Hey You Guys!

Well, other than ECSC.. this week has been pretty uneventful. There has been waves- but it's choppy. I heard it was pretty good on Monday night. There was hardly anyone out! But, then this "weather" has been sitting on top of VB for days now. I wish the sun would come out. It hasn't even rained.. ATLEAST there is a new hurricane forming in the tropics- Hannah! There should be some ground swell hitting VB sometimes next week. But, don't take my word for it. Check out Wetsand.com or Surfline.com for the real forecasting skills.

Oh my goodness. ECSC. What should I say! There are so many good, bad and stupid things to say about that event. I am at loss for words. I am usually pretty quiet and don't like to talk sh*t about people or other contests. I just can't help myself in this case! I will start of with the REALLY good. The VLF kicked butt in all of the longboarding events. My son, Sean, won his first ECSC in Men's Longboard. Then my daughter, Morgan, won her 6th Wo. Longboard title. I am so proud of them. Hilary Waters won the Jr. Wo. Longboard & Joe Elliot won the Open Longboard. The VLF truly dominated. The Quicksilver movie "Add Water" was really cool and so was the after party- from what I hear. ECSC had free food on the beach and a huge blow up movie screen for the competitors. That was a fantastic idea and I would love to steal it for the SPC.

Let us get to the bad. Each day after ECSC, the beach looked like crap! There was trash all over the place. ECSC's sponsors not only gave the event money but also a ton of trash for spectators to forget to throw away. I heard a lot of complaints about the event's judging. But, at every contest... there is always drama about the judging. I never get asked to judge ECSC... So, don't blame it on me! ahaha . There was so good guys up there judging like Mike C and Donnie D.

Now, let's get to the stupid part of ECSC. Ok, Ok.. the excuse for no Pro LB was due to the economy being sooo bad-that they could not afford to pay out a $1,000 purse to some LB guys. But, they could give out $10,000 to one shortboard guy! Say What???? The shortboard pro wasn't even that big. They were supposed to pay out to 32nd place ($100), but there wasn't even that many people. Check out the really stupid part. Instead of sharing that $10,000 amongst the 4 finalist. They threw that idea out the window. Second place got a measly $600. What???? How stupid is that!!! I bet just as many people or even more would of entered the event if the money was spread out better. The whole thing just makes me scratch my head. Ok, $10,000 to one guy that did a couple turns on a wave. For that, they left out a whole sub-culture of longboarders just to give out that stupid check.

That isn't the only stupid thing that I heard. Myra Obendorf was at the contest.. and she murmured these words, "I SAVED the contest because of all of you athletes that participate in it." What??? ECSC was in jeopardy and Super Obendorf came to its rescue? Come on lady. You wouldn't save ECSC, unless you were getting some monetary kick back. But, maybe she did??? I know this wasn't Paul West's doings. He really supports the sport of surfing and does not make a mockery of it. Its all the VB Jaycees. They really need some help. Oh yeah:) I hope everyone enjoyed their ECSC trophies because that's all that the winners received. Oh YEAH! What happened to the gift certificates that ECSC gives out every year? That was a tradition lost. By the way- did anyone notice that the ECSC trophies looked just like the VLF's trophies from the past two years!

Wow, I just re-read what I wrote up above and I don't even sound like easy-going Dean. I sound like a raving and ranting person...haha like my wife! Just kidding Mary! I really needed to get that stuff off of my chest. Thanks for listening.

The VLF is going to Malibu. The homepage has a list of our members who are going. I won't be able to write the blog until after the Malibu Classic. I am going to be judging the event- so I will have so much to write about. So please check out the blog next Tuesday. I will try and have it up (along with a lot of pictures).

 

The pictures of the Buddy & Lyme's Disease Benefit are finally up. Check out pictures from the event at;

Local Sessions Magazine

Surf Carolina Magazine

 

I just cant 't take this down yet- Here are the pics of our dog, Jack, surfing in Hatteras

Pete Bowling has a blog out now. Read it! After the ESA contest this weekend.. he should have another contest story up. http://bowlingsurfboards.wordpress.com/

Oh yeah... NOMINATE someone for the VLF surfer of the week. E-mail Morgan with your nomination.

If you have any comments about the blog or the web site in general. post it on our Message Board or below!.

Ok.. I have jumped on the band wagon of YouTube.com. So, check out these surfing clips I sifted through on-line! They're pretty cool.