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Friday, March 29, 2024

Wahines show off talent and tricks

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Spectators at Wrightsville’s annual all-female surf contest were treated to elite performances from competitors like 11-year-old Bree Labiak, who advanced to five finals and earned the highest wave score of the day, and goofy antics as pairs of surfer girls attempted tricks while riding tandem.

The Wrightsville Beach Wahine Classic started the morning of Saturday, Aug. 15 south of Crystal Pier and wrapped Sunday. Nearly 100 girls and women from around the region entered the competition, organizer Jo Pickett said.

The contest included pro divisions for longboard and shortboard, which were won by Karson Lewis and Savannah Bradley. The amateur shortboard and longboard categories were divided into age groups. For the first time, younger girls were allowed to surf in older age groups. Labiak, who traveled from Garden City, S.C., for the competition, took full advantage.

“We actually totaled it up at the hotel and I had 14 heats Saturday,” she said after the competition Sunday, “and then six more today.”

Labiak, who learned how to surf a few years ago during the Mauli Ola Surf Experience Day for children with cystic fibrosis, surfed in nearly every longboard and shortboard division for which she was eligible. She advanced to five finals on Sunday and earned an event-high 9.5 wave score in the crumbly knee-high surf.

She won the guppies’ shortboard division, but her mother, Lynn Grayden-Labiak, was especially impressed with her daughter’s win in the girls’ longboard final.

“She just learned to longboard a couple of months ago,” