone made their heats in time because of it. 

For the most part almost all of the Santa Cruz crew made it though their first round heats. Pedro Point did well too, spirits were high, and we were celebrating, drinking cold Coores in the parking lot by noon.
The waves turned out to be much better than forecast, with a steady knee to waist high swell pushing in.

One thing that I love about the Longboard Coalition is seeing all our old friends. Here's a picture of Waylon and I with Jeff Belzer. We've been competing against Jeff for more than a decade. Jr. Mens, Mens, and now we're all Sr. Mens... the battle wears on. Jeff has to be one of the most charismatic outgoing friendly people that I've ever met.
 Saturday evening was dinner followed by drinking a few beers and hanging out talking story, calling each other out and reminiscing about old times. Apparently Agent Orange was playing across the street at the Malibu inn... but we took a pass, knowing that there couldn't be much of the original band intact.

This shot of the parking lot illustrates the feeling of community that you find at the coalition contests. That's Bruce King sitting on the tailgate of his truck to the left. :)

Sunday is the day of Semis and Finals. The small swell was still holding. Here's a shot of Waylon on his way to winning his Semi. The Crew got whittled down to a handful still in the event as the day wore on. People started to hit the road as they were eliminated, figuring it was best to get back on the road as soon as possible. Many thanks to Asi, Ryan, and the Pedro Point crew for joining us. Also, Radar, Amy, Brooke,
The Borgesons, The Hegerles, and Rachel.

The final conclusion was Waylon 6th, Andrew Buck 4th, and myself 3rd... all for Santa Cruz. Much respect to Tommy Dane and Jeff Belzer, 2nd and 1st place respectively. Kaizer Medeiros also got 3rd in Jr. mens. for Santa Cruz. Looks like Waylon has Buck in a headlock... best smile award goes to Tommy Dane on the left...

Here's a pic of yours truly with trophy in hand trying to pretend like I don't care :)

After the awards presentation, we all hit the road, with only a stop at In & Out burger to break up the trip. once again getting in at 2 am... my bed sure felt nice. Looking forward to September.