Rincon Classic goes down in epic surf

Conner Coffin © Bissell

Quiksilver Rincon Classic
Presented By Channel Islands Surfboards

Rincon Point, Santa Barbara California
5 January - 2 March 2012

Boelsterli and Coffin Amongst Big Winners at 30th Annual Surf Contest

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 6 March, 2013 : - - Good things come to those who wait. After more than two months of false starts and crummy-surf causing delays, the 30th Annual Rincon Classic finally hit the water at the end of Bates Road this weekend and the fabled locals-only surf competition did anything but disappoint.

Summer-like sunshine and some sneaky good surf conditions rolling through the point (especially on Saturday) greeted competitors and spectators alike for the two-day, action-packed affair that concluded just before sunset on Sunday with champions new and old, including Conner Coffin power surfing his way to his first-ever Pro Division win and Demi Boelsterli winning her unprecedented 9th Classic title.

“It was a lot like childbirth this year,” summed up contest director Chris Keet in the after glow of the event, himself a father of one and with another on the way. “There was pain and difficulty on the way but once it happened, everything turned out beautiful. We couldn’t have scripted it any better.”

Day one of the contest was supposed to be the less impressive surf-wise according to forecasters and, if you were down at the Queen of the Coast on Friday evening and saw the wind tattered thigh slappers on hand, your hopes for good waves come Saturday morning were anything but, well, hopeful. But that is the beauty of Mother Nature; she doesn’t always do what she is predicted to and, by the time the first heat of the Boys Division hit the water at 7am, the waves were a silky smooth waist to shoulder high with even bigger sets.

With a couple thousand surf fans mobbing the beach, early round standouts included Micky Clarke and Henry Hepp in the Boys Division, Jabe Swierkocki and Tommy McKeown in the Gremlins, Abby Brown in the Wahines, Vince Perry and Max Cail in the Masters, Dennis Rizzo in the Mens, and Bobby Martinez and Killian Garland in the Pros.

Read the full article by Ethan Stewart at the Independent

Official Results of Rincon Classic 2013