Every sport has its’ legends, in the surfing world, Ed Beacham and Brian Beck are two of them. Beacham and Beck were recently honored for the Torquay Surf Life Saving Club.
Brian Beck, 80, still surfs till this day in his local surf spots and has been with Torquay for over 60 years. Beck has one many awards including the Victorian Surf Ski Contest as he was champion between 1950-55.
Ed Beacham has been honored before after he rescued a crew from a boat that was under harsh conditions in 1965 by saving their lives. He is a former Torquay club president and lives for the waves.
Well done guys.
As the Dew Tour took over Salt Lake City, so did Brazil’s Rodolfo Ramos. Even though Ramos won a Dew Tour event in China, he considered this stop an official victory in the tour for him. In second place was Chris Cole, who is competing on the Dew Tour for the first time. The third spot was taken by Nick Dompierre.
Last year’s Dew Cup champ, Chaz Ortiz, didn’t have the best competition as he had a year ago in Salt Lake. Ortiz was out of the session when he didn’t place in the skateboard park finals. Ortiz left the competition before his score was announced after knowing he had a bad session. Ortiz is sure to be the future of skateboarding as he is only 15 years old and running strong. I’m sure we’ll see Chaz make some amazing moves in the future.
The last stop for the Dew Tour is next month in Orlando, Florida. Chris Cole is the current leader in the tour with 262 points but Ryan Decenzo isn’t too far behind with 238.
Dog competitions are nothing new but the dog surfing competitions are just getting started. The Purina Incredible Dog Challenge which has a ton of dog events has now added surfing to the event. The festivities take place at the San Diego County Fair every year in the middle of June.
The competition had a panel of great judges that scored the canines performance in shredding the big California waves. The canines ride in a couple heats just like human surfers and receive points on the wave riding.
This won’t be the only dog surfing competition this year. In September, San Diego will have another event called Surf dog Surf-a-thon. The competition will raise money for charity and will be a ton of fun.
Hawaii joins in on the MMA popularity. The increasingly popular sport will be officially sanctioned to participate in Mixed Martial Arts competition.
The licensed events in Hawaii will abide by the same rules and regulations as other states. Most of the rules will be close to the regulations that Nevada abides by. There will be licensing in the future for fighters and officials that participate in a Hawaii fight.
This is great news for the MMA community. The sport has made its way to some really amazing spots on the globe. This will definitely be great for the state since the sport brings in a lot of money.
Surfers held a memorial for fellow friend, Tony Costa, who died after a collision in Lyall Bay, New Zealand when there was rough conditions. Over 100 people came to the shore of Lyall Bay to pay their respects to a fallen friend. A DJ came and played Costa’s favorite music while friends and family stood by.
Tony Costa’s friend and surf buddy, Fiso “Flowz” Siloata, said We all held hands and chanted Tony’s name. Then all the surfers went out and caught a wave.” It was what “Tony would have wanted”.
Tony Costa is survived by his wife and two daughters.
The are all-stars of all kinds out in the world but there is only one Ultimate Boarder, a competitor that is an all-around champion in snowboarding , surfing, and skateboarding. The search to crown an all-aroind champion for the Ultimate Boarder contest went from the states all the way to New Zealand.
The contest grabbed 55 competitors that excel in all three sports. The competitors range from 11-40 years old and it’s organized by Tim Hoover. Hoover is a 38-year-old amateur surfer with a lot of love for all three sports. Tim said “I really wanted to make this a grassroots, bootstrap, organic thing. I wanted to do something to inspire and create a format for the next generation of kids that grow up in this lifestyle.”
The Ultimate Boarder title was crowned to Chad Shelter. Chad is a 32 year old professional skateboarder and really good surfer. With high scores in skateboarding and surfing, Shelter was able to claim the title and a very very nice $30,000 top prize.
The Kustom Airstrike is a unique competition outside the normal championship surf contest that happen around the world. It is a competition for the world’s best single-maneuver on a wave and it happens once a year at the North Shore of O‘ahu every December. The Grand Prize winner takes home a whopping check for $50,000.
This year the Kustom Airstrike was floored by this years winner, Dusty Payne, who pulled a beautiful frontside air 360 to claim his stake in as won of the world’s best. Dusty, a Maui native is said to use the money as a nice little down payment on an apartment in Western Australia.
Congrats to Dusty!
The Maverick break wiped out it’s annual surf contest the second time in three years due to poor wave-producing conditions. Maybe Al Gore was on to something here. The Mavericks Surf Contest is known for its violent wipeout breaks that involves 24 invited surfers to ride for $150,000 in prize money. Unfortunately, it’s not gonna happen.
The contest usually strives to take place around November or December, when the break is ever so sweet. However, this year, the event didn’t start to get organized till January. By that time, sponsor obligations weren’t locked in and wave conditions for the winter were ending.
Contestant Zach Wormhoudt said, “Everyone I talk to says the same thing: If it’s not absolutely solid, just don’t even do it.”
The contest was set to get postponed even further but was later pronounced a wash when the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary expressed concern for the environment during the breeding season for seabirds and marine mammals.
Well, we’ll see what happens next year.
Tapout founder, Charles “Mask” Lewis Jr. died in a car crash in Newport Beach, California on a Wednesday morning.
As you know, Tapout is the leading mixed martial arts clothing brand. Lewis Jr. was a main figure in the UFC and MMA community by sponsoring events and fighters all over the country.
Lewis lost control of his Ferrari, jumping a curb and slamming into a street lamp cutting the car in half.
The girlfriend of the mixed martial arts pioneer remains in intensive care with head and internal injuries. Lacy Lynn White, 23, suffered extensive injuries in the crash early wednesday morning.
A Costa Mesa man, Jeffrey David Kirby, had reportedly triggered the crash. Kirby faces vehicular manslaughter while being intoxicated and behind the wheel of his porsche. He could be sentenced to more than 19 years in prison if convicted.
The competition has been tough all season but Lindsey Jacobellis (Stratton Mountain, VT) won her 17th carreer Snowboard World Cup at Stoneham Mountain in Quebec. She beat out Mellie Francon (SUI), Maelle Ricker (CAN) and Zoe Gillings (GBR) who came in second, thrid and fourth place after Lindsey.
Jacobellis commented on her win over Mellie, who had an intial lead over her. “She got bobbled on them and I was able to stay down on the ground a little better, which led me in to the bank turn first and I just tried to hold it down from there,” Lindsey explained.
Markus Schairer (Austria) won the men’s competition as Robert Fagan lost the lead when making an error on the second hip jump. Fagan said his “batteries were all empty before the start of the finals. But then I passed Seth (Wescott) in the first bank and Jonathan (Cheever) in the second turn. I would have been more than just OK with the second rank but now I’m super happy with even more points to defend my World Cup lead.”
Jonathan Cheever will be competing in the big air competition in Stoneham, Quebec before going to the next World Cup stop at Maine’s Sunday River ski resort.
2009 LG SNOWBOARD FIS WORLD CUP RESULTS
Stoneham, Quebec
Men
1. Markus Schairer, Austria
2. Jonathan Cheever, Saugus, MA
3. Seth Wescott, Carrabassett Valley, ME
4. Robert Fagan, Canada
5. Graham Watanabe, Sun Valley, ID
Women
1. Lindsey Jacobellis, Stratton Mountain, VT
2. Mellie Francon, Switzerland
3. Maelle Ricker, Canada
4. Zoe Gillings, Great Britain
5. Alexandra Jekova, Bulgaria
