Jim Miller Surf Festival enjoys best of summer weather, winter waves
Billy Atkinson showing why the Jimmy Miller contest has become known as a showcase for upcoming local groms. Photo The 2011-12 surf contest season had a promising beginning Sunday with the Eighth Annual Jimmy Miller Memorial Surf Festival at 42nd Street in Manhattan Beach. The air was 80 degrees and the water bare-back-warm, suggesting summer rather than the approaching winter. But the two- to four-foot swell had enough winter juice to break two boards in a single heat, send recurrent lifeguard Kevin Barry home with a bruised or broken rib and send another surfer home with a bruised or dislocated shoulder. Jimmy Miller Surf Fiesta finalists (kneeling) Kelly Zaun, Brent Broza, Julian Kuhr. (Standing) Hudson Fredriksz, Chio Baldocchi, Matt Walls, Jim Miller, Jack Siever, Chandler Coate, Kalani Rusher. Photo by Steve Fredriksz More than 200 surfers participated in the family-oriented contest, many of them groms, making the day a fitting tribute to contest namesake, Jimmy Miller. Miller was a Los Angeles County lifeguard and founder of Camp Surf, one of the first instructional surf camps for kids. Miller died eight years ago after struggling with mental illness. Competitors were…
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