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Photo Kevin Mullaney
White Crest Beach in Wellfleet is a favorite for surfers. |
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Weeks wins shortboard contest at White Crest
Wellfleet’s Katy Weeks joined the winners’ circle in her first-ever competition, capturing the women’s 18-29 shortboard at the Eastern Surfing Association contest at White Crest Beach Sunday.
Most of the rest of the winners Sunday were regulars on the East Coast surfing circuit. Dan Hassett of Hanover captured both the men’s shortboard and longboard titles while Eric Anderson took home both junior titles.
Other two-time winners included veterans Ron Belanger in the seniors shortboard and masters longboard and Peter Pan in the grandmaster and legend categories.
All four were the ESA’s top point winners in New England in their divisions last year. The points are tabulated from the several contests the ESA holds across New England each year.
“I had a blast,” said Weeks, who began surfing just five years ago. She also finished second to Mercy Reid in the women’s longboard and claimed fifth place in the tightly contested open division as the only woman finalist.
While the waves were hardly spectacular Sunday, nary a complaint was heard from the 60 participants. The contest had been postponed from June 19 and again from Saturday due to both weather and calm seas. Since the surf has been quiet for several weeks, most were pleased to take what was there.
In the morning, the waves broke shoulder high but grew smaller as the tide went out.
“So far this year we’ve run a contest in Newport and the waves were bad and in Nantasket and that wasn’t too good either,” said Peter Pan, who has been the ESA director for Southern New England since 1972.
“This is fun. The best we’ve had,” added Belanger, a Connecticut resident.
Surfers were judged on a maximum of 10 waves in 15-minute heats. Only their top three scores counted.
“You want to see the length of the ride and any kind of maneuver they can make,” said one of the rotating judges, Jim Chabot of West Warwick, R.I.
Chabot said tricks and fast maneuvers are a staple of East Coast surfing since in terms of size, its waves cannot compete with other regions of the world.
That necessary creativity, says Peter Pan, has given the ESA claim to 16 world champions, more than any other association on the planet.
“We have real good surfers on the Cape,” he added.
The ESA returns to White Crest for contests on July 24 and Aug. 21 sandwiched between events at Narragansett Beach in Rhode Island July 4, Aug. 7 and Sept. 4.
Other winners Sunday included Lyle McCucheon-Shour in the boys division, Adam Lauro in the masters, Chris Falcone in the senior women’s, Marc Angelillo in the senior longboard and Brendan McCray in the open.
Angelillo, an Orleans resident who is the ESA competition director for Southern New England, is fresh off a fourth place finish in the senior longboard division at the first-ever American Surfing Championships at Huntington Beach, Calif., June 17. He, along with Anderson, also were two-time winners at the Rhode Island Newport Surfing Championships in April.
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PHS Sports
Nauset Sports |
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Jul 1st, 2004