New England Mid-Winter Champs go off in Rhode Island
Josh Trotta : photo Joe McGovern
With the wind chill in the single digits, and a solid 2-3 foot swell
produced by a winter nor'easter, it seemed to be a perfect day to celebrate
the 40th Annual New England Mid-Winter Surfing Championships, this being the
longest running winter surfing contest in the world.
Sunny skies masked the cold enough to bring out surfers from all over the New England area. The Narragansett Town Beach actually produced some well formed sections that made for some quality riding, especially in the long boarding events. ESA Competition Director Mario Frade commented on what he saw, especially in the final heats.
"Some of the winning rides were scored with perfect 10's on the judge's cards. The wave quality was there, and the better surfers were really ripping it up." Local surfers certainly had their way, especially as the tide moved in the sand bars became tricky. Triple event champion, Chuck Barend probably caught the best wave of the entire event, a perfect chest high right that reeled off the seawall.
"This is the best I have seen this place break in quite a while," he said. "If you were in the right place at the right time, you could get some great rides." He certainly showed that knowledge, taking the Senior Men, Senior Longboard, and Open titles with a tremendous performance. Leading the local charge was Narragansett's Josh Trotta, who put on a show in both the Men's and Men's Longboard Finals.
Bob Fitton : photo Joe McGovern
He charged through some nice sections to take the Men's short board title over Boston's Ronoldo Lima. In the Long board event, he pulled off an array of hot dogging moves on the perfect left walls at the corner of the contest area, to edge out Jeff Benoit of Woonsocket. That final turned out to be the closest one of the entire event, with only a .05 separating Trotta and Benoit. He came close to a triple win, taking a close second to Little Compton's Chuck Barend in the Open Final.
14-year old Courtney Sutherland of Narragansett, shook off the cold, and tore up the surf in several categories. The diminutive hot dogger won three divisions in the 32 degree water. She took the Girls, Menehune Longboard, and Menehune Bodyboard crowns. North Kingstown's Katie Zullo showed some smooth long board riding abilities, as she easily won the Junior Women's Long Board Final.
She also took the Junior Women's title for a double win day. It took reigning East Coast and Regional Championships winner, Ana Barend of Little Compton, just a couple of minutes to warm up in her contests. Once she did, she put up some big numbers in both the long and short board finals. Ana continued her undefeated streak, winning both the Senior Women's and Senior Women's Long Board categories.
Newport's Pat Redmond
also continued undefeated in regional competition, as he topped the Open
Bodyboard Final with two perfect "El Rollo's." Woonsocket's Jeff Benoit nose
rode to a big win in the Master's Final, while Cobb Fields of Little Compton
took the Boy's crown. Narragansett's Mike Salvadore enjoyed a good outing,
as he won the Grandmaster's title, and finished 3rd in both the Open
Bodyboard and Legends Longboard finals.
Other top local finishers included Wakefield's Kai Holtbakk, who finished
2nd in the Masters and 5th in the Senior Longboard events. Scott Sutherland
from Narragansett finished 4th in the Senior Men and 6th in the Senior
Longboard final. This was the first rated ESA contest for the South New
England District in 2008. The next contest is scheduled for First Beach in
Newport, on April 19th.