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PURE STOKE
The 25th Annual World Annual Bodysurfing Championships keeps it clean in Oceanside |
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August 21, 2001 Melinda Morey squinted out at the mushy, 2-foot rollers bouncing under Oceanside Pier just before her finals heat, shook her head with a smile, and got philosophical. "I guess you could credit my dad with the decline of bodysurfing," she admitted, only half-kidding. (Her dad is Tom Morey -- aka "Y" -- the inventor of the boogeyboard, which seems to have become bodysurfing's biggest nemesis.)
And Melinda had a right to indulge in a little beachside wondering. Here we were, hundreds -- if not thousands -- of years after the first human rode a wave with their body, and 25 years into the World Bodysurfing Championships first began, and what have we got? A sunny Sunday in Oceanside, a few hundred people, some banners, a rusted flagpole, a bunch of fins sticking up in the sand . . . hell, there are one-star WQS events that have more "beach presence" than this. Shouldn't surfing's purest form occupy a higher place on the surf world's totem pole? Where's the glamour and the drama?
"There's no real commercial sponsorship for bodysurfing," Melinda pointed out, non-plussed. Well, yeah, it would be a trifle difficult to sell the baggy-short brigade on the idea of tight Speedos. But are the self-described "fins only" concerned about this lack of banner space? Er, um -- not really. Melinda continued, "but people who are drawn to the sport are fine with that. They don't care."
Indeed, with the bulk of the competitors 45 to 55 years old, it's not so surprising that bodysurfers aren't really considered a target market. As 51-year-old semifinalist Hall Handley explains, "we're the biggest age group because we're the last generation to grow up without Boogie Boards. Plus, we tend to be a little more individual."
Finalist Bob Davis is no stranger to "individual." With very little prompting, the 44-year-old, San Marcos-based artist launched into one of the more eloquent descriptions of waveriding I'd heard: "It's saltwater ballet," he said, standing up and acting it all out as the crowd around nodded in agreement. "I mean, you put your whole groin in the wave -- talk about being inside the womb! It's the most graceful thing you can do in the water. It's pure, man."
Davis is not alone -- words like "purity" and "finesse" were thrown out anytime I asked about the sport that was obviously so close to the competitor's hearts. But bodysurfing's not all grace and no fun -- that wouldn't be surfing, would it? And it's definitely not a bunch of old folks, either.
Indeed, in case you were worried that bodysurfing was reserved only for the aging and eloquent, here's what 16-year-old division champ Cheyne O'Gorman reckons: "Me and my friends, we like trayboarding," he says. "We go into McDonald's and steal their trays, paint them all funky and take 'em out in the shorepound when it's 6 foot. It's rad."
Cheyne looked around and dropped his voice down a notch. "But you know what I really want?" he conspired. I had no idea. "Soup Plantation trays, dude -- they're like this big and they're fiberglass."
Now that's progression.
Though there were no trays allowed at the competition, there was certainly no lack of fun, despite the mushy, small waves. "It's like California used to be," beamed Women's Grandmaster champ 47-year-old Sonja Bertsh. No, she wasn't referring to the belly button-high surf -- she meant the families on the beach, the laughing, the heckling, the picnicking, all of it. It was as if the Golden State was somehow finally living up to its name for a Sunday afternoon.
But what about the surf competition? There were heats going on and people were winning and losing, right? Well, to borrow a quote from a polite and fairly clueless tourist on the pier, "how do they judge that?"
Exactly my point. Apart from some spectacularly graceful underwater takeoffs and spinners by guys like the legendary Bob Burnside, Mike Cunningham and Grandmaster champ Tim Casinelli, not to mention women like Sonja and Melinda, most of the competitors spent the morning in full rigormortis pose, trying to make sure the wave didn't pass them by. Not exactly growling tubes, to say the least.
But don't think for a second it wasn't competitive out in the water. "You had to dolphin kick the whole time out there," eventual winner Tim Casinelli said after the final. "I just kept swimming." But what about all the nice smiles on the beach? Did they just dissolve in the lineup?
Tim looked over and smiled. "Nice?" he said. "I was too busy swimming to be nice." --Marcus Sanders
RESULTS
Men's Grand Champion
Tim Casinelli
Women's Grand Champion
Sonja Bertsch
Men 65 and over
1. Bob Burnside
2. Jim Enright
3. Don Tuffli
Women 45 and over
1. Sonja Bertsch
2. Candace Cornell
3. Wendy Lund
Men 55-64
1. Nik Wassiliew
2. Gary Perkins
3. Dan Beach
Men 45-54
1. Mike Cunningham
2. John Shearer
3. Jim Isaac
Women 30-44
1. Lisa Bye
2. Virginia Cartwright
3. Melinda Morey
Men 35-44
1. Tim Spaeth
2. Patrick Casinelli
3. Chris Lafferty
Men 25-34
1. Tim Casinelli
2. Dave Ford
3. Tad Morris
Women 18-29
1. Anne Roddy
2. Julia Wagner
3. Erin Bartleson
Men 18-24
1. James Fenney
2. Bart Templeman
3. Spencer Ford
Men 15-17
1. Cheyne O'Gorman
2. Shawn Jappe
3. Clancy Cornell
Women 12-17
1. Mila Finley
2. Kerri Saunders
3. Jessie Lu
Boys 12-14
1. Keoni Patterson
2. John Erickson
3. Gus Northcraft
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