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Sports

Pros, Amateurs Surf in Right Coast Cup

Unsound Surf teams up with Quiksilver to stage annual competition in Long Beach.


Unsound Surf shop has held the Right Coast Cup competition in Long Beach for the past 13 years, but this September it had a first-time sponsor, Quiksilver, the company that staged the Pro New York event last summer. 

“Quiksilver did their big competition here last year, and we just tried to partner up with them and make something happen, to keep the event going, in hopes that we will see a return for the big Quiksilver event next year,” said Mike Nelson, co-owner of Unsound Surf.

The Right Coast Cup was held at National Boulevard beach from Sept. 5 to 9, a five-day waiting period scheduled to coincide with the peak of the hurricane season. The finals for the pro event, which featured 64 of the East Coast’s best young surfing talent, was staged last Thursday and Friday.

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The men’s pro competition was run in the “skins” format, which had armatures go up against the pros. According to Surfline/Wavetrack Inc., a company that provides the surf reports to businesses, consumers and government agencies, the format “is both equitable and fairs, leveling the playing field as all entrants’ names are randomly selected, producing eclectic matchups.”

Local favorite Balaram Stack, a pro surfer from Point Lookout, lost to Blake Jones of Florida in the semifinals. The finals came down to Jones and fellow Floridian Gabe Kling, who are friends and were roommates during the competition. Jones beat out Kling to win the Right Coast Cup, just a weekend after Kling edged out Jones at the Bud Light Lime Labor Day Cup in Nags Head, NC. 

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“This year the contest is more locally driven because of its unique format, ” said Darren Brilhart, Quicksilver’s event director, who helped produce Quicksilver New York Pro competition last year and produces about 30 events annually.

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For each heat win, competitors are awarded prize money and advance to the next heat. The surfer with the most skins at the end of the two-day contest is the winner. In the end, the competitors battle it out for the $20,000 purse.

Tripoli Paterson of Sag Harbor has competed in the Unsound Surf pro competition each year, but was eliminated this year when he was knocked off in a heat before the quarterfinals.

“I grew up on the beach of Bridgehampton and I have been surfing since I was eight-years-old,” Paterson said about his passion for surfing. “I own an art gallery in South Hampton, so I split my time between surfing the select few contests like these and my art gallery”.

Paterson said that he would be back to compete next year.

The Atlantic Surfing Federation ran the amateur component of the contest (winners listed below). Rick Anthony, president of the federation and director of the New York Chapter, came to surfing later in life when his son decided that he wanted to learn the sport.

Anthony runs surfing events all over the New York area. “The contest went phenomenally,” he said. “We will probably see some of these competitors in the pro event next year or the year after that.”

Many hope that the Quiksilver event returns next summer, but Long Beach will have to wait and see.

“This event shows that Long Beach is a valuable place to have a surfing event,” Nelson said.

Boys Under 12- Troy Morris
Girls Under 12- Isabel Severino
Boys Under 14- Hays Rainis
Girls Under 14- Miller Overbeck
Boys Under 16- Austin Gibbons
Girls Under 16-  Liz Kohler
Boys Under 18- Liam O'Regan
Girls Under 18- Selena Moberly
Boys/Girls Under 10- Sandon Karinsky
Boys Under 14 Longboard- Jared Bono
Men- Jario Perez
Open- Jario Perez

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