I approached the scene of the mayhem at 2am Friday morning. Pulled inn for the night at the Bay Court Resort and woke up way too early, God this place is beautiful, looking out over the bay in the morning for Friday’s start at 8am. OK, it’s raining and I’m wandering around with my umbrella. But the breakfast was great and the show started at 9. The venue was huge, easily 100yards long, two huge scaffoldings, tents galore, stages for musicians, banners, flags, and hoopla. Starting at 9, with the waves totally flat, the little kids were fine and before you could say Dewey Beach, the swell began to grow. Still slightly overcast, the energy in the air was enormous. By mid day it was bigger but still a nasty trough made wave ride attempts rather sketchy. I managed to roll my ankle on one of the first waves as I had left my timing somewhere over Pennsylvania.
With 8 minutes a heat, they were able to process 196 contestants in three days. Pretty amazing job by all the crew, Skim USA, Jason Wilson, and a ton of volunteers.
Everybody on the beach was friendly or family.
We are unique in the world. Our sport is amazingly supportive of one another, regardless of our team affiliation, our home country, our language, or our gender.
It is a beautiful thing to watch, and refreshing as hell in todays me, me, me sports world.
Johnny Weber was the hometown favorite and every time he ran for a wave the crowd started to roar. His smoothness was superb, and his tech tricks looked easy, coming and going. He met his match against Bruno though, when nature delivered 6 perfect waves for Bruno, and only 1 good wave presented itself to John. Tough luck in the pros, and perhaps a symptom of the short heats.
Many of the heats were decided on the last wave, which leads one to suspect that the drama of the moment, combined with the announcer’s hyping it up, leads to some over-scoring at the last second. We saw it many times, and wondered if perhaps the judges should not know what the second place person needs to advance, as it tells them exactly how to score the wave if they want a win for that particular rider or it could be entirely subconscious for all we know.
We saw some great skimming by Jessie Burlew, Avery Ritchey, John Salta, Jon Howell, Cooper Forcucci, Eve Redefer, Elizabeth Amador, Aidan Stevenson, Riley Sinex and Killian Davis, and Drayton Blount.
Thank you Dewey Beach!
Vic Team results were awesome!
Girls 11 and under
Eve Redefer 1
Elizabeth Amador 2
Boys 12-14
Cooper Forcucci 2
Women 15-up
Rylea Sinex 1
Avery Ritchey 2
Mens 18-21
Finn Forcucci 4
Men 22-24
Trevor George 4
Grandmasters
Jesse Burlew 1
Legends
Charles L Haines “Tex” 2
Pro
Johnny Weber 5
Skim USA Tour winners were: Eve, Tyler, Jesse, and Avery
Comments are closed.