US East finishes 6th. Congrats to World Champion Ross Fulcher and the other US East Finalists!

We're proud of our repeat World Champion Old Guy Ross Fulcher!

And here are the American Champs Buck, Ross, and Rusty. Sounds like the cast of a western.
We noticed that 20% of all World Surf Kayak Champions appear to prefer a mustache.

US East finishes 6th. Congrats to World Champion Ross Fulcher and the other US East Finalists!

Well the 2007 World Surf Kayaking Championships are officially over. Here is a run down of what happened over the final days.

The US East team hung in with the pack throughout. We were consistantly in the 4^th and 3^rd spots over the first two rounds of the event. We won or got second in some crucial heats, and all of our team members were going for big drops and giving it their all. This contest was particularly difficult because there were 9 full teams from all over the world, a first for the World Championships.
We got a chance to surf Mundaka for the second round of the team event, which was a great experience for everyone. In the end we finished in 6^th place, 3 points behind the US West in 5th. All in all we surfed respectibly and were glad to get a chance to compete against the World's best. Congrats to the finalists.....1^st Basque, 2^nd Northern Ireland, 3^rd Jersey, and 4^th England.

In the individual event we had many successes. Several US East paddlers made the 2^nd round, Quarter finals, or Semi finals. We had 3 paddlers in the finals, Erik Miller in the Masters Short Boat, Ross Fulcher in Grand Masters Long Boat, and Devon Barker in Womens Short Boat. Erik Miller surfed wonderfully throughout the event, earning valuable points for the US East team and moving right through the individual rounds with his signature end moves and great wave control. He surfed valiantly on a beautiful sunday final with the sun shining and the waves peeling at Bakio. He finished
4^th overall and we're all very proud of him.

Devon Barker, World Champion at the 2005 Worlds in Costa Rica, showed her skill in the much improved Women's short boat class, making it all the way to the Short boat final. The level of surfing among the women has gotten so much more competitive, and it is inspiring to see. Devon had a tough final, with big closing waves, and she managed to surf to a 3^rd place finish, something to be proud of.

And Ross Fulcher, double World Champion at the 2005 event, showed us all that old guys still rule. He surfed his way to the Grand Masters Long Boat final. The final was exciting to watch, with these old timers taking some scary late drops to prove that they deserve as much respect as the rest of the field. Ross showed his east coast experience, dropping on a big face, making a nice bottom turn, and hitting a really dynamic tail slash off the lip in the brutal closeout. He finished 1^st place, making him a 3 time World Champion. Way to go Ross! (And he says he's retiring.....riiiiggghttt)

Also of note was “honorary” Eastie Buck Johnson, finishing 2^nd in the GM Long Boat class and becoming Champion in the Master's Long Boat class....all with a “Hurricane e” on his boat, placed there by an unidentified US East paddler. Congrats Buck.

Thanks to the whole US East team for working hard, we're already setting our sights on Portugal in 2009. Also thank you to all of our families, friends, and sponsors back home for their support.
The US East Team is sponsored by: Gath, Surf the Earth, Sea Specs, Bass Pro, Werner, Astral, and Great Outdoor Provision Company and Salt Marsh Kayak Co.

And thanks to Paula and Gordon Rock for doing an excellent job as Manager/Captain/Etc!

Sorry for the lack of updates

Internet access is hard to come by, and we're really busy.

Here is a run down of the past few days.
On sunday we had the first round of the individuals. We had several of our folks finish with 1st and seconds and they move on to round 2, to be held later in the week.

Yesterday we began the team event round 1 at Bakio. It was a long day with lots of surfing. The conditions at the "A" site were much like a big beach break day back home, with some really large waves coming in and breaking hard. Many on the beach were scared but not our crew, we're used to the trashings :) There were many good rides and the competition has been tough. Big congrats to brother sister duo Alexander and Rebecca Stubbs. Alexander won his heat and rebecca, who hasn't beensurf kayaking very long, held her own to earn us some valuable points in her heat.

As of yesterday evening, our team was tied for 4th place with Jersey. The top 4 teams after round 2 go to finals.
Here are the standings:

1^st Basque 29pts
2^nd England 30 pts
3^rd N Ireland 34 pts
4^th Jersey 35 pts
5^th US East 35 pts
6^th US West 26 pts
7^th Wales 42 pts
8^th Ireland 44 pts
9^th Scotland 51pts

I am posting photos of the individual and team event heat sheets below, click on them to make them bigger.

Tommorrow we finish round 2 of teams and individuals.

Individual results, Round 1:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/98426792@N00/sets/72157602642747962/

Team Results Round 1:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/98426792@N00/sets/72157602645715379/


There are more results and photos here: http://kayaksurfchampionship.blogspot.com/

Opening ceremonies

Hello all,
Today was boat check-in and the opening ceremonies. We had a parade through town with all the countries, lots of folks were playing various instruments and the local townsfolk came out to watch. Several local officials spoke and we ended with a party at a local bar.
Pre-lims start tommorrow and ill try to post some results as they come in.

Enjoy these photos of the opening ceremonies

Still practicing

The team is continuing to practice at Mundaka and Bakio. Lots of the folks who've gone to mundaka have been getting long dynamic rides. The beach break at Bakio is similar in a way to many of our beach breaks back home, so we've been having fun on that too.

We've taken over the top floor of this apartment building, you can see us from a mile away!

The town of Bakio is very nice, and very quiet, the surf kayakers seem to make up most of the population right now.

Everyone is surfing well and having a great time, we're looking forward to the opening ceremonies on friday and the bedinning of the individuals on saturday.

We'll post some photos tommorrow

We made it

Almost all of the team members have made it to spain. We've got some swell right now and we're getting as much practice in as possible.