Rusty

Yesterday in day 2 of the 6.0 Lowers Trestle WQS 6 stars prime, Rusty rider Nate Yeomans of San Clemente put his local knowledge of Lower Trestles to good use when he destroyed a long righthand wall with several beyond-vertical blasts to post the day's highest single wave score of a 9.47 out of 10. The talented goofy-footer continued to dominate his heat when he bashed another impressive score and earned the day's highest heat total of 18.24 out of 20.

"I was actually positioning myself for the left because I saw everyone scrambling for the right and I was able to get underneath them," Yeomans said. "I knew it was going to be a nice right, and I was able to get a couple of good turns and it had a nice wall so I was able to ride it all the way through. I knew it was going to be a good score, so when I heard the 9-point-score, I was like, yeah, I like that!"

The San Clemente native is hoping that he can utilize his familiarity of the cobblestone reef to post a top result at the 6.0 Lowers Pro. Yeomans has had a successful competitive history at previous ASP WQS events at the location in past years and is out to capitalize on the contest's ASP 6-Star PRIME status to help his cause towards qualification for the ASP Dream Tour.

"I've yet to make the Final out here and I had a bad event here last year, but I made the Semifinals the two years before that," Yeomans said. "It's always been a good event for me and now that it's a 6-Star PRIME, it really counts for qualification for the World Tour. It's definitely one of everyone's favorite places to surf, so I'm glad that it's a 6-Star PRIME."

Although the morning's glassy conditions were eventually chopped up by a southerly afternoon breeze, hundreds of surfers competed in 23 divisions for a chance to surf in the NSSA National Championships in June in California.

"I was a little worried about waves on my way here," said NSSA Executive Director Janice Aragon, who drove a truck and trailer full of scaffolding and equipment from California last week. "So I couldn't believe Friday was the day this swell arrived. And once the wind died this morning, it was so clean. You don't see Sebastian Inlet like this very often."
Those glassy conditions gave contestants from Florida to Maine the opportunity to showcase their skills over four days.

Click here for the full photo gallery of the event!

Explorer Boys
1. Cam Richards
2. Pat Schmidt
3. Corey Howell
4. Noah Schweizer
5. Sam Duggan
6. Knox Harris

Explorer Juniors
1. Balaram Stack
2. Evan Thompson
3. Frank Roper
4. Fisher Heverly
5. Tayler Brothers
6. Peter Polanski

Explorer Men
1. Nick Rupp
2. Balaram Stack
3. Tayler Brothers
4. Frank Roper
5. Cole Richards
6. Kedren Ferrero

Open Juniors
1. Evan Geiselman
2. Mikey Ciaramella
3. Dylan Kowalski
4. Cam Richards

King Kekaulike High School swept the boys and girls shortboard competition Saturday at Hookipa Beach Park and won the first ever ''official'' Maui Interscholastic Surf Championship that was ponsored By Hi Tech surf shop and Rusty.

Lahainaluna was second, and Kamehameha Maui finished third.

For the past 14 years, Maui high schools had competed in an "unofficial" high school championship, but could not use the school names.

The State Board of Education approved surfing as a high school sport in 2003, and after taking an ocean safety course in September of last year, Maui coaches were able to certify students to be surf club members.

King Kekaulike had won eight of the previous 11 ''unofficial'' titles. The boys competed Saturday at the ''Pavillions'' surfbreak while the girls surfed at the ''Middles'' break.

Tanner Hendrickson of King Kekaulike edged Nick Falbo of Lahainaluna to win the boys shortboard division. Hendrickson recently returned from competing at the International Surfing Association World Championships in Ecuador, where he finished 15th.

''I thought Nick schooled me,'' Hendrickson said. ''I thought it wasn't even close.''

Falbo and Hendrickson are longtime friends. Hendrickson grew up in West Maui, and his sister Alana won the longboard title for Lahainaluna last year. Hendrickson thought he lost when he saw Falbo make a huge backside gouge while he was paddling back out to the lineup after catching his second wave.

''I was watching him and was yelling, 'Yeah, Nick,' when he made that turn,'' Hendrickson said. ''And then he sprayed me right after that.''

Ariel Martin of King Kekaulike won the girls shortboard title and finished third in longboard. Her victory earned her a spot in the Billabong Pro trials heat in December.

''I worked hard for it today,'' Martin said. ''I did the best I could on such a small day. It's hard to get in and do tricks.''
St. Anthony's Gabriel Tongson (boys bodyboard) and Maui Preparatory Academy's Kati Minami (girls longboard) became their school's first scholastic champions.

Tongson, a St. Anthony sophomore, jumped out to a big lead on his first wave when he completed an ''air-roll-spin,'' disappearing in the whitewater before finishing the maneuver.

''I got lucky on that,'' Tongson said. ''I was feeling a little pressure, but I just chanced it. I am super happy.''

Keanu Kaaa of Kamehameha Maui won his second longboard title. His brother, Kahekili, won the longboard title in 2000. Like his brother, Keanu Kaaa has decided to enlist in the Marines, and will leave Maui in June.

''It's probably my last contest for a while,'' said Kaaa, who also won as a sophomore. ''It's my senior year, I had to go out with a bang.''

Alexis Aguera of King Kekaulike won the girls bodyboard title. Defending champion Moana Tuipulotu of Lahainaluna finished fourth after receiving two interference penalties.

I've been building this particular board for 25 plus years. I gave it a name about 15 years ago.

It's designed to be an everyday board. Everyday means average surf; most of the time it's the stuff we ride in between real swells. Basically this is a 90% solution.

