The Longboard Crew Surfing Club

Women's division:
1st Michelle Richards
2nd Julia McTernan
3rd Marilyn McCart
Young Lion's division:
1st Billy Hopkins
2nd Acey Aseltine
3rd Kyle Harvel
Redwood division:
1st Bill Hopkins
2nd Mike Stone
3rd Bret Zschomler
Balsa division:
1st Ben Barnick
2nd Joe Gaeta
3rd Mike Minchinton
 

The team got 9th overall out of 17 teams at the Swami's
event at Cardiff Reef. Billy Hopkins won his division
in 14 and under. Seahag made two finals and won a new
wetsuit in the raffle. Bushman won a surfboard in the
raffle. We had Mike Stone and Rob Brown advance to the semi's.
Kirra Kehoe got 4th in the 14 and under girls. Josh Mohr advanced tothe semi's in the pro noseriding event with some incredible rides.
The surf was brutal on Saturday with a prevailing south wind
turning epic on Sunday with clean conditions all day.

Thanks to Rob Royal, Bill Hopkins, Riley Hopkins,
Ashley Olson, Turtle, Trevor Waring, Mark Waring, Grace Waring,
Allen Lambert, Josh Mohr, Kelly and Karl Kraushaar, Sean Kehoe andMonique Kehoe for rounding out the team and contributing
to the team effort. There were a few more supporters like
David Nuuhiwa who was head judge and other friends and
family who's names escape me at this moment.
Thanks to allfor representing Surf City, USA.

Tom Knight and Mike Ester battled for the finals at the
HB City Contest in epic surf. Mike won the finals with Tom coming
in second place. Then we ate a king's feast courtesy of Duke's
on the South Side Beach. Wow!! Lots of other club members
had great performances in the event.
Thank You,Surf City USA for a great event.
 

Kirra Kehoe got second place at the Hello Kitty Boardfest!
Congrats to Kirra!

The Crew had a decent showing in Oceanside on August 19-21 at the GuyTakayama Noseriding and Coaltion Tournaments. The
team got fifth place overall. We had nine team members in the finals.Josh Mohr had a great performance all the way through with
some tough noseriders to contend with and Kelly Kraushaar.
Kelly and Josh made it to the finals. Kelly took sixth by missing
the finals. Josh took fourth with CJ Nelson winning.
Jon Shelton made it through a couple of rounds in the noseriding
on Friday then came through in the Coalition event making it
to the finals. Billy and Bill Hopkins made father and son finalists
for the second time this year. Bill found some nice barrels to take
the semi heat sending him right to the finals. Kirra and Sean were in
fine form but not quite making the finals. Then they entered the
tandem for us as Wendy and Caleb had to cancel. They made it
through several lifts and severe wipeouts to get sixth place.
Seahag won the president's heat and got through one round
in the grand masters division. Rob Brown won his heat sending
him right to the finals. Other fine performances from Rob Royal,Shannon, Allen and Jay added to our final points.

        BLACKIE'S BIKES FOR BAJA 2006 (YEAR 3)

 The day started early on a starlit morning. We had packed the truck and trailer full of bicycles the evening before. At 5:30 am sharp, we loaded up with coffee in hand and started our journey to Baja.

 The border crossing with 62 bicycles was our first priority. We filled up with gas at Via San Ysidro and slid into the third lane at the border. With relief I hit the gas as the Mexican border guards gave us a green light. A stop in the Mexico secondary inspection would cost
us an import tax or a bicycle tax to the family of the El Supremo on duty.

 As we pulled into San Miguel we could see the six - foot surf sweeping across the bay in front of the black sand beach. We were stopped on the road in by a friendly familiar face. Reno Abellira rolled down his window and with excitement in his voice, hailed us with a
hardy "Wally are you guys giving bicycles away again? That is so cool of your surf club!" Reno made a u - turn to his home at San Miguel to get the bicycle we traded him for 3 years ago. As he glided down the hill to our truck he asked if another trade was possible. The
sea air had taken a toll on the bicycle he had traded for a new kids BMX bicycle on our first trip. As we scrambled to fill our wet suits, I told Reno, "Sure we can trade, after we get some waves." The takeoffs were steep and the waves long as we jockeyed for waves with a
local contingent of aggressive surf girls. I rode a couple of nice set waves and was lucky to have a limited Spanish vocabulary as the girls cursed my twelve foot surfboard. A local boy Raphael with a big smile and thick black hair asked if we had another bicycle for him as
the last bicycle we gave him before was in pieces on the side of his house. He was eying a red BMX on the back of the trailer. As we handed him the bicycle his mother asked if she could have a one too.  Why not, as we unloaded a girls bicycle to fit her petite size.

 We had gotten past the Mexican army road block before Santo Tomas winery and stopped at a small store in the mountains. To our amazement three trucks with fifth wheel trailers pulled in behind our truck. They were the same northern Canadian group we had met one
year earlier. They left Canada and we left Huntington Beach to arrive at the same spot at the same time two years in a row.

 The park at the town of San Vicente looked kind of empty as we pulled up and let the trailer gate down. We started to untangle ropes and bicycles to give away as a line of people formed out of thin air. Soon half the bicycles were handed out and the line was still growing.
We handed the last two Barbie bicycles to a set of identical twin girls. With a couple of quick pictures in the park the kids shouted Feliz Navidad as we drove off.

 The point at Shipwrecks was a huge white froth of waves. The swell was big and unorganized. The sun was setting as we lit a fire and set up our tents. We awoke to a cold damp sunrise. The swell had dropped but had better shape. We opted for hot coffee and breakfast at
Melagro or the Miracle as Rick (Ricardo) and his wife Maria call their home in the bay at Shipwrecks. Their bed and breakfast oceanfront home is a steal at sixty five dollars a night per couple with two meals a day included. The bacon, avocado and cheese omelets with all
the south of the border trimmings were great. Ricardo then surprised us with a slice of French toast for dessert. Dessert with breakfast, does it get any better?

 Now it was time to surf. We jumped off the end of the point and paddled hard as not to get pushed into the bay or the shipwreck. The Italian couple surfing on the outside was friendly; they both spoke good English and Spanish. This was there last stop on their way up
from Cabo. We traded stories and waves for a few hours before riding our last wave from the outside point, past the ship and into the bay.

 As the rain soaked the red dirt and our tents, we decided it was time to pack up. The drive back was filled with daring high speed trucks passing on the narrow two lane highway in the rain. At the entrance to the border line two motorcycle cops had been directing traffic in
the rain for hours. It was dark wet and crowded as I crossed over a faded yellow line. "Pull over, that's a ticket" the cop shouted. With my arms in the air seventy - five dollars was deposited into his top shirt pocket.

 The American border guard eyed our nearly empty trailer and attached a yellow slip to our window. Secondary inspection was our fate. A young Hawaiian border patrol guard sorted through our stuff. He shook his head and stated we should know better. After a couple
comments about our surfboards the last words we heard as we headed home were. "You guys need to do a better job with your stuff next time, OK BRAH?"

The first coalition tournament went off January 6-7, 2007 at Church hosted by the Doheny Longboard Surfing Association. Our club ended up 8th of 17 clubs. We had first place awards for Tandem, Legends and the girls 14 and under events. Almost everyone advanced from the first round. We had some of our regulars and some new faces. Thank you to all who participated: