Surftech Shootout starts tomorrow!

[sup_surf_giant]

Me and the wife came up to Santa Cruz so I could surf in my first contest ever and compete in my first SUP race ever on the same weekend! http://shootout.surftech.com

My first surf heat is tomorrow at 9.

The SUP race is Saturday. I've rented a Bark Laird 14x29.5 over at Covewater Shop for that event. Fingers crossed!

Tonight at the paddler meeting there was quite a convention of folks (and great barbecue (and free beer), here's a few:

Jeff Clark (how cool!)
Mike Baker from Riviera
Anthony Vela and Candace
Slater Trout and the Infinity Crew
A few of the Kings race crew
Tommy Lloy
many more...

Anyway, looks to be a fun weekend.

I'll report back on on the waves, the sites and sounds.

Pretty sure there will be a live stream tomorrow - Sunday over at www.supconnect.com

[SoCalSupper]

yeah dude!
Jealous-say hi to the crew for me
ill be getting barelled at Nukes!
translation-ill be dodging squatters at Patch.

seriously have fun and snap some pics.

[AM9K]

Represent!  Good luck in you heats. 

[sbsup11]

Nice one sup_surf_giant! Good luck!!

The live stream starts @ 8, goes Saturday and Sunday: http://shootout.surftech.com/live-stream/

[sup_surf_giant]

So the swell was decent. chest to head + but seriously bumpy.

As I walked down, Dave B was returning from his heat telling me how bumpy it was.

I paddled out anyway on my 7'11 about an hour before my heat. Got out to the point and decided I'd better switch to my 8'5, so I paddled back and got it. Got back 12 min before my heat.

Anthony Vela was in my heat...greeeeaaaaat....

when the horn blew, so did a lull.

But Anthony and guy in black were nabbing all the set waves.

My first wave was looking to close out but I went for it and as I did, I hit one of those aforementioned bumps and took a dive. Greeeeeaaaaaat.

How to Blow a Take Off

Having never been a surf comp before, it was strange how fast time was going and how poorly I was surfing!

Anyway, I decided to grab some insiders and managed to throw some turns.

The entire heat, I never felt like my feet were right, or my timing was right. The worst I've surfed in a long time!

Anyway, it was fun.

My Meager Surfing at the Surftech Shootout 2013

Lots of great surfing from Surftech's Matt Baker, Dave Boehne shredding backside high tide slop with aplomb, Candace Appleby making the women look like beginners and Jeff Clark busting a floater as his heat ended before mine.

Tomorrow AM is the SUP race at 9 and then our 2nd surf heats after. Weather is amazing, town is super cool and WEIRD, and the food is good!

 My wife now knows that she can take videos in landscape. =)

[lanikaipaddler]

awesome!  I always surf crappy when I know I'm being judged...

[Ucycle]

 I surf(not a comp) with Anthony once, we probably around the same weight but he rides a lower volume board.  he have such a good paddle speed that he can be way out and still able to catch the wave. Plus he def can read wave better than me.  Hopefully your heat will be better tomorrow.

[sup_surf_giant]

Thanks Lanikai and ucyle!

Just took out the rental race board, the Bark Laird 14'.

Feels appropriate for me and much faster than anything else I've tried that's narrower and shorter.

Was able to even catch a few waves on it.

Not sure I'll enjoy racing but here goes!

[SoCalSupper]

haha!

great vids giant-you and CD-great freesurfing and when it comes to comps cant surf worth beans-missed you at patch today-it was actually super fun-bumpy here as well but fun size on low tide.
Good luck in race!

[supdiscobay]

From the look of the rock the tide had to be really high for your heat.  That its tough at that spot.  Especially under the scrutiny of judges.  Nice job and good luck in the race.  I won;t get a chance to meet any of the zoners as work picked up, I take it when I get it.

[SoCalSupper]

Dave Boehne takes the win in SUP Surf event on his custom Infinity Blur model.
Slater Trout takes first on his signature Infinity raceboard.

Stacked mens final with Tommy Lloy returning to competition, the young buck Chuck Glynn and Rambo.
I believe all are SOcal talent-holding it down for the socal crew in Santa Cruz!

Soulsup had some great pics on Instagram.

Waves looked fun and looked like a well run event-give us a write up Giant.

Congrats Team Infinity and im sure you got jobbed in your heat Giant!-from what i saw you were SHREDDING!!!

[sup_surf_giant]

From the look of the rock the tide had to be really high for your heat.  That its tough at that spot.  Especially under the scrutiny of judges.  Nice job and good luck in the race.  I won;t get a chance to meet any of the zoners as work picked up, I take it when I get it.

Yup, high for my first heat. Tough!

2nd heat it was low and I was able to get a handle on middle peak, even a lil head dip.

[SUP Viking]

Congrats team Infinity!!!

[SoCalSupper]

From the look of the rock the tide had to be really high for your heat.  That its tough at that spot.  Especially under the scrutiny of judges.  Nice job and good luck in the race.  I won;t get a chance to meet any of the zoners as work picked up, I take it when I get it.

Yup, high for my first heat. Tough!

2nd heat it was low and I was able to get a handle on middle peak, even a lil head dip.

Dude you were throwin that Infinity around today at Patch-too bad you couldnt replicate that at the contest!
you should have come out to the reefs with us-it started firing a little later-we paddled away from the Ching clan and scored head high clean funness!

[sup_surf_giant]

Dude you were throwin that Infinity around today at Patch-too bad you couldnt replicate that at the contest!

I did in my second heat that I won!!!