A good shot of our boy Kaizer came in today. He's been the grom of the team for years- he's finally at college , doing big boy things now. This shot is from behind the school he goes to- UCSB.
I've got a great story about Kaizer, aka Kai Mederios.
A couple years back, in preparation for a Malibu contest, I built myself a copy of my favorite board, except about a 1/2" wider than normal. Thought I might need some extra planing surface and stability if the waves were crappy as they often are.
I don't really like to ride new boards in contests, but I figured if the board was magic I'd use it as my main horse, instead of the old trusty grrl. I gave the board about 45 minutes in the water before I decided I hated the width. Walking up the beach I was instantly hassled by the crew- subpar surfing is always a superb reason for harassment in a competitive arena. I decreed the board to be a total piece of crap and threw it at Kaizer.
"Can I ride it?"
"Don't f*@king bother it's a piece of crap!"
"Come on..."
"Whatever..."
I went back to the car to retrieve my faithful board... and drink a few cold ones while I told everyone what a piece of crap the other board was. Coming back down the beach, Kaizer meets me head on.
"This board rips!! I love it!"
"No it doesn't... stupid grom..."
"It does!"
Kaizer's always been an enthusiastic fellow, so I figured he could use a challenge.
"If it rips so hard, let's see you win this contest on it. If you do... you can have it."
The challenge was issued with the entire crew standing within earshot. As soon as the words were spat out of my sarcastic shaper mouth, I knew there was gunna be no backing out.
Dammit.
Kaizer won his first heat.
I laughed it off as the whole team heckled me. Kid always wins his first heats, they're the easy ones.
Kaizer won his second heat.
I laughed it off again as the heat turned up on me. For some reason the crew loves to see their shaper sweat... But I've seen Kaizer drill through early heats a million times. Winning a whole contest is another matter entirely.
Early the next morning while I was still lazying around the parking lot at the Bu- The news came back to me
"Kazier just got though his semi final" Cathy bubbled. She loves to see me suffer.
"Oh man you are so out that board!!" Waylon's my younger brother and he likes it even more.
I spent the whole day mentally accounting for a potential loss of hundreds of dollars because of my big mouth.
They had the final on the end of the second day.
I sat on the beach and watched quietly as Kaizer stomped the competition. I've never wanted one of my riders to loose, but I would have been totally fine with second place for him- he's got many contests to come... It didn't matter. He pounded the final nails in my coffin and I knew he had won fair and square.
They announced that he had just taken possession of the board when they announced his first place win.
Punk, he knew I'd never be able to back out. I should probably learn to keep my mouth shut.
But it was the best bet I ever made.
-Carl
