Once again the trip to Santa Cruz was a blast, Victoria rented the dream house for riders and whoever wanted to hang out right on the contest spot! Nice dinners, hot spa, Great times! Here are Lynn and Tex write-ups of the weekend followed by some pictures taken by Tex.
Santa Cruz. Just the name conjures up images of red woods, chilly nights, waves, and getting together with friends for the TAC Apparel Skim Blast!
In our case, Santa Cruz also means Road Trip. The vehicle gets packed up and choices are made. HWY 1, HWY 5, HWY 101? One thing for sure, there were a lot of cars headed north last week looking for skim adventures.
I look forward to Santa Cruz. I like to find a house close to the beach for the team. I like to cook them all dinner. We can’t afford to pay big salaries, or fly people around the world, but I like to treat the team right in the smaller ways that I can. Plus, I love these guys and the skim community. I feed any strays who wonder by. They all sang Feliz Cumplianos for Tex when Carly brought him a cake. Aw
We had sunny days and chilly nights. The waves were not the best but there were some out great opportunities to be had. The wind interfered on Saturday afternoon, but only blew for about 30 minutes on Sunday. Congratulations to Blair Conklin on the win. His smooth style is so nice to watch and he found the waves to make the most of it. I watched Teddy, on one long down the line, go from a standing casual surfer slouch style posture to a tight crouch for the cover up barrel in the end. Pros can get so much out of so little!
Thanks to all in Santa Cruz for a fun event and your great hospitality. Chappy, your announcing was Garth-like. That is my greatest compliment! I know all the work involved, judges, score keeping, ect, from where I sat, everything went smooth. Good tunes too!
Looking forward to next year
– Lynn Haines –
It was a lot of fun. The contest, the waves, the heavy toe to toe pro heats, the house was perfect, the walk short. Heck the water wasn’t even that cold at all. Some highlights were the Austin and Teddy, Blair and Sam semis, and Beaker was right there knocking on the door until the last minute with Austin before that. Paddy Mack got his highest pro finish which is notable. Some guys got the morning perfection, and mid day high tide stuff that was great, others like Johnny Salta had a head on wind and a low tide mess that killed the sidewash and left very slim pickins for the heat. Random. But, on the other hand, bits of serendipity like Salta and friends running into a concert deep in the Cowell redwoods and having a person leaving offer you their tickets is pretty damn cool. I love it that. Big Sur camping stories always surface, proving once again that the trip North is worth it in oh so many ways. Plus, I heard about multiple epic skim sessions at secret spots around SC on Thursday and Friday. Someone else picked off Malibu with perfect skim conditions, on their way up the coast.
Major thanks to Ben K., and all the crew for setting this up. I saw Big Dean on the judges stand most of the event, a serious senior skimmer showing the way for the future retired pros.
Apparently it was a cold and smoky summer for Santa Cruz, and we got credited for bringing the sun and warmer weather. After a summer like ours down in So Cal, I am so ready to share the heat with anybody that wants it. God bless the coolness of Santa Cruz. Thanks for everything from all the fellow skimmers from down South.
– Tex Haines –
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