Brandon Yates Memorial Surf Contest 

The Second Annual Memorial Contest Round Up

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 10 June, 2006 : - - Well it¹s been just over 2 years since we lost a great friend to Melanoma. We miss him dearly and love the chance to get together to celebrate his life with his friends and family and raise funds for Brandon¹s Wave. This year brought us to Emma Wood State Beach at inside overhead. The generous Anne Dominguez hooked us up with the first allowed surfing permit in a few years,and we were off.

This contest was different than most. First off, it was a team event. Teams were made up of 1 Captain, 1 old guy over 30, 2 men¹s 18 or over, 2 juniors, 1 girl and 1 grom. The teams were given envelopes 15 minutes prior to their first heat. In the envelopes were about 120 ³Tasks² to complete within the teams 2, 30 minute heats. Tasks ranged from 360 grab airs, to wearing a bikini for an entire heat.

My personal favorite task was having the entire team take a picture with Brandon¹s mom, Susan, and bringing me the proof.

The waves were an incredible 3-5¹ faces with some bigger sets and very consistent, glasssy and WARM. There were SO many highlights I don¹t know where to start. Maybe Adam Virs¹ HUGE Alley-Oop air, maybe his giant Air Reverse to ³slit the throat² claim(Yes, claims were tasks too), or numerous attempts at the ³Drink 12oz beverage while on a wave².

There were more airs than you can shake a stick at and many of them were done by the usual suspects of KillianGarland, Spencer Reagan, Adam Lambert, Pete Mussio and Tarik Khashoggi.

So after round 1, the top 4 teams were The Surf Happens Tunnel Muffins, A-Frame #2, The Sofa Kings and The Base Poachers. We had a one hour lunch break featuring the fine Barbecued burgers and dogs of Bob Martinez andWarren Yates. With our bellies full, we had the endless raffle with tons of prizes.

Winning team: photo courtesy Darryl Miya

Back to the water for round 2, the surf actually picked up about a foot and the stayed pretty glassy. The action in the water was fierce and the action out of the water was just as fierce as Jon Grover from Oneway Boardshop trotted down the beach ³Baywatch² style in a MooMoo and a Sombrero, and Sean ³Purple² Hayes freestyled on the mic.

The teams did some team stretches and all duck dove together in a nice synchoronized duck dive and claimed their windmill, stinkbug off the lips, but in the end, there could only be one winning team.

Honorable mention has to go to Aaron Ernst. Arson put together 2 teams and after the first round, played his cards and completely stacked his second team with Himself as captain, and then took Killian, Tarik, Pete Mussio, Spencer Reagan, Adam Lambert and a host of other rippers that made other teams groan. Arson was smart.

He played the rules which clearly state that cheating is NOT frowned upon. But in the end, justice was served and the
superteam was relegated to 4th place.

In 3rd place, was the Base Poachers made up of Captains Darryl Miya and Jamie Gathard, Pro¹s Sean Hayes and Keoni Cuccia, Old Guy Mark Bustamante, Men Kas Alves and Mark Larson, Juniors Josh Mendelson and Kellen Ellison, Girl was Sean¹s sister, Courtney Hayes, who racked up 10 points for dropping in on her brother in the heat, and the grom, Andrew Doheny, one of the, if not THE most promising grom from the west coast.

They were in fourth at the break, but the Backside attack of Keoni, the Keoni and Sean tandem ride and the consistency from The Marks, Kas, Darryl, Courtney, Josh, Kellen and little Doh pushed them into 2nd place after their second round heat.

Second Place went the The Sofa Kings lead by their fearless Captain Kelly Robertson, his Pro¹s Tyler Anderson and Brain Switzer, Old Guy Jeff Pixley, Men, Noah Schultz and CJ Covarrubias, Juniors Evan Mendelson and Daniel Pritchard, girl Demi Boelsterli, and their grom, Macaiah Furukawa. They were third going in to final minute of action when Captain Kelly took over and pulled the old ²Bribe the judges by donating $25.00 to Brandon¹s Wave²ŠTWICE for 100 points.

The Winners were the Surf Happens Tunnel Muffins. Captain Chris Keet set the bar high with his pink one piece-stinkbug,-windmill-off the lips to drop knee claim to rack up 23 points on 1 wave. His Army consisted of Pro¹s Adam Virs and Tyler Anderson. Old Guy Mikey Billgren, Men were Jared Morales(ripping after 6 months out of the water because he is off serving our country) big ups Jared.

The other man was Mike Lonson. His Juniors were Spencer Reagan and Adam Lambert who were both showing why they are 2 of the best Juniors form our area, the groms were Charlie Dentzel and Decker McAllister and the girl was Demi Boelsterli. Demi got a special award for the Marathon surfer of the event, surfing for Surf Happens, Both A-Frame teams, and the Sofa Kings. She ripped for every team and had a smile on herface the whole time.

Thank you to the sponsors- Surf Happens, Sound Kase, Scosche Industries, Surf One, Utopia, Oakley, Oneway Boardshop, A-Frame, Quiksilver, Liquid Militia, Channel Islands, anon, Volcom, True Ames, Reef, Block Surf, Powell Skateboards, Josh Pomer, 805 Apparel, Instinct and especially the California State Beach at Emma Wood.

It was an unbelievable day, everyone had a blast, the surfing was incredible and hilarious. Like Captain Kelly of the Sofa Kings said, ²If you weren't smiling, you weren't there.²

There¹s only one thing left to say. The 100 point Bonus trick was to pull off the late great Brandon Yates¹ layback air and nobody pulled it off. I guess that trick is reserved for Brandon. We miss you and we love you.

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Darryl Miya
E: darryl@skateone.com

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