JAX II successfull!

This past weekend, the dedicated made the trip to Jacksonville's Hanna Park for our second competition there of the year. Though the surf was anything but remarkable, we still had a good contest, with the competitors making the best of the conditions, and enjoying the warm Florida sunshine.

Its notable that we had lots of new faces at this event. Greg Fox came out with his PS Composite I-Mako. Kent Hackstadt and Erin Gunn competed in the International class in a classic old Noah kayak, with Erin also competing in the K-1 division. And John Ritter, fresh off a trip to the Santa Cruz competition, was there in full force as well. They all surfed well, especially considering it was their first time competiting in one of our events. John Ritter even placed 3rd in the Masters IC, in spite of it being his first time in an IC boat.......time to save up for a long boat John. We hope to see all these fellows at more events in the future.

We also had some juniors for the second event in a row. The boys from the Columbia Junior Freestyle Kayak team, Alan and Andy, were there again, and this time they brought their teammate Kirk with them. Kirk finished 2nd in the Junior HP event, using his knowlege of board surfing to his advantage. Alan won the Junior HP event, with Andy coming in a respectable 3rd. All three of them also made finals in the Men's K-1 class, with Andy taking second place, behind his coach ;)

Some thank yous. Thanks to Carlos Marrone for helping at the contest, and for securing the great location of Hannah Park, we really love that place, its one of the nicest spots to hold a contest. Thanks to Russ and Los for judging the K-1 heats. Thanks to John Ritter and his son for bringing their soundsystem so we had tunes on the beach. Thanks to everyone who helped with setup and breakdown at the event. And thanks to the competitors, it seemed like eveyone was in really good spirits all day.

Huge thank you to Mickey, Josh, and Mike from Epic Surf Ministries for the excellent judging. We are lucky to of found these guys, as they do a good job judging, and really seem to enjoy it too. They remarked that they noticed an increase in overall skill level, even since the last JAX contest we held, and many of the close scores showed that the level of surf kayaking on the east coast is constantly getting better. Epic Surf Ministries is holding a board surfing event the weekend of April 22nd, which will also serve as a fund raiser for Habitat for Humanities, so if you are in the area, check it out. Look for us to have an expression session type get together with the Epic crew soon....

Finally, thank you to Buck Bowers for running the flags and tallying all the scores all day. Buck is a rep for Riot Kayaks, and we thank him and Riot for supporting this event. Tallying scores is a tedious job, and we are lucky that Buck is such a great guy. Visit www.riotkayaks.com for more info on Riot.

So here are the results, followed by some photos of the winners.

Thanks, and we look forward to seeing you all soon.
Joey

(PS, the Wrightsville Beach event, scheduled for April 15th, is being postponed until further notice, more on that later)

Junior HP
1. Alan
2. Kirk
3. Andy

Masters IC
1. Chris Gotshall
2. Russ Buskirk
3. John Ritter
4. Ross Fulcher

Masters HP
1. Russ Buskirk
2. Ross Fulcher
3. Chris Gotshall
4. John Ritter

Men's HP
1. Joey Hall
2. Russ Buskirk
3. Carlos Marrone
4. Chris Gotshall

Men's IC
1. Joey Hall
2. Ross Fulcher
3. Chris Gotshall
4. Carlos Marrone

Men's K-1
1. Joey Hall
2. Andy
3. Alan
4. Kirk

Gaucho, showing off the hardware
(we don't have any plans to start a
"dog" class, but perhaps we should)

















Chris Gotshall, with one of his many medals

















Wonder Twin #1

















Wonder Twin #2













John Ritter, 3rd place, Masters IC