Surfers, Fire Dancers & Microbursts! {ESA Mid Atlantic Regionals 2012}

Starting a couple of weeks ago, our surf contest season kicked into full gear. From now until September either all of us or just my darlin’ surfer will be traipsing back and forth from one beach to another. Some contests will be small and low key, others will be four plus days of jam packed fun.

Such as the ESA Mid Atlantic Regionals. Usually the boys and I are unable to attend due to school but fortunately for us the contest was in our area this year. So close in fact that we were able to sleep in until 6:45 before we had to leave for the beach. I know, amazing right! The teenager was even able to get in a few extra hours of sleep home alone since we were right around the corner. Lacrosse the evening before had tuckered him out, poor baby.

An extra 30 minutes of sleep and still down at the beach before the crowds swarmed in, gotta love it. Not to mention being able to park up front! Trekking 5 miles back off the beach under the blazing hot sun tends is definitely no bueno for the hydro-glow skin. Parking during the summer months is the only reason that you will ever catch me up before the seagulls willingly.

Then again, it is mighty hard to resist sunrise, biscuits and coffee with these two fellas no matter what the season may be.

The waves were not all that stellar during the contest but that doesn’t mean there was a shortage of fun. Working on the basics with dad and building sand castles along the shore is always reason enough to smile.

Building a kingdom isn’t half bad either. Hello King of the Vitamin Water Clan, can you spare a bottle or two of blueberry pomegranate?

Team SNC, they didn’t keep the trophy this year but I just love them all to pieces anyway! Sun kissed groms happen to be one of my summer fav’s.

The first evening of regionals is typically banquet night. It is all about good food, standing up with your buds and getting your trophy.

If you’re lucky there may even be a bit of fire and flash going on! The kids were totally enthralled with the fire dancers that our director Amy lined up to entertain us.  What do you guys think, should I take up fire dancing this summer while DS is traveling? If I do will you guys help me cover up the scorch marks on the ceiling before he comes home?

There could possibly be some silliness and shenanigans as well during the banquet but after 17 years of hanging out with surfers and groms it’s hard to tell silly behavior from normal anymore.

I rest my case.

One of the most important jobs during a big contest is guarding the tents and scaffolding during the night. This year we let M1 stay up all night for the first time and help my brother Blaine guard. For some reason scaffolding on the beach is a magnet for crazy. The biggest problem is making sure that no one walks off with one of the banners. Now y’all know that the living room decor isn’t perfect until you have a 6ft long yellow Sun Bum banner over the TV. You also have to keep an eye {or ear} peeled for couples out for a late night stroll, or as I like to call them “Friskys”. You never know what will come along in the wee hours of the morning while you are guarding.

Sometimes a storm will roll through and toss a microburst smack dab in the middle of tent city. Tossing tents into the ocean and blowing them miles down the beach until all that you’re left with in the morning is an expensive work of modern art. That or Spider-Man left his erector set on the beach again.

Talk about being broke in on your first night of guard duty! Our boy and Uncle Blaine made it through the storm, holding on to most of the contest site. A call for help to surferboy five minutes into the fray didn’t hurt much either. What a sight!

The storm also brought with it some bigger waves and cooler temperatures. We went from shorts and tees to sweatshirts and jeans, brrrrrr!

After four days of sun up to sun down, riding waves, friends, fire dancers and weathering a microburst Monkey One’s pose says it all.

Wishing all of you fun, sun and sand between your toes! Stay tuned, more contest are right around the corner :D

Love,

Shari-Tickled Red

Tagged as: Contest, ESA Mid Atlantic Regionals, Fire Dancers, Microbursts, Surfers