One of the biggest East Coast surf competitions returns to Wrightsville Beach again this weekend. Begun by Tony Butler and Sweetwater Surf Shop, the 10th Annual O’Neill Sweetwater Pro-Am Surf Fest, July 17–19, draws professional surfers in large numbers for the three-day event.
The contest site is the beach strand in front of Columbia Street. C Street will be transformed on Friday into a national-level surf event with scaffolding erected on the sand for seating judges. While typical of big surf contests, it is nothing short of a visual wonder. It alone is worth a visit to the beach strand. Then there is the spectacular surfing and people watching.
The pro division of the contest has a $15,000 purse. Some of the best surfers in the country will be in town to compete, including elite professional surfer Cory Lopez, of Indian Rocks Beach, Fla., considered by many to be one of the best free surfers on the planet.
Spectators will gather to watch pro surfer Benny B, Wrightsville Beach homeboy Ben Bourgeois, the defending champion. Growing up surfing Wrightsville Beach, Bourgeois rode to the sport’s highest echelon, surfing on the World Championship Tour twice.
Bourgeois will be up against another past winner, professional surfer Aaron Cormican of New Smyrna Beach, Fla., often tagged by some as the best “air and junk surfer” in the world. Nicknamed Gorkin, he is also the inventor of the “Gorkin Flip,” a backside double grab inverted 360 legal flip. He won the Pro-Am in 2006 and 2009 using his ability to excel in small surf. He is an exciting surfer to watch.
Up-and-coming local surfer Connor Lester and Micah Cantor from South Carolina will be taking on Bourgeois, Lopez and Cormican along with other big name surfers in the pro division.
Divisions of the competition include amateur, professional and longboard, which means those surfing will range in age and expertise from grommets to the best of the best.
Contest director and O’Neill surf brand representative Brad Beach said Wrightsville also will draw the top amateurs on the East Coast, just returning from the national championships in California, including Robbie McCormmick of Florida.
Such an event fills the town with an average of 90 pros from around the world and 100 to 150 amateurs, plus close to 1000 spectators and athletes’ family members. The surfing competition runs Friday through Sunday. Boosting the take for downtown merchants to a holiday level, Tony Butler said the three-day event rivals the Fourth of July for businesses.
On Saturday afternoon, after the day’s heats wrap up, athletes, families and spectators will converge in Wrightsville Beach Park for a celebration of local art and music organized by Butler, the Hope from Helen founder, and Tower 7 Baja Grill owner Josh Vach as a fundraiser for a number of local animal charities.
Besides the positive economic impact to the community of all these out-of-towners, the atmosphere of such an ecofriendly and compatible athletic competition and festival cannot be overlooked. The gathering creates an environment where young and amateur surfers can share waves or hang out on the beach and park with world-class professionals.
On the heels of the Pro-Am, the Wrightsville Beach Wahine Classic is held a month later on Wrightsville’s south end south of Crystal Pier. August 15 -16 professional women surfers, novices competing in their first contest, and 10-year-old and under teenie Wahine gather to surf this all-female competition. The youngest contestant last year was a 2-year-old.
Contest organizer Jo Pickett said the very first Wahine Classic was held in 1997. A number of local women, including Pickett, have competed in the classic every year since (In 2012 there was no Whaine Classic).
Well over 100 young girls and teens will participate, co-director Jack Viorel said. Some of these will arrive with their families in vehicles stacked with boards from as far as Florida, South Carolina, Virginia Beach and New Jersey and locally from the beach towns and Wilmington. A banquet and a movie in Wrightsville Beach Municipal Park follows the surfing this year.
The positive atmosphere of these two surf competitions persists even when there is a lack of swell in the water or thunderstorms roll in.
The Wahine kicks off four days of surfing, immediately followed on Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 17 and 18, when hundreds of families again gather on Wrightsville’s strand for the annual Surfers Healing autism surf event, in its 10th year.
In a free two-day camp, young surfers diagnosed within the autism spectrum will ride waves with professional and experienced watermen from around the world volunteering with Surfers Healing.
The grassroots, nonprofit Surfers Healing was co-founded in 1996 by professional surfer, Israel “Izzy” Paskowitz, and his wife. The couple’s first child, Isaiah, was diagnosed with autism. In the middle of one of Isaiah’s sensory overload meltdowns at a surf competition, Paskowitz discovered the calming effect of the ocean on his child. Surfing with his dad immediately became a therapeutic experience for Isaiah.
As each child in the camp attempts a wave, the expressions on the faces are precious. Some children stand quickly, lifting their arms in triumph, others need help from their surf instructors or cling to the board until the wave ends on the shore. Regardless, nearly every time at the end of each wave, both the instructors and their surfing buddies are alight with huge smiles.
It is a privilege that such events are held annually on Wrightsville Beach but is no coincidence. The surf professionals who initiate and perpetuate these stellar national events have brought clean-water sports aficionados to our shores, some of whom come back to settle and become our neighbors.
Take time this weekend to give thanks.
