Endless Session, Day 305: Goodbye Nalu

Ronnie, Morgan, and Mike getting some sun during heats. Photo by Maddie Lomonaco
Ronnie, Morgan, and Mike getting some sun during heats. Photo by Maddie Lomonaco

Ronnie, Morgan, and Mike getting some sun during heats. Photo by Maddie Lomonaco

Today was the last of the Ohana Nalu Surf series, the most organized high school contest I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing.

Ronnie De Valle, contest judge extraordinaire nabbed me early in the morning and we made it just in time to the Santa Monica contest location and took our seats under the North tent, and sandwiched between him and famous surf icon Mike Purpus, we grabbed our pens and set our eyes on the rainbow flock of jerseys in front of us.

The heats ticked by, horns sounded, and a few rounds were made more interesting with a parents division, coaches division, and even one with beater boards (some with no fins whatsoever) and hand-planers. The kids, as usual, didn’t have so much of a competitive demeanor as a playful one – some were taking it more serious than others, asking what scores they got and what they could do better next time, but all in all, Marion Clark’s (event organizer and Surf Academy Director) attitude of stoke and play seems to filter into her camp, her instructors, and her kids.  It has been such a pleasure judging at her events, and I can’t wait for next years.

Hermosa was a bit on the gail- force side, and after a 15 minute bumpy ride, I called the afternoon a success and put my sunburned face in a dark room for the rest of the day.

 

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