Hey everyone, I've been on the phone with Doug at Kitty Hawk Kites this week, and I'm glad to report that we're going to have a great contest this coming weekend, May 6-7. Kitty Hawk Kites are a really cool group of folks, and they are very supportive of surf kayaking and the ESKA.
The event will be held in Kill Devil Hills, NC at the 1st street access. Doug said the surf has been good at this break over the past few weeks.
You do not have to pre-register, we will be accepting registration until closing time friday night. As always, PLEASE CONTACT ME (especially if you are coming in late friday) if you are planning to attend, and let me know what classes you are entering so I can get you seeded in a heat.
There will be a party on Sat night, Doug said they'll probably be ordering good barbecue and hosting it on the porch at Kitty Hawk Kites. There will be an additional fee for the party.
It would be cool if you called KHK this week and let them know you are attending, so they can know how many to expect.
Oh, and the event is scheduled to run both days, but may be one day if needbe....but plan on 2.
I think thats it, contact me if you need to know anything else.
I hope that many of you will attend, we really appreciate Doug Banjak and Kitty Hawk Kites for supporting surf kayaking, so lets show them how much we appreciate them by attending their event!
Look forward to seeing you this weekend.
Joey Hall ESKA President 803.238.0432 deadmanprd2@earthlink.net
Next ESKA event: OBX May 6/7, Fort Fisher NC event will not be happening
Hey everyone, There wasn't quite enough interest in doing an event at Fort Fisher this coming weekend (rescheduled from April 15th). (These things cost money, so we have to have enough interest to at least break even)
So we're going to hold off on that one until the fall, when Gordon Rock will be hosting an event in the Wilmington area.
So the next ESKA event will be in OBX NC, May 6/7, hosted by Kitty Hawk Kites. I spoke with Kitty Hawk Kites last week and they are really excited about the event. They are heavily promoting it in the local area, and are having kite boarding and kayak demos at the same location, so there should be a good turnout. They've even made up a radio commercial for it, so thats really cool that they are supporting it.
There will be a party for this one as well, which will be nice. We'll have the entry forms up soon at ESKAsurf.com and I've asked them to send some hotel reccomendations, hopefully we can all coordinate and make it really affordable for everyone.
I really hope that many of you will be able to attend this event, the OBX is a special place, and Kitty Hawk Kites has been very supportive of surf kayaking, so lets have a good turnout for them! (Plus, I need all of you to come so I can whoop your butts again :) )
Thanks to everyone who's been supportive of the events this spring, my goal was for 4 out of the 6 events to happen successfully with waves, so lets keep our fingers crossed that OBX has a swell!
ESKA sponsors intro to surf kayaking class at Charleston Kayak Festival.
The ESKA is proud to present Introduction to Surf Kayaking at the East Coast Canoe and Kayak Festival in Charleston, SC this Saturday, April 22nd. The class will be taught by double World Champion Ross Fulcher, and will also feature other members of the US East Surf Kayak Team.
If you are attending the festival this weekend, be sure to sign up for the class, it is sure to fill up quickly.
Hey everyone, I think word's gotten round about this. We are postponing the Wrightsville beach contest. There is a chance that we will reschedule at Fort Fisher on April 29th. please write if you are interested in attending an event that weekend.
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)
This ESKA Spring Circuit train is building steam, next up, JAX FL this weekend. Hope everyone has been planning to attend.
The event is at Hannah Park in Atlantic Beach, a really nice park with a nice break. Ask anyone who's been there before how nice the place is. If you have not reserved a campsite yet, give them a call, hopefully they have some left....(side note, I don't have a place to crash yet, anyone got room in a cabin/campsite?) The # for Hannah Park is (904) 249-4700
Theres also some hotels in the area, I suggest: Comfort Inn Mayport (FL433) 2401 Mayport Rd. (A1A) , Atlantic Beach, FL, US, 32233 Phone: (904) 249-0313
We will have a meeting on Friday night to sign waivers and pay entry fees. We will be meeting at one of the campsites in the park. We'll tell the front gate folks where we'll be meeting, so ask them where to go. Please be nice to the front gate people, they get a bit jittery about people coming into the park after dark, but everyone who works at the park are nice folks. We will meet around 8ish.
If you will not be there friday night, we will probably start around 9am sat. I need to know FRIDAY what events you will enter, so I can get the heats seeded.
I look forward to seeing everyone this weekend, we've had some fun contests so far, and I hope everyone is enjoying the circuit.
I am really happy to report that the Myrtle Beach contest this past weekend ran smoothly, and we actually had some waves. After the dissapointment of having the Sunset Beach event cancelled due to lack of contestable surf, everyone was in good spirits when saturday morning rolled around and there were some small, but rideable waves at Myrtle, along with some nice weather and even some sunshine. The waves got a bit bigger as the day wore on, and actually had a nice shape.
There were lots of back to back heats, but everyone had a smile on their faces as they went out again and again.
Ben Moore traveled all the way from WV to compete, and we even had two new juniors, Alan and Andy, who attended and competed along with the men. They'd never been in a surf boat before, but both of them took to it immediately, actually going down the line and showing the beginnings of a bottom turn. Alan and Andy are members of the Columbia Junior Freestyle KAyak Team. I'm sure the field is going to be looking out for these guys as they learn more about surf kayaking.
There were some really close heats, and lots of good surfing in spite of the smaller conditions.
Congrats to all the winners, as well as to Andy and Alan, who came in 4th and 2nd respectively in the Men's K-1 final! Alan hit a nice loop to almost take the title, it was a close heat. Not bad for their first contest.
Huge thanks to Charles Salters for getting the permit and location, Bridget Dohaney for tabulating all day, and to all the judges, who did a great job. And thanks to the competitors.
Here are the results, followed by some photos, we'll see you all in Jacksonville next weekend!" --Joey
Men's HP 1. Ross Fulcher 2. Russ Buskirk 3. Joey Hall 4. Charles Salters
Jr. HP 1. Alan 2. Andy
Masters HP 1. Ross Fulcher 2. Russ Buskirk 3. Rick Dohaney
Men's IC 1. Charles Salters 2. Joey Hall 3.Russ Buskirk 4. Ross Fulcher
Masters IC 1. Russ Buskirk 2. Brent Fields 3. Ross Fulcher
Men's K-1 1. Joey Hall 2. Alan 3. Charles Salters 4. Andy
Waveski 1. Gordon Rock
Andy's first time in a surf kayak Alan's first time in a surf kayak Oneself Russ has been working out Ross with all his winnings Charles in charge Head judge Will Brooks, taking advantage of the wind.
