Trident Sports Blog

Santa Cruz Surf Festival Race Report from Dan Gavere

Santa Cruz Surf Festival

“Wow what a weekend it turned out to be at the 25th Annual Santa Cruz Paddle festival. Living up to its surfing heritage the event site at Steamer Lane did not let us down and had lots of waves pumping all weekend. The weather did not co-operate as well as it could of, but all of the competitors were fired up and took on the elements and found little nuggets of joy amidst the truly “Victory at Sea” conditions. This year the event was renamed from the Santa Cruz Surf Kayak Festival to the Santa Cruz Paddle Festival in a kind gesture to not alienate those of us who prefer to paddle while standing up right.

All of the SUP paddlers can appreciate the fact that it’s pretty special to be out surfing the lane with only 3 other people for 20 minutes at a time. The comp started on Friday morning at 7:20 am sharp went off without a hitch or delay for 2 solid days of heats every 20 minutes from 7:20 to 5:00. On Friday the conditions were crazy with SW wind driving straight onshore making for some bumpy and crossed up conditions. There was a good amount of ground swell so the experienced surfers faired very well at picking off great waves one both the outside and inside sections. Locals were also scoring well as their knowledge of the spot in the rough conditions helped them identify the best waves. Zane Schweitzer was the obvious stand-out of the day absolutely terrorizing the lip with backside slashes, full round house turns with paddle switches, and even some nose riding on his 8 ft Starboard Tiki that is only 26 inches wide. A California ripper with a deep surf background placed 2nd on Friday coming up from Oxnard, Joe Rowan was charging. I was happy to say that I had the 3rd highest score of the day riding my girlfriends (Nikki Gregg) Starboard Pocket Rocket and Werner Nitro paddle. Needless to say I was pumped because I have always struggled in surfing competitions so this was a breakthrough feeling to be sitting amongst the day’s best Sup surfers.

I then knew if the next was similar conditions I may even have a shot at getting in the finals heat on Sunday. We were glued to the weather channel on our phones looking for any optimistic forecasts but none were to be found. Saturday looked even worse with one of the biggest storms of the year forecast. The Friday heats had lots of different people riding different boards from sub 8 foot short board style SUP’s to longer heavier 10’s and even 11’s for the stability in the bumpy conditions. Still the smaller boards seemed to do better because of the double ups and compactness of the boards to stay in pocket better, and obviously they turn better for more points. The heats were re-seeded and would resume on Saturday in the afternoon for the SUP paddlers, because they would need time to finish and recover from the Dual-athon SUP Race to be held in the morning.

Saturday came and by 6 am the weather already snarled with even higher winds and some sideways rain to boot. However everyone was on-tap for the first ever Surftech SUP Dual-athon. Zane, Gillian, Ann-Marie, and I were all on tap for the race and had our trusty 12.6 Surfraces finned up and ready to go. I grabbed my new and much beloved paddle the Werner Paddles bent shaft Fuse because I knew that I would need power and ergonomics to be competitive today. Little did I know what the day had in store for me, one thing was for sure-It would be Cold and Gnarly! Just minutes before the start of the 6-mile race with 300 yard run at the end the hail started to fall and not straight down, it was going sideways! The wind was gusting to near 30 mph and even though the event organizer considered it he kept to his guns and didn’t cancel the race.

The race started at Cowell’s beach and rounded the Santa Cruz pier then headed straight south to a Coast Guard turn Buoy for a 180 and back to another turn buoy on the other side of the pier. They waited for a good lull in the heaving beach break and started the race. We were off and the first challenge would be getting out through the waves. I fell 3 or 4 times I don’t even remember but I struggled while watching 12 or so people all around me just grease it and make it out with no probs. However what I did not see were all the racers who got denied in the beach break. Many losing their boards and having to run after them, only to catch them turn around and see even more sets stacking up as the others paddled away. I luckily got out and started sprinting for the leaders. There was an obvious rip current and sheltered line near the pier so I cut sharply to my left to reach to faster waters only to find myself literally dodging seals and sea lions barking at me. Several of the paddlers reported making contact with the animals with their paddles and boards. They were not afraid of us!

After some confusion on exactly where the first turn buoy was located the lead pack of 12-15 racers had gone completely the wrong way opening the door for the midpack to cut directly to the turn buoy finding themselves pleasantly in the lead pack all of a sudden. However it wasn’t long before the original lead pack of the 4 of us Becker, Zane, Anthony and I started making up ground on the extra 3/4 of mile we found ourselves behind. By turn 2 Anthony Beck and I had established a strong lead and several of the racers were seen knee paddling or even prone paddling because they were tired of getting tossed by the violent conditions. I put my head down and felt the shaft of my paddle bending as I stroked straight into the wind for another lap. I laughed and oddly found great pleasure at being comfortable in the conditions and right then I knew I could overtake the 2nd place paddler and maybe even the lead paddler who were battling it out.

The conditions were gnarly and I found myself falling in if I didn’t focus my sights on the water hitting the front of my board. I one episode of flailing I felt off 3 times in less than 30 seconds. My board was getting tossed and the gusts of wind were easily in the 30 mph range now would either blow you off your board or get under your board and push you over. Much of the course was at a “quartering” angle to the swell and wind making it about as hard to paddle in as it could be. Just after the beginning of the 3rd lap I was able to overtake the second place paddler Anthony Vela, but it was obvious that the leader had found the fast line and his 2nd wind. I wasn’t going to catch him but I didn’t want to blow my 2nd place either. After making the final pass on the tip of the pier I knew it was all downwind and I had now a comfortable lead over 3rd so I settled into a good pace but saved some energy for the beach run. Upon approach to the beach I got my leash undone and looked over my shoulder for a wave. I got on a nice little wave but couldn’t hold my line and ate it big time as it doubled up quicker than I could anticipate.

