RESULTS
SUNRISE
SURF SHOP ON TOP IN THE SOUTHEAST
Story by Kevin Welsh / SurfNRG.com
The Southeast Division of the QUIKSILVER SURF SHOP CHALLENGE Series
finally concluded on Thursday, August 31, with Jacksonville’s
SUNRISE SURF SHOP narrowly edging out 2-time, undefeated champions
QUIET FLIGHT Surf Team from Cocoa Beach. After initially being cancelled
two weeks earlier, due to a lack of surf, the event was rescheduled
for Tuesday the 29th. But the event date then had to be rescheduled
an additional two more times, due to Hurricane Ernesto, which was
entering the Sunshine State from the southern tip of the peninsula.
Fortunately, for all the paranoid homeowners who had experienced
two horrific hurricane seasons in 2004 and 2005, Ernesto fell apart
in the mountainous terrain of Cuba and failed to regain its hurricane
strength when it made landfall in South Florida.
As
the eye of Ernesto exited the Brevard County coastline overnight,
everyone had hopes of perfect, head-high, offshore tubes to go with
their coffee the next morning. But unfortunately, Ernesto didn’t
leave much behind in its wake, besides a weak 1-to-2 foot offshore
swell. Despite the small surf, however, the contest had to be held,
since the final competition in Oceanside was just under two weeks
away. So, a total of 12 teams converged at the Sebastian Beach Inn,
just north of the Inlet, ready to do battle to determine this years
Southeast Division Champions.
 This
year, two new surf shops, THE GOODS and NEKTON, proved to be major
players amongst a field of veteran surf shop teams. Coincidentally,
both shops are owned by current touring WCT pro’s. The Hobgoods
obviously own THE GOODS, while Cory Lopez is at the helm of NEKTON.
Cory even opted to drive over from the Gulf Coast to coach his team,
which included his elder brother, former WCT pro, Shea Lopez, and
fellow O’Neill teamrider Alek Parker.
The first two
rounds ran quite smoothly in the scorching sun as each contestant
tried to hobble their way through a maneuver or two before running
up onto the beach. Then came the Finals, and 12-minutes into the
heat came the rain. Along with the rain came the lightning, which
sent everyone scurrying off the beach and into the safety of the
Sebastian Beach Inn. After a one-hour delay, Darren Brilhart and
Matt Kechele asked competitors if they wanted to draw straws to
decide a winner, or if they wanted to take it back down to the beach
to resume the heat. With 43-minutes left on the timer, the call
was to surf it out, even though the waves were getting progressively
worse. But then, there was another problem. The ink on the heat
sheets from the first 12-minutes were smudged from the rain, so
the heat had to be restarted with a full 55-minutes on the clock.
With all these obstacles, one might have thought there’d be
some whining going on, but everyone was super cool and just went
with the flow.
All scores of
the four teams in the finals were extremely close, so close in fact
each judge was showing three different winners. But in the end,
it was SUNRISE SURF SHOP, headed by double-whammy artist Robert
Rohman and Jason Motes that edged out 2-time undefeated champions
QUIET FLIGHT for this year’s Southeast Regional championship
title.
RESULTS
1 - SUNRISE
SURF SHOP: Robert Rohman, Adam McGill, Dane Jeffreys, Jason Motes
2 - QUIET FLIGHT:
Nick Piette, David Aubrey, Bryan Hewitson, John
Canquienella
3 - OCEAN MAGIC:
Ryan Helm, Taylor Hogland, Brian Cunningham, Kedran Ferrero
4 - NEKTON:
Alek Parker, Shea Lopez, Brant Johnston, Dustin Hatfield
DC Most
Progressive Surfer Award
The winner of the DC Most Progressive Surfer Award was Ryan Helm
from OCEAN MAGIC. He joins an elite crew of boundary-pushing performers
from across the country atop the DC podium.
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