Rogue wrap up

I went. I surfed, got a piece of wood that says 4th place, Mid Life Cruisers.

Weather was awesome, warm, sunny, surf was good on the lower tides and the incoming, shit on high tide.
Rolled in to Newport Friday ta noon, grabbed the motel, saw some sights, made the rounds in Nye. Got hugs from Greg and Laurie at the Cafe Mundo, hadn't seen them in a year or more but she was my maid of honor so she did remember me a bit. Hung out with Mar at Arago Art, talked surf, boards, history of surf in Oregon, my trophy he made for the Nye Beach Downhill Classic-which I won in bare feet cuz that's how I roll, took a walk down to where we had our wedding on the beach some 9 years ago. Met a homeless guy and shared a fatty and a few dollars with him.
Split to the contest site to have a look. Found it after a few wrong turns...lolz.
Surf was small but offshore winds made it pretty. Didn't want to surf so I grabbed a trash bag and cleaned the beach, then I got out my Djembe and drummed for a time as the Sun blessed my shoulders.
I hit the Mundo for dinner and some great music from Coin of the Realm, all guys I have played music with at one time or another.
Hit the beachwalk again to catch the sunset and while down there, met a sweet soul doing Tai Chi, a surfer living in her wagon, doing the real deal. I split over to the corporate monkey brewery and checked in, got my goody bag-stoked, it had wax in it though I had hit up Greg at OP for some already (soy latte=5 bars and three stickers).
Off to bed...long day.

Saturday morning I hit the site, small but clean waist high peaks, nice shoulders and some longer rides than I thought. My heat was at 12:45...was going to free surf but bagged that for some shaper talk with some new friends.
Caught up with the dirtbagging Coos Crew, we were reppin'... um, yo.
Went back to the van, chilled to some tunes, burned one, suited up an hour before my heat.
Caught the Rogue truck shuttle and hit the scaffold just in time to here my name-fuckers were running an hour ahead! Boom, on go the booties, suit, jersey, mad dash to the water in time to hear the 5 minute horn. Said a big hello to my fellow heaters. took a hard look at the surf...smiled.
I paddled out with Brian Anderson, nice guy, surfer, shaper like me but a better glasser(aren't they all?).
Horn blew and I had my first wave within seconds, third within two minutes, fourth shortly after...fifth, sixth, seventh...oh shit! Lost my board! Um..who cares...I let it float in and body surfed the last few minutes.
I could do no wrong that heat so...
Stripped down, smiling, life was good, the other surfers were in the same mode as me, mellow, cool, not taking it too seriously.
Results posted, first with a 50. something, scoring only the best two waves.
Yay for me.
Rolled one up and hit the next peak down for some crazy soul surfing, doing laps with a kid who had mad style and flow. Nice to see younger guys getting it though I did have to call him out on a left...felt bad man.
I lost my board and while swimming in, he lost his. I grabbed it for him and floated it out, he said sorry for the snake, we knuckled and it was all good...lolz.
Respect, you earn it.
That was an awesome session.
I watched a few more heats, took notes but I used the paper to roll another one up.
Sean Johnson invited me up to the Barking Dog so I split the beach and hit the motel for a shower and some quiet time.
The Barking Dog...
Food.
Food.
Food.
And The June Rushing Band was playing when I got there, June and Joren played my wedding so we caught up after they left the stage. I saw Randy, he plays mandolin with the Joyful Bananas, Sean's band...small world. I almost bought Rads music back in the day when he retired. Had a great time, being a beer bitch for Sean's wife, Erin. Danced with some crazy drunk lady who kept stealing my hat.
Had to call it a night at 10 or so, I had a heat at eight am and didn't want to miss it.
Crack of dawn and I was...
In the parking lot motel trying to seal up the 10' boards deck...it was bad, delammed, leaking water, super flexy through the tail.
Shit.
Told the board it needed to stand by me, one more heat to go and then we were probably sitting on the beach.
Rolled to the site, happy, joyous even. Full of laughter. Rocking some Dirty Heads, just blissed out. Weather was fucking awesome, offshore winds, surf had dropped some but still way surfable.
Checked in, grabbed my jersey, said hi to my fellow heaters...one didn't say high back.
Fucknut.
Couldn't find a decent wave, got three but they were small and less shapely than Oprah...
The fucknut who didn't say hi was getting lots of waves but he surfed like a funky monkey.
Hmmm...is that a big peak I see? I scrambled outside of everyone, I was on the left side of the peak with three guys in jerseys to my right, I paddled in in two strokes, said "Right" and heard "fuck!", I was smiling as I backdoored a super steep section, ran up for 20 yard ten over, side slipped to the bottom, stepped back, up in to the pocket, another ten over, a drop knee cut back and then up and over...and as I went up and over...three feet of my deck glass was hanging off my board...I grabbed my wax out of my hood, stuffed a chunk into the foam, hammered the glass down, tore off a piece on the rail and stuffed it into my hood-don't want to litter Mother Ocean...paddled back out, got glares from fucknut man...lolz, you want to paddle battle and compete? Lets rock, been there, can do it. but don't want to.
Horn sounded, heat was over, board was fucked.
Well, the end of the show for me, I only had the one wave that was good, the other waves I had were so so though I did style them out.
I was packing up when Larz came over and said I took the heat, first with a 60.7...Karma and style bitches.
Against Russo, Tuel, Woods.
Alright, I will stick around but...my board is done. The judges were rolling hard as I peeled off a four square feet of deck glass and poured water out of the foam...

