Hello to everyone back home.  This may be the final correspondence before we return.  The 2009 Surf Kayak World Championship Finals wrapped up yesterday and today with some very notable performances.  Conditions this morning were not extremely favorable but ended up providing ample waves to choose the World’s Champions.  Swell size dropped in half from yesterday to today giving waist to chest high waves.

I saw at least 20 hours of the competition like this. My eyes are tired.

My teammates from the US East, Lindsay Usher, Russ Buskirk and Tom May gave noble competition efforts resulting in two 3rd places and one 4th.  Each of them definitely have what it takes as surfers to get the gold but all the puzzle pieces didn’t quite fall into place today.  I’m very proud of these guys for persevering to the finals and I think they all have feelings of achievement.  If not, hopefully they will find the passion and drive to give it another shot at a future World Championship.  This type of motivation can sometimes be difficult to conjure up in oneself, but I feel it needs to be one your own terms.

Sand, lots of sand.

It is crammed into, caked onto and stuck inside of everything we own.

More Notes, some strange:

Sugar comes from elephants in Portugal. Little known fact.

Congrats to my friends Nathan Eades and Naomi James, 3rd and 1st in the World in their respective classes for Short Boat (HP).

Naomi James from Team Wales is the new Women’s (hp) Short Boat World Champion.  Today Naomi set the bar for Women’s Surf Kayak Competition far higher than any woman ever has.  I watched her surf an entire heat flawlessly with one beatiful ride after another.  She hit re-entry lip moves, moved edge to edge on the wave with finesse and never caught an edge.  The fifteen minutes that her final heat lasted should go down as a true landmark for the sport of surf kayaking.

Naomi’s man Nathan Eades, also Welsh, also shredded his way to the short boat finals today.  Nathan happily came out of the water with a 3rd place.  Yesterday the guy was simply ecstatic to make it to the semi-finals, so I think he hit and exceeded a competition goal with a bronze medal.  I’m psyched for both of these guys.  Pretty cool for a couple to both do so well in a world level event.

Both Nathan and Naomi competed in Nathan’s very own kayak design.  See photo below.

Nathan Eades with his 7'7" HP boat made by Airtime, the new surf kayak division of Downtime, a UK based composite manufacturer.

David Speller from Team Jersey made his debut into the Men's class this year after his past two (three?) World Championship titles as a Junior. Here he is seen throwing a gigantic lip move in the long boat class.

Nathan Eades and David Speller congratulate one antoher after the finals.

Urko Otoxa from the Basque Team (Spain) won his first World Title today in the Men's Long Boat class. I competed against Urko in my first heat of the worlds last week and he very nicely eliminated me from the contest. Very nice guy, Urko (pronounced Oord-ko) and I'm glad to have been slain by him.

England's Gary Adcock, a Master (40 and over), performed by far the largest aerial of the entire contest in his long boat and landed it perfectly. I have this on video and it is outstanding. There is also a really sick photo of it on kayaksurf.net Gary is a man of large stature. He carries his kayak under his arm like a surfboard and it doesn't look at all awkard. Big boy, big air.

Edu Etxeberria of the Basque Team (Spain) performed some of the most memorable maneuvers of the entire event. He was certainly a favorite for many to win this event, but walked away with the 2nd Place in Mens Short Boat. Notably, the entire Basque Team are rippers. These guys looked like they trained and trained well for this contest. They should be proud.

An unknown (to me) lady slashes the lip in the Women's Long Boat Semi-Finals.

Rui Caldon of the Portuguese team and Watertech Kayaks shows one of his shiny new boats.

Pete Blenkinsop of the England, the World Champion Team this year, drives the line in his old trusty blue trident.

At the North Contest Location the Skimboard World Championship went down.

And a final note to my wife and son waiting at home for me.

Dangerous.

Still dangerous, but if we're gonna do it let's do it together. A true test of our love.

See ESKAsurf.com for today’s World Final results for the US East Team.
Visit KayakSurf.net’s News for tons of amazing photos and full World Surf Kayak Championship Results.

Later,

Spencer Cooke
US East Surf Kayak Team 2009

Okay, settle down now, she isn’t real.  I should have known better.  I’d like to think that she was carved from a single pillar of stone a hundred years ago by the first surfers.  Perhaps they used their surfboards to paddle out and catch fish with hand-lines outside the surf break.  Later they would bring their bountiful sea harvest back to hundreds of hungry villagers by heroically surfing the pounding beach break with a net full of Tuna and Dorado in one hand and the other hand dragging the face of the wave, just for style of course.  That’s a good story, is it not?  Let’s just leave it at that instead of me telling you that she’s plastic and they put her up there two days ago with a huge crane.

Her lady enjoying the sunset and moonrise. She looks glorious in the twilight.

Opening ceremonies commenced after dark and consisted of a social event with each of the represented countries displaying their national flag.

Anthony Bell and Andy Gates flying our colors at the opening ceremony.

The Japanese seem like a very nice group and have arrived with their own, new brand of surf kayaks called Water Field.  They are looking really skilled out on the waves.

Team Japan at the opening ceremony.

Santa Cruz and all the surrounding towns are absolutely littered with advertising of all kinds for this event.

Ocean Spirit Bilboard displaying Kayak Surfing, and other surf sports.

The tradition for the US East is to have a team dinner the night before the competition begins.  Anthony Bell, our Team Captain, invited us all up to his room for a feast.

E....A.....S....T... East Coast! Anthony bell says hi.

Back to the beach this morning and the competition is finally begun.

Local vegetation enjoying some sandy soil.

Five of our team members competed today in the individual events and they have all advanced to the next round.  Competition heats are seeded based on your national and world ranking.  You compete in a 15 minute heat against three other paddlers.  Basically, you are judged on Wave Selection, Style and Length of Ride.  Top two placers in each heat advance to the next round.  I myself and four other teammates will not compete until tomorrow.  Visit http://ESKAsurf.com for more detailed competition results of the full team.

Low tide exposes a few rocks and barnacles.

Today’s contest was pretty grueling with gusty winds and a low tide that made for steep, dumping waves.  Our guys and one girl toughed it out with three 2nd places and two 1sts, advancing all of them to the next round.

Joey Hall, filming for the next INTERFERENCE film?

Joey and I captured a decent amount of video footage and plan to put a short film together when we return home.  Look for that on RapidTransitVideo.com and InterferenceSurf.com

Anthony and Matt meet Tom after a tough competition heat.

Typically we meet one another at the surf’s edge before and after heats.  This keeps morale high, and it’s always nice to have someone carry your boat after you’ve just exerted yourself physically for 15 minutes.

The people here are very small and fragile. Just look at the size of their arms compared to my gigantic thumb.

I haven’t eaten the snails yet but apparently they are delicious.  I’ll provide a meal report when it improves beyond the oatmeal and spaghetti we have been making in our room.

Thanks again and please come back tomorrow for another report,

Spencer Cooke, US East Surf Kayak Team 2009