S&A team riders solid at Baja Classic

While a hard sideshore wind did its best to knock down the quality of Hurricane Igor's swell, the Baja Surf Classic delivered good vibes and a perfect beach day as the Sandbridge surfing community converged at Little Island Park last Sunday.
A 3- to 4-foot swell was pumping through on the south side of Little Island Pier -- making for contestable conditions -- but the north-northeast wind blowing at about 15 mph caused side-chop, double-ups and headaches for competitors. Despite the challenging conditions, the competitive level was high as Sandbridge's best battled for beach bragging rights.
Some of those vying for division championships were team riders Ricky Judalena, Eric Coulson, Pat Frisk, John Streit and our newest team members Carly Grulich and Laney Brooks.
To give you an idea of the competitive level of the contest, Ricky -- who won masters longboard at ECSC and is currently competing at the Easterns -- placed third in a stacked longboard final won by Ian Seymour.
"The contest was really chill and definitely a lot of fun to meet new people from around Sandbridge," Ricky said. "But as far as the contest went, I wanted to focus on noseriding in the difficult conditions -- in waves that were better suited for down-the-line pumping and turning."
Just check out the makeup of the men's semifinal; which featured rippers Brad Harrell, Seymour, Tim Waters, Ethan Rogers and S&A's Eric and John -- both of whom were unable to survive the cut.
Pat dominated his opening round heat with huge gashes and found a rare barrel to defeat Harrell and Seymour and punch his ticket directly to the final.
As the best waves of the day pushed through for the deciding men's heat, Harrell flipped the script on P.F. by finding a tube of his own and blasting power hacks to emerge victorious (Speaking of Brad: S&A will soon be carrying O'NEILL, which he reps. Even more wetsuit and clothing options will be in for fall so get stoked!).
Everyone in the heat was shredding, and P.F. finished the day placing fourth -- which was no small task considering the competitive level.
Also making their marks were Carly and Laney, both of whom competed in the womens division against much older competition. The 10-year-olds -- competing in their first contest -- did awesome with Laney taking second and Carly taking fourth. Congrats girls!
I'm in the process of hunting down some photos of the contest, so those will be posted asap. Take it easy!
--S&A