Clay Johnson and pal, Emma Stone and Tessa daRoza
ARTICLE. HMB found some cleaner air and waves down in Santa Cruz on Sunday in very glassy and contestable conditions all day, as a fat morning tide and low wave counts gave way to low afternoon tides and constant action. The early start of Thanksgiving break for many cut deeply into our roster, but we still fielded a full team of frothin surfers. We finished our second comp of the season with two double finalists, a new surfer on the podium and an outright winner in women’s shortboard.
Team Round:
HMB (52) fell by an extremely narrow margin to SC Mountain (53) in the team round, a gap that could have been closed easily by just one more advancer. Clay Johnson (1) and Charles Hogg (3) advanced from men’s shortboard, as did Dayton Lindsey (1) in the second heat. Emma Stone (1) led her team in women’s shortboard, while Clay (1) and Ricky Johnston (3) held up their end in men’s longboard. Tessa daRoza (3) advanced from women’s longboard.
Alternate/Individual Round:
Nico Simrock (2), Ren Terway (3) surfed out of men’s shortboard and longboard alternaterounds respectively before falling in the quarters and semis, along with Ricky in longboard after some fine rides. Emma Stone (2) advanced in women’s longboard, before encountering some drama in the semis as a competitor got sucked over the falls into her path and forced her to eject and collide. A hard knock to her knee didn’t keep her from advancing in both short and longboard, however, and she gritted it out with clean and cautious rail work to win women’s shortboard. Tessa daRoza snuck through with great wave selection and clean cross-stepping all the way to women’s longboard finals in her second comp for HMB. Clay made both short- and longboard finals with consistent and patient surfing all day, before running out of steam.
Final Results:
Emma Stone (1) women’s shortboard
Emma Stone (2) women’s longboard
Tessa daRoza (6) women’s longboard
Clay Johnson (4) men’s shortboard
Clay Johnson (5) men’s longboard
Mahalo,
Coach Mike Wallace