Back during the last weekend of July, Ocean Park 26 held their annual surf contest at Santa Monica's Tower 26. A two day contest consisting of Body Surfing, Boys, Girls, Juniors, Womens, Mens, and Masters divisions, with Qualifiers on Saturdays and Finals on Sunday. This is a recap of the Finals.
Breck Adler
The contest started off early on this overcast morning with the Body Surf Division, with West Adler, Marcus McLendon and Vytus Bauskauskas taking the top 3 spots in that order. Up next was the Boys Final. Beck Adler led the pack with several frontsides off the lip into first place. While Kolby threw a few sweet floaters, it just wasn't enough to beat the waves of Colin White (2nd place) and Harry Fishman (3rd place).
Francesca "Frankie" Seely
Francesca "Frankie" Seely rode her short board for the first half of the Girls Final, then switch to her long board to finish out the heat with a first place win. Chloe Klienman caught some mini tubes and a second place finish. Third place went to Maddie LoMonaco. And in her first contest, Quincy Solomon rode out some long waves while doing Saturday Night Fever dance moves.
Maddie LoMonaco, while Quincy Solomon looks for her next wave.
Chloe Klienman
Cameron Packham
The waves died down a bit as the Juniors started their heat, but Cole Sweeney, Kenta Elwell and Matt Hodges were able to throw down some solid turns for the top three spots. Blasting out of the waves and into fourth was Cameron Packham.
Luckily the waves picked up a bit as the Women took the stage, with several solid waves Suzy Diaz placed first. Second place Mary Mills seemed to be having the most fun, with switching stances on most waves she got. Tammy Mowery took third, while Liz Montgomery got fourth.
Suzy Diaz
Mary Mills
Yves Bright
The Mens Final saw the most aggressive surfing. Throwing a few aerials and getting tucked in a mini tube got Marcus McLendon a third place finish, while Rusty White's hard charging got rewarded with second. Yves Bright took first with several floaters off the lip.
There was a couple near collisions during the Masters Final. Sergio Lira and Ben Colvin tied for third. Some very stylish surfing by Marc Sabatini earned him a second place finish. Getting in several waves with some aggressive surfing, Donny Wilson earn first place.
Sergio Lira
Marc Sabatini
Everyone enjoying some music by The Ooks Of Hazzard
The contest wrapped up with an awards ceremony over on the grass area of Ocean Park. The band The Ooks Of Hazzard got things underway performing several songs, then contest organizer Kevin Osborne started calling up the winners to receive their trophies and goodies bag. Designed by local surf artists Kit Kalionzes and Bob Boreman, the trophies were mini sculptures of lifeguard tower 26. Each trophy was painted with the actual paint used on the lifeguard towers.
Tower 26 inspired trophies
Jeff Ho
1st Place Girls Francesca "Frankie" Seely
Beck Adler with his Boys 1st Place winnings
To see even more photos of each surfing heat and the awards ceremony, check out the complete contest gallery with over 360 photos: Ocean Park Surf Contest Gallery
For more on Ocean Park 26, check out their site: Ocean Park 26
On Saturday, August 24, "Those Folks" held their first skateboard contest at the Venice Beach Skatepark. A "Best Trick" contest on the 8-stairs/rail section of the park. A small informal fun contest, about a dozen skaters were split into two heats throwing down their best tricks to get into the finals. Leandre Sanders 360 ollied over the rail landing in 2nd place, while Matt Lemond took 3rd, and Jesus Esteban , who won the Bassride Bank-To-Wall Contest a few weeks earlier, chalked up another 1st place. (Scroll down for the video)
Jesus Esteban
Leandre Sanders
Product Toss
No skate contest is complete without the infamous product toss, and Those Folks did not disappoint, they did two product tosses. Clothing, sunglasses, shoes, skateboards, and even some trucks were tossed to the crowd. Check out the highlight video posted below.
For some more photos of the contest, check out the:
Every Labor Day, the San Antonio Canyon Town Hall holds the annual MT Baldy Run-To-The-Top Trail Marathon. It's an insane 7-mile trail run from the base of the Mt Baldy Ski Lifts at 6,000' to the 10,064' summit of Mt Baldy. Most of the trail is a dirt fireroad, then comes a very narrow portion of the trail properly named The Devil's Backbone. As seen in the photos, there are steep drops on both sides of
the trail.
The Devil's Backbone
The Devil's Backbone is where I set up to shoot photos of all the runners last year, and will be again in the same spot for this years race.