For arguments sake, the average shortboard is 6'2" 18.5 by 2.3 with an 11" nose and a 14" tail - about a 3" difference between the nose and tail which would pull the wide point to about 2" behind center.

A Catfish designed for the same rider would be roughly 3" inches shorter and almost an inch wider in the center with a proportionately wider nose. The difference between the nose and tail would be about 2" putting the nose at 13 and the tail at around 15. Filling out the nose a little pulls the wide point an inch or so.

The Catfish has modern rails, a single concave through the midsection that blends into a light double barrel "V" through the fins. The rocker is slightly relaxed compared to a high performance shortboard but by no means flat. In fact the profile closely resembles the shortboards of the late 80's.

The most distinctive feature is the two sets of wings and split tail, commonly known as a double wing swallow.

Wings, or template breaks, on surfboards have evolved for over 6 decades. The Velzy Bump in the late 50's was perhaps the first one marketed for it's enhanced turning capabilities. The Velzy/Jacobs 422 a few years later had a more defined bump. Terry Fitzgerald was a proponent in the early 70's with more and more designers embracing the concept by the mid 70's. A hard wing was a key component in MR's tour dominating twinnies of the late 70's and early 80's.

Simon's early Thrusters all had bumps/hips working in tandem with the front fins and bottom. The deep channel boards that we were building in the early to mid 80's were almost always double wing swallows which were natural exit points for the channels.

The basic notion is a break in the outline helps to create a fulcrum or lever to help break the arc of a turn when desired. It also helps to step down tail width without having excess curve. "Hard" or angular wings, also function to create release points for the water.

So that's a little background on the Catfish. It's just a super fun everyday board that, unlike a lot of alternative shapes, doesn't require a lot of transition from the board you might turn to when there is a real swell.

You might even have a hard time getting off the Catfish when the surf does turn on.

- Rusty

In its 14th year, the Rusty Gromfest is the most prestigious 16 and under boys and girls surfing event on the globe! To claim a Gromfest title opens a world of opportunities, as it has done for past winners like Mick Fanning and Steph Gilmore...

Gromfest 2009 is set to take on a new challenge with a change to the event's format. Contest organizers have taken a leaf out of the ASP Event Handbook and will adopt the theory of shorter events to fit in with available swell cycles to greatly improve the odds of good surf throughout the competition. The event will run for 3 days with a 5 day waiting period from the 10th to the 14th of July to maximize the best possible conditions for competitors. However, the contest format of running 2 simultaneous heats on 2 separate banks will remain the same with the finals being held on one bank.

Entries fill fast so make sure you do not delay returning your entry form ASAP as you don't want to miss out on your chance to compete in the most prestigious under 16, 14, 12 boys and girls junior surfing event.

Click here to download an entry form!

Why not order a custom Rusty Surfboard for yourself before coming to San Diego and have it waiting here for your arrival? Put the money you would spend bringing your board into ordering a brand new custom Rusty Surfboard instead...

Ordering is Simple:

Custom Rusty Surfboards can be ordered at Rusty Boardhouse, Rusty Del Mar, or any authorized Rusty Surfboard dealer across the Nation.

Rusty Boardhouse

Phone: (858)551-0262
Fax: (858)551-0229

Rusty Del Mar

Phone: (858)259-3200
Fax: (858)259-3286

It was almost a picture-perfect day as thousands flocked to the beach to enjoy the finals of the 45th annual Ron Jon Easter Surf Festival on Sunday at the Cocoa Beach Pier. However, one crucial ingredient was missing -- waves.

After delaying the the Pro and Jr pro finals from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., it became apparent the conditions would not improve enough to be worthy of running the Ron Jon Surf Shop $5,000 Men's Pro/Am .

"The waves were just not good enough to contest these finals and judge them fairly," said tournament co-organizer Dick Catri. "So we decided to split the prize money between 6 surfers," 2 of which were Rusty team riders Corey Howell and Tayler Brothers who both made the Pro and Jr Pro finals.

Click here for the full photo gallery!

Rusty is proud to present the 6th annual Rumble In Da Jungle surfing competition held at the legendary Bangsal Beach, Sanur, during a waiting period spanning from Sunday, April 26th to Saturday, May 16th, 2009.

The first stop of the Coca-Cola ISC Tour 2009, this six-star rated event has a prize pool of Rp 35,000,000 up for grabs - but more importantly - critical championship points to get a jump in the ratings over a highly competitive field.

The seething barrels of Sanur Reef will certainly make for a death-or-glory affair for those ready to charge the treacherous inside section which explodes over a table of razor-sharp fire corals.

Contest director Kane Faint has high hopes for this year's event:

"Although Sanur has a reputation of being notoriously fickle, we have a three-week window for everything to come together. Last year was pure perfection and fingers crossed this year will be just as good."

Rusty team rider and 2008 Rumble champ Made Awan is eager to start the season with a strong result:

"I feel confident because Sanur is one of my favorite waves; it's long, fast, and grows as it hits the reef. My boards are going great so I'm looking forward to doing well again this year."

Sabre eyewear will reward the surfer who rides the 'Best Barrel' during the event with a Rp 2,000,000 prize.

The Rusty Rumble In Da Jungle is supported by Sabre, San Mig Light, Surf Time, Magic Wave, and GUS.

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Traveling the globe with professional surfers has given me the gift of knowledge. Knowing where to stay for the best surf, the best restaurants, and all the need to know locals makes any trip with me like you've been going there for years. Don't blow your next surf vacation looking at surf reports, let me do that. Just be ready for a total surf adventure with the best professional surf guide.

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Also have a look at my new website and blog at JamieSterling.com...

- Jamie Sterling