Santa Cruz Surf Kayak Festival

By Devon Barker

I have been competing in the best Surf Kayak Festival since 2006. The is well organized and is held on the amazing Steamer Lane break. The waves this year were smaller on Friday and Saturday but we were awarded in the finals with great waves.

There was a lot of crossover this year from the whitewater community. Joe Carberry from Canoe and Kayak magazine covered the event and competed. Tao Berman competed as well and surfed great. Rusty Sage, current World Champion, and Jimmy Grossman were there as well. They are the most amazing kayakers I know and fun to watch in the surf. Rusty threw a huge helix and Jimmy caught great air off the lip.

Dan Gavere with Werner Paddles announced at the event and entered the stand up paddleboard surfing. The addition of SUP was great to watch and looked super fun. Dan was using a Werner paddle designed for stand up surfing and I used my favorite Werner paddle, the Twist. The Twist has a smaller blade, which really helps, in the surf. You can view the SUP and Twist at www.wernerpaddles.com

Marolia and Ed from MurkyWater kayaks were also at the event. They brought the new Aqua Libre kayak with them. I use a Reaction by Murky Water in the Open and soon I will be competing in a Salsa for the International Class. See all of their kayaks at www.murkywaterkayak.com

I trained with Kayak Connection, www.kayakconnection.com, before the event. Mark Pastick helped prepare my friend, Jameson Riser, and me for the comp. We trained at Moss Landing, Privates, and Davenport prior to Steamers Lane. It was hard for me to train at Davenport as that is the site I ran into the reef at Nationals last fall. This time I surfed really well and avoided all the reefs, rocks, and the kelp forest. I just missed the cut to the final four in the Open/Short Boat class to my friend Roberta Bosari from Brazil. We were tied for fourth but she had a higher score in one heat and advanced. In the International/Long Boat (10 feet) I was tied for first going in to the final round and only four points ahead of the person in third. I won the heat by ten points to take the overall. I was so excited as I had a late take off on a big wave that crashed on me and shot me out on to the green. I was all smiles as I started carving on the green.

I am qualified now to compete as part of the US Team in Portugal for the World Surf Kayak Championships in July. Thank you Dennis Judson with Adventure Sports and all the volunteers who organize this amazing event. Enjoy the photos and the links below to the full results, pictures, and articles.

Happy Paddling,
Devon

http://portugalks.blogspot.com/2009/03/santa-cruz-kayaksurf-festival-2009.html
http://canoekayak.com/whitewater/kayaking/2009-santa-cruz-surf-kayak-festival/
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/sports/ci_11974979
http://www.jmh.com/scsc09.htm results
www.asudoit.com/kayak_fest/