Dominican surf contest

On our second night in the country, we went to a party at the hotel next door. Turns out it was the pre-party for a two day masters (35 years and older) surf contest to be held at the main spot a few miles down the road. 

Being a freshly minted 35 year old, and having spent the past few months focused on surfing, I figured what the heck. At least I'd get a free t shirt. So I forked over my $40 and signed up for the longboard division.

Now, I am usually pretty confident in my longboarding ability. But a few factors combined to make this a challenging event for me. First and foremost, I had never surfed the spot before. Every surf spot in the world is unique, and has its own look and feel. It's own lineup. It's own personality on different tides. It usually takes at least a full session to start to figure a place out. For me, my first day surfing would be with a contest jersey on:

The next challenging factor was that I had never surfed the board before. Jesse was kind enough to loan me his 9'1 Herbie Fletcher high performance longboard for the contest. Great board. But it usually takes a few waves to figure out a board. For me, it was during the contest. Then add in the fact that the announcer was speaking Spanish, along with the other competitors in the water, and you get the idea of how I was a major underdog in this contest.

The contest was held at Encuentro, a reef break with about 4 distinct peaks. The contest zone was at the main righthander. Here is what the beach looked like in the afternoon:

There were 16 competitors in the longboard division. I made it through the first round on day 1 by getting 2nd in my heat. I surfed terribly and felt like the judges gave me an inflated score. The semifinals weren't until day 2 so we surfed for fun a few peaks up and had INCREDIBLE surf for over 3 hours. Hot, glassy, head high, uncrowded, consistent...all of the magic adjectives for a surfer. I surfed well during that session and got my confidence up. Cambria also surfed really well and had the most fun she'd had since New Zealand. 

So the next morning we got up early, got to the beach at 7am, and I had my semifinal heat. I got 2nd in that heat too which was enough to advance me to the final which was held around lunchtime. I surfed well in the final, but knew that the local guy who ended up winning was getting better waves than me and was just surfing better. 

I ended up getting 2nd overall. Here is the award ceremony with me on the podium to the right:

The contest was very well run. On time, great announcing, and fair judging. The vibe on the beach was positive and lighthearted, not cut-throat. I got a killer trophy that I'll have forever to remember the DR:

Overall, I'm really stoked I signed up for the contest. Big thanks to Cam and Jesse for all of the logistical and on-beach support!!!