This week's column comes to you from the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where the annual East Coast Surfing Championships is taking place. It has been a long road to get here for the over 400 contestants. First they had to win at their district contests which got them a slot at one of the three regional competitions. They had to win or place at that event just to advance to this event, which truly features only the best of the best surfers on the east coast.

As I drove down the 100 mile length of the Outer Banks, it was evident that the bad economy had affected this vacation destination, just as it has in all beach towns in the country. I saw many retail store fronts for rent or sale and a good amount of empty strip malls as well. There were signs on just about every restaurant storefront welcoming ESA competitors, as area merchants hoped to generate their last surge of revenue before the season ends.

In accordance with the rules of the new national governing body of surfing in the U.S. which is called Surfing America, the entire contest format was converted to four-man heats for the first time ever at this event. This move increased the size of the contest considerably and forcing ESA officials to grind out the heats from 7:00 AM to almost dark on all seven days of the event. "While this is a great thing for the contestants," said ESA contest official Tom McClaren, "It allows for no slack time on any day. If we get any type of backup, weather delay, or such, the contest could spill into the back-up 8th day which no one wants to see."

While some things at Cape Hatteras never change such as the never ending stream of mosquitos, the sand bars on the south facing beaches of Frisco and Hatteras Village have greatly improved in the past year. In the last decade the quality waves disappeared and the surf closed out hard most of the time. During this visit our New England team was pleasantly surprised to experience some high quality overhead lefts with plenty of barrels to work with during much of the contest. On the other hand, the surf at the contest site was positively awful. Difficult overhead onshore slop made many of the heats the luck of the draw, as inconsistent peaks shifted from one end of the contest area to the other. Unfortunately, both the winds and swell continued to make things tough for everyone for the duration of the 255 heat event.

The New England team had a tough time in the conditions. The southern surfers had the definite advantage, surfing these types of waves all year long. While our surfers practice on perfect reef and point breaks with offshore winds, the southerners work with tough onshore beach break almost exclusively. In the adult divisions, there was some excellent surfing from Senior Men competitors Lenny Nichols, Ron Belanger and Chuck Barend in both long and short board. All three advanced to the second rounds of the tournament before being eliminated.

There can be little doubt however, that the best surfer from New England continues to be Ana Barend. Again, for the third straight year she advanced to the final round in both the long and short board competition. This is unprecedented in New England surfing competition and a feat that will probably never be repeated. "Ana was taking off on huge bombs that no one in the water would even attempt to take off on," said ESA Director Ron Belanger. "She was just amazing as usual. We come to expect it."

Ladies Shortboard Awards.  Photo by Ron Belanger.

Ana charged some big nasty peaks during both the ladies short and long board finals and almost pulled off two more wins. She ended up a close second place in both finals. Kitty Pechet came through yet again in the Grand Legends final, pulling off a 4th place in the rough surf. Peter Pan won the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame final for the second year straight, finishing off the local group's finalist berths.
There was some great surfing from New England team members that did not advance to the qualifying rounds. Melanie Kotalac competed in the Ladies short and long board events. Pat Redmond just missed advancing to the semifinals in the Open Bodyboard, as well as Mya Kotalac in the Girls division. Bob McNeil surfed in the Legends long and short board. Chad Bruce advanced to the second round of the Junior Men long and short board events.

Grand Legends Awards Ceremony. Photo Ron Belanger.

After 7 long days of endless heats in conditions varying from double overhead wind swept chop to waist high perfect peaks, the 2009 East Coast Surfing Championships concluded with the final ceremony and awards. Competitors began their trips back to their own home breaks. New England surfers will now prepare for the final two rated ESA contests of the season, with the first being the Annual Northeast Surfing Titles, scheduled for October 19th at a site to be announced.

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