by Will Watson
Photos by Steve Gaffney (SteveGaffney.com)
SB Boardriders Club
The Hermosa Beach Surfer Walk of Fame weekend was capped off Sunday by the Subaru Pacific South Bay Boardriders Club (SBBC) Surf Series #7 sponsored by Tower 12.
Eva Mota was the star of the weekend.ย After winning the Greg Browning Memorial Youth Film Award on Friday, she went on to win both the Open Womenโs and Womenโs Longboard divisions in Sundayโs contest..ย ย
Last year,ย Mota was presented with an SBBC surf scholarship, which was applied to a gap year of surf and travel, providing her with ample content for her film.
The Peninsula High graduate competes for her native Dominican Republic on the WSL QS tour.ย
โWinning the film award was so rewarding,โ Mota said, โbecause I worked so hard on it and it can be so scary to put yourself out like that.ย Iโm always inspired by Greg Browningโs surfing films and the impact he made.ย It makes me want to surf and travel, and thatโs what I wanted to achieve with my film.ย Iโm very grateful to the SBBC. I had an amazing weekend despite the super grindy cold contest.โ
Onshore wind and choppy conditions presented a challenge for all of the surfers. The knee to chest high, locally generated wind swell did not have much time to organize and combine its energy.ย Lighter and smaller athletes who were not affected by the lack of power in the surf, had the advantage.ย
The top Juniors and Open Menโs divisions athletes actually managed to make the surf look good.ย Parker Murphy took the Juniors division by edging out Charlie Keese, and Dylan Morrisroe was ripping all day to take first place in the Menโs division.
In the Micro Grom Assist division, Canyon Smith won his first ever contest with a 5.66 heat score total.ย Canyonโs big brother, Riggins Smith, won the Groms division, and Greyson Burrell took the Micro Grom Division
For the combined Boys and Girls division, Lucien De Saint-Aignan was on top of the podium after winning all of his heats.
SBBC sponsor Chris Broman of Compass Real Estate won the Masters Division and Kevin Cohen won the tightly contested Legends Division.
Sponsor Tower 12 provided the contest T-shirts and burritos for lunch, and hosted the awards ceremony in the afternoon.
Results can be viewed at LiveHeats.com. The contest was streamed live on YouTube by Black Line video.ย
The next SBBC will be sponsored by Spyder Surf, and held at the Manhattan Beach pier on May 9.
For more information visit SouthBayBoardriders.org. ER
Groms winner Riggins Smith.
