Last Saturday, the tenth annual Ratopia contest,a benefit for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society took place in three to five foot waves at Torrance Beach.
“The waves are like a fun day at Ehukai Beach,” said surf judge Mike Purpus, “You couldn’t ask for better conditions.”
With 120 surfers competing, the event brought in surfers from all over for an event that falls on the fun side of things in the competitive surf scene.
“The pie eating contest was very close,” said surf judge Mike Siordia. “It went down to the last bite.”
In the women’s heat, the top four surfers were within a point each other. Candace Stalder went for the most radical coasters the entire contest winning her first heat. For the final, she just couldn’t land one and placed fourth. Valerie Rhodes took off on the the biggest sets, taking a lot of gas, and connected a few corners on the inside and took second. Emma Waldinger won the heat with her smooth style and cross steps to the nose.
Brendan Simmons couldn’t decide if he should ride hi-performance or traditional longboard. He went with performance to break apart the lip with bashes. With one minute to go, a set wave got the better of Simmons and snapped his stick. He went to his log and got a cheater five in the final for second place. Adam Braun is no stranger to the winners circle at the Ratopia. He placed third by tipping out on the lefts. Tate Curran found all the sets with shape and won the division with progressive turns.
The groms were frothing in the 14-and-under division. Parker Browning took off on an overhead tube in the final. He was covered up and popped out before being cinched by the lip to win the division.
In the 14-18 mens shortboard division, Curran followed his same tactics from the longboard division and picked off all the choice lefts to place second. Peninsula High’s all star Will Allen placed second with his lighting fast turns and slashing cutbacks. Peter Healey won the division with his driving cutbacks and the tactic of milking the entire wave to the beach.
With the tide completely drained, the 19-and-over men’s final took to the water. Local pro surfer Alex Gray took to the microphone for live commentary. He had the entire beach in laughter with his one liners and jabs at his buddies competing out in the water. His number one victim was competitor Chad Dime. Gray pointed out that Dime lathered in cisco and olive oil for easy wetsuit changing as well as pointed out another competitor still lived with his parents. Gray’s mic skills inspired Dime, as he won the Ratopia by going for broke and pulling into all the minus tide tubes.
Event director Nick Weber was once again credited with bringing together the local surf community. Ratopia has contributed $108,000 to Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in the last decade.
