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

The Portuguese coast is rocky and dry, and the water, a cool blue.  Air temp has been cool at night, sweatshirt weather.  Days have been warm with cool water temperatures, I’d say around 60˚.  As long as you are moving or in the sun you keep pretty warm while surfing.

The Portuguese coastline.

We woke up this morning to find large waves at the competition site here at the 2009 World Surf Kayak Championships in Santa Cruz Portugal.

Three groggy campers aproach the beach on Thursday morning to check the surf conditions. My teammates and roomies from left to right are Andy Gates, Lindsay Usher and Joey Hall.

We had severe winds yesterday creating “victory at sea” conditions.  Today and Friday are practice/setup days and the weather is calm, but yesterdays high winds doubled the swell size.  Tonight we are looking forward to the opening ceremonies where we will represent our country along with a dozen other teams.  Competition actually begins on Saturday, July 25th, which is at least 2-3 days after we had anticipated.  On a positive note this has given us a couple more days to practice and learn the surf break.

This is me doing a cutback in practice today. Photo by Andy Gates

The break and surf conditions are currently very similar to what we commonly experience on the US East Coast.  It is a steep, pitching, beach break for the most part and it is really really fun.  With the current wave size you are guaranteed a beatdown or two.

USA East Team Member and our Team Captain, Anthony Bell, lays out a huge, almost aerial cutback.

Five minutes north of Santa Cruz in Santa Rita is the actual surf break on which we will compete.  The kayak surfing event is part of a larger event called Ocean Spirit, which is an annual surf competition here in Portugal.  Annually the contest includes kayak surfing, surf boarding, kite surfing, boogie boarding and skim boarding.

Santa Cruz, Portugal < that way.

The magnitude of the event is far larger than I would have expected.  Just today the beach has been transformed into a festival ground and there were probably 500 people on the beach watching the athletes from all the different sports.  To give an idea to our readers who have experienced the Gauley River Festival, this event is at least that size.

"Traaaactoooooorrrrr!" is what Mason would say. There was lots of heavy machinery present on the beach for the setup.

Today there was an equipment check-in where the officials made sure you have all the proper safety equipment and your surf kayaks meet the specifications of each competition class.  There are two divisions of competition, which are International Class (IC) and High Performance (HP).  The quick and easy explanation for those who are unfamilar with Surf Kayaks is that IC is like long-boarding and HP is like short boarding.

Secure boat locker at the competition site.

In the above photo you will notice the boats with fins in the bottom.  Those are HP surf kayaks.  Typically the ones without fins are IC boats.  Also, IC boats must be at least 3 meters in length and HP boats may not exceed 8.5 feet.

Joey and I will both be competing in IC for the team event and we will do HP and IC individually.  Individual competition begins on Saturday morning run independently of the team competition which should occur next week.

Surf shrine overlooking the competition site at Santa Rita.

The above photo features a fifty foot (?… huge) surf goddess who stands atop a cliff, peering over the beach.  Behind her is beautiful farmland.  If I can get some historical or geographical significance about the lady of the beach I will post that later.

Farmlands begin just behind the beach. This lush field of lettuce is just across the street from the contest site. If the Cooke, Cooper and Auer families are viewing this, I took this photo for you guys. I thoght you would appreciate it and I hope your gardening is going well at home.

There are a couple other websites that may offer daily competition results and I will give you those URLs asap.

Finally, a gratuitous Choo-Choo photo for Mason since I knew he would love it. This is basically a trolley that runs tours through town each day.

Thanks for viewing and I will attempt another update on Friday evening.

Spencer Cooke
USA East Surf Kayak Team 2009