Mrs. Blog and I had a blast at the annual Wahine surf contest. I’m always impressed with the amount of swag that Nancy Hussey and the other contest organizers manage to amass. And it’s the one contest that seems to draw Mrs. Blog off the bench and back into the judges’ stand. Girl power in action is a mighty might. Plus, the sponsorships from the local restaurants had the tables groaning with food. I was kinda glad I wasn’t surfing in this one, because I gorged on more goodies than Templeton the Rat and probably woulda hurled if I had to surf in a heat.
And you really couldn’t ask for a more supportive municipality for competitive surfing than the town of Folly Beach. The police officers and other first responders are top-notch. Not just in performing the tasks associated with their jobs, but also being incredibly supportive of surfers and the surfing community. This is particularly impressive considering most of our contests occur during the height of the beach season. And lots of people who come to the beach on the weekends do lots of stupid things. So the first responders and traffic people are busy, but whenever I see them around the contest area, they are always ready to share a smile and the stoke. Pretty impressive if you only half-imagine all the stupid stuff they must have to put up with every weekend.
The waves were pretty cooperative, too, considering we are in the summer doldrums. The first heats out in the early morning were pretty sketchy, but as the tide filled in, things got rideable enough to hold a decent contest. The level of surfing keeps improving each year, and the semifinals and finals all provided some good surfing.
The tandem heat was a riot to watch, and it was difficult to judge while laughing so hard. D-Flo and daughter Hannah stole the heat in the end with a high-scoring move called the Oli-Nah Wheelbarrow, but the other tandem teams were right on their heels, doing some pretty crazy stunts considering how shallow it was breaking. Judging by the smile pasted to Hannah’s face during the awards ceremony, I think she’s hooked.
As for surf this weekend, I’m calling it pretty small again. With the swell models looking seriously disorganized and puny. Everybody I talk to is starting to jones for waves, so I hope something to ride comes soon, before the frustration spills over into the streets and they start pelting cars with bottles and rocks.
Comments