I packed up and hit the shuttle back to the van, hung my 10' up to dry it out. I put my favorite fin in the Rambler I had been loaned just in case the 10' bit it...I packed up and hit the beach hoping to get some free surf on the board. I had ridden it a few hours after I shaped it but that was a year or more ago.
Bailed on the free surf, just didn't have the energy and thought what the hell, its either going to work well for me or not so much.
I strolled around shooting the shit with Stickler, Spike, Tuel, some guy from Gold Beach-Robin Meyer?, dunno...checked out all the pretty girls....boobs, every where.
Heat was set up so I jerseyed, paddled out with my fellow finalists. Surf was weak and small but an occasional waist high set rolled through.
I never found one of those, in fact, I got maybe 4 waves, Johnny in the wrong spot. Head just wasn't in it. Two others in the heat were there to win, Mike Field and I think Robin. They got some great waves, long rides, lots of classic stepping and nose rides.
I might have had a shot on my 10' but no excuses, when your not getting waves, no board is going to help.
Paddled in at the horn knowing I at least had fourth overall as two guys didn't bother with the final, Mr. cant-say-hello-cuz-I-am-too-cool and some one I don't know.
Wood is good.
On the beach, my scene just got better and better. Nunzio was gawking at the girls...Tuel was talking shape this and shape that, turns out he is an old North County kid and we probably surfed together 35 years ago.
More than a few stopped me and mentioned they really enjoyed my surfing during the free session on Saturday, they were all over 55, old schoolers knowing an old schooler when they see one.
If you can't surf with flow and style, don't bother me with your hippity hop wanna be slashes on a 9' plus board. It's ugly.
My Father would shoot me.
Might shoot you too.

They handed out the plaques around 3 pm, Kendog took some wood home, he got a 77 in a heat against Ollie, burning a left from the peak 125 yards, nice wave. While I don't like his style of SUP surfing, got to give it to him, the guy rips on the thing.
He took some wood in the hotshots too, along with Larz.
Spike was taken out by some SUP'ers from......Bend? WTF?
I rolled in the sand after he told me that.
When the Mid Life awards were up, the announcer mentioned my destroyed 10', saying he was worried about me after seeing all of the glass come off-but mentioned I was smiling throughout.
I took my wood, shook hands with all of the others except Mr. Pissy pants.
Fuck'em.
I have to note that it was really cool to surf with so many others who were shaper's too. One heat was nothing but surfer/shaper's.
Sweet.
Ride your own shape to glory.
Beating Russo was fun too.
Next year see's me move up to Dukes...one Duke stopped by and ask how old I was, damn was all he muttered..."next year is going to tough".
Lolz.

I packed up, said good bye to every one I could find, hit the Mexican place in town for a shot, a few taco's. Rolled home slowly down the Coast, hitting fog south of Florence, checked a few spots just in case but just to look really, savor the weekend.
I have to unpack, sort my head out, look at some video but my cam took a shit early Saturday, a friend has some video she will send me of the wave that won that heat and ripped my deck off.
I will do it again next year, good vibe, nice people, great surfing.
Yeah.
Do it again.
In the mean time...I have a board to repair...
Noll is in three weeks or so....

See ya kiddies....do the right thing.

Crappy video of the 10'0 destruction...