Jiro is hero at International Surf Festival surf contest
Bay Cities Surf Club competitors (left to right) Mike Schmidt, Pierce O’Leary, Shawn O’Brien, Cormac O’Brien, Philip Barnett, Christina Grenke, and Jiro Ikeda. Photo by Steve O’Brien
Shawn O’Brien gets carried up the beach after winning the open longboard division. Photo courtesy of Eddie Solt
by Mike Purpus
The parking lot behind Bank of America in downtown Hermosa Beach was buzzing with stoked surfers from all over Southern California on Saturday morning. International Surf Festival contest director John Joseph said, “I have surfers from Santa Barbara to San Diego, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Brazill, Costa Rica and Japan.”
Their enthusiasm waned somewhat when they saw conditions were one- to two-foot, with light onshore winds. Fortunately the tide was low enough for the surf to break. And the fog lifted in time for judges Sofia Caravello, Zane Christianson, Joey Lombardo, John Teague and myself to see the water.
Jiro Ikeda, of Japan, proved the surf was workable by finding hollow rights off the pier to win the men’s shortboard division. Then local favorite Shaw O’Brien, who hadn’t surfed in a contest in over 20 years, won the longboard division, with help from his 11-foot board. O’Brien got the longest rides all day.
Lisa Boo’s got the wave of the day, after dropping in on the contest’s only chest high, then bouncing off the lip on the way down and finishing the wave with a nice cutback. Her brother Daniel Boo’s won the Junior Longboard with a fin first take-off, beating O’Brien’s son Cormac, who scored with cheater fives into the pier. Christina Grenke barely beat out Jessie Brown in the women’s Longboard with nice backside coasters on the outside waves. Brown looked smooth on long rides into the pier.
Ikeda was presented with the Best Overall award, after winning the Open and Senior Men’s Shortboard divisions and the Seniors Longboard division. Cormac O’ Brien won the Grom Division. ER