Monday, February 8, 1999

Longboarders think
tour idea is swell

By Greg Ambrose
Special to the Star-Bulletin

Southern California surf stylist Joel Tudor was pleased with his first island victory at the Hawaiian Pro longboard contest in early November. But he wasn't tempted to consider it a foreshadowing of his chances in the Oxbow World Longboard Championship in the Canary Islands the next week.

"You never carry this momentum," Tudor said before heading off to the world championship. "You could win 15 in a row and go out in the next contest and lose to someone from Sweden. You have to take it one contest, one heat at a time and hope you make it to the finals.

"Contests are ego killers. Right when you think you're on top of the world, a wave comes out of nowhere and knocks you down. The ocean always changes. You never control what goes on out there."

Unfortunately for the competitors from Hawaii, Australia, Brazil and the rest of the surfing world, Tudor controlled the contest from the first day, and finally won the title for which others had anointed him years ago.

"It's the one thing in my life that has been haunting me -- 'You haven't won the world title.' Now I'm happy."

Tudor is so happy that he has decided to double his fun and switch to a shortboard to compete in the Mountain Dew Pipe Masters at the Banzai Pipeline.

"I finally accomplished the one thing I wanted to do. Now my interests are growing for shortboards, and I can do whatever I want to do for fun."

It wasn't much fun for the Hawaii competitors in the Canary Islands, as Tudor pulled out all the stops, including an incredible wave that began with a nose ride that he turned into a radical helicopter move, spinning through 360 degrees in the churning white water of a 5-foot closeout wave.

Three-time world champion Rusty Keaulana was the first of a strong Hawaii contingent to be eliminated in the wind-lashed waves, quickly followed by defending world champion Dino Miranda.

Former world champion Bonga Perkins made it through a phenomenal heat where Tudor dominated the lefts with his graceful moves, and Perkins blasted huge vertical maneuvers on the rights.

However, the quarter-final rematch was a disaster for Perkins, who fell on several rides while Tudor found a rare tube ride in shifting, wind-blown waves.

Lance Hookano was left to carry the Hawaii banner, but Tudor dispatched him with long noserides and smooth, carving turns, then eliminated Australia's Beau Young in the final.

"Joel was ripping, even though the waves were tricky from heat to heat," said Hawaii competitor Kanoa Dahlin of Haleiwa. "It was Joel's time, and congratulations to him. The Hawaiians can't hold onto the title forever."

Hawaii's surfers won the team title when six team members placed in the top 16 of the event. "The Hawaiians are proud of taking the team award, it's a little consolation," said Dahlin.

Many competitors have become disenchanted with deciding the world championship in a single event.

"Nobody is really happy with a one-contest world title," said Randy Rarick, executive director of the shortboard Triple Crown of Surfing events and a former competitor on the world longboard series.

Rarick and Russ-K Makaha surf shop manager Craig Inouye have a vision for a Pacific Rim series of contests that would crown a world longboard champion and bring former surf stars together for a fun time.

"With the resurgence of longboarding so strong in Japan, Australia and California, we could create an international circuit," said Inouye.

Added Rarick, "Ideally, we would have longboard pro division for the young guys, a division for the stars of the '60s like David Nuuhiwa, Donald Takayama and Dale Dobson, and a legends division for guys like Greg Noll and Dale Velzy and those who want to have fun."

The format would have a contest in Australia in March, Japan in May, at California's Malibu in September and finish at Haleiwa at the end of the year to take advantage of each region's prime surf time.

"We need to find a smart way to market it," said Rarick, and to secure the blessing of the shortboard-oriented Association of Surfing Professionals, the sanctioning body for competitive surfing.

"The older guys who are names from the '60s are eager to put something together like this, to compete against their peers," Rarick said.

And the younger guys think it's a pretty swell idea as well.

"A tour like that would be perfect," said Dahlin. "That would be the most awesome solution to everything."

"I got to surf on the last year of the ASP longboard tour in the early '90s," said Tudor. "Back then, nobody was longboarding in all the places I visited except for the occasional older guy. Yet they had a whole tour. Today, so many people are longboarding, and we can't have a tour.

"If they could pull it off, that would be great."