Apparently my beach run to the finish would begin with a little swimming too:/ My booties were full of water and as I ran down the beach it felt like I had a milk jug attached to each of my feet. Clomping along I rounded the final flag and hit the finish line I was so stoked for it to be over, but also that I was able to be the 2nd one across the line. My trusty board and paddle never let me down and I realized I had just completed this race in the gnarliest conditions I have ever seen on a SUP.

We celebrated and congratulated each other and the rest of the field as each person finished. Simply just completing the whole course deserved an award and this was the overwhelming fact that everyone realized whether they were first across the line or bringing up the rear of the pack. As the cold chilled our bones and the relentless wind picked up even more we all ran to our cars and changed into dry clothes as the rain continued to fall sideways. The day was not over though and several of the racers knew they would have to surf again in their heats for the SUP Surf comp, which would be happening in the afternoon. Some napped, some ate, and some hot tubbed, and I went back to the surf site and took on my role of emcee and announcer trying to stir up a little humor into the even more insane surfing conditions than the day before. It was so gnarly that even former World champs in the surf kayaking events were not paddling out for their heats and effectively abandoning any hopes of winning the event.

The Coast Guard upon getting the latest NOAA weather reports, pulled the plug on Sundays Events and upon hearing this I knew that it would be now or never to get a great result in the surf. I had seen Zane and Matt surf earlier and knew they were the ones to beat. Since I really had my sights set on the overall prize and knew it would come down to my result in the surf so I immediately started working on a game plan. The plan was simple be patient catch the biggest waves of the day and get back out to the lineup faster than anyone else so I could assure I got 3 great waves. The waves were big bumpy and dredging with low tide and lots of exposed kelp, but still some great faces were going unsurfed and lots of the paddlers were having a hard time just standing up let alone paddling all the way out for their heats.

5:00 pm finally came around and the heat started. Sean Poynter and I got into position on the outside and tried to hold our ground amidst the 30+mph wind gusts. You had to be careful not to get blown in too deep where the wave would jack up too steep, and clean you up with overhead walls of whitewater. After only 2 minutes of waiting a good one popped up I was in position and took the drop. It was late and I was paddling hard but the lip of broke with me in it and accelerated me down the wave. I was hanging on using my Werner Nitro to brace and the bumps were throwing me all around. After regaining control and sighting down the line I could see the wave doubling up. I drove the edge of the board high and fast along the wave to make the next section and got right into the pocket of the wave making a few little turns around patches of kelp. I knew the wave would section again from some of my previous experiences surfing “Middle Peak” and I set my sights on making the section and staying upright. I knew the Pocket Rocket would hold the line and provide the speed if I could just stay upright. The wave suddenly sat down and I had to paddle hard and drive left for to make the next section, but I found myself dropping hard and straight into a dredging pit. I stomped on the kick pad with my back foot and engaged the quad fins to drop and set my bottom turn, which accelerated me out onto the green face. A little cutback and bam the whitewash hit me and I accelerated out in front of it again and safely over the shoulder.

I was so stoked knowing I had a good one in the bag and all of a sudden it was like burst of “tiger blood” coursing through my veins. I laid down and started crawling as fast as possible through the kelp fields back out to the Middle Peak line up looking for another bomb. Out loud I said “winning duh” and was able to manage another 2 great set waves. The heat continued on and the 3 of us caught a few more each including Sean with a couple of nice stylish rides with some fast ripping. The final horn blew and even though my 2nd and 3rd waves weren’t great I knew they were long and had a few critical turns so I had a serious chance at winning the overall “King of the Beach” title even in the “pure and complete gnarlisms” of the day. I crossed my fingers that it would be enough but I knew it had been a day of gnarly gnarlingtons and I was riding on a high of adrenaline like Charlie Sheen on Dateline.

That night the results would be announced and as the tents came down so did the rain. Sunday’s event was cancelled because the Coast Guard decided it would be too dangerous. 60 mph winds and possibly 3-4 inches of additional rain would be mean even gnarlier and even dangerous conditions. So it was over and the results would be announced soon. I knew I had a great chance of winning the King of the Beach title and this would go down as one of the better days of my paddling career. I was more excited than Fat Albert at an all you can eat buffet! It seemed to go on and on like forever with all of the prize drawings and presentations and even Adrenaline Rush, my good old kayaking bro, and his band totally killing it onstage with his very own rap style.

Then finally the awards ceremony for the SUP events came and I found out that I got 2nd in the surf meaning that I would take the King of the Beach title. Happier than a sea otter with a clam I accepted the award and thanked everyone with the event including Duke at Surftech and Dennis at Adventure Sports Unlimited for all their hard work. If you get a chance to check out any of the future Santa Cruz paddle festivals I highly recommend it, and I am confident that the SUP events will continue to be a great addition to the event and attract paddlers from all over the world to test their abilities against one of the most prolific surf breaks on the planet.”

– Dan Gavere

photos: Tom English

[nggallery id=26]