Rusty Keaulana isn't going to let anyone get in the way in his
attempt to win a fourth consecutive world longboard surfing
championship. Photo courtesy of Russ-K Makaha.

No problem. He has devised a unique training regimen to compensate for the paltry ocean action. "I've got to keep somebody in front of me so I can chase them," he said. So he runs the length of Makaha Beach early in the morning with his dog, making paddling motions with plastic juice containers filled with 10 pounds of water to improve his already legendary paddling ability.

After dinner, he snaps on inline skates or pumps a long koa skateboard and chases his wife Sunny around their Makaha neighborhood. In between he bicycles or goes fishing. "When I'm dying for surf I just go out on the reef in the tiny waves and do a helicopter and all the little moves I can do on a small wave. It's good training for Europe."

His toughest competitor, Bonga Perkins, also has been hampered by small waves in Hawaii this summer as he sets his sights on the showdown Oct. 2-12 at the Oxbow World Longboard Championship in France.

Perkins is keeping a close eye on Keaulana, and countering with his own workout strategy. "I've been running up and down Kailua Beach and Ala Moana Beach Park and free diving outside Kailua near the Mokuluas, building up my lungs," he said.

The birth of his second daughter provided an added inspiration to his attempt to finally beat Keaulana for the world title.

Becoming a father is a prime motivation for California surfer Josh Baxter, who celebrated the birth of his daughter by winning longboard contests in Baja and at Malibu. His new maturity has extended to his contest strategy, abandoning the impatience of youth to force himself to wait for the best waves.

The Hawaii surfers' top adversaries in California have been blessed with bountiful waves this summer, and they have been tuning up for the world championship by slugging it out with each other in a flurry of contests. Noseriding guru Joel Tudor and power longboarder Colin McPhillips are racing neck and neck to take first place in two longboard tours.

Tudor is always a top contender, with his polished traditional longboard moves, while McPhillips has put in time at San Onofre to refine his noseriding to complement his dynamic progressive longboarding. The two have taken first and second in nearly two dozen contests this summer. While thrilled by his success, McPhillips will be happy when the season ends at Makaha in October.

California also has a secret weapon to unveil at the world championship. By most accounts, 16-year-old Eric Summers is a noseriding wizard, having been tutored from small-kid times in the subtleties of traditional longboarding by the beach bulls in San Diego.

Perkins and Keaulana aren't focusing on any competitor in particular as a threat. "The hot young longboarders from California are all good," said Perkins. "They're all coming in to win, too. You have to set your sights on everybody. I won't let those guys just take a walk in the park."

Keaulana is excited by the prospect of surfing again at Guethary. "I know what it's like when it's good, like Sunset but not as powerful on the outside. But on the inside, it's like Makaha," he said, smiling at the thought of the place where he has surfed since childhood.

"I'm not thinking about my competitors, it's just going to be me beating myself if I lose. The last couple years I've been 100 percent. Now, after working out and eating a special diet, I feel like 120 percent."

Keaulana is so close he can almost taste the thrill of eclipsing Australian Nat Young's three consecutive world titles. "This will be good for the future," he said.

"People will say, 'Look, a Hawaiian did it, he broke the world record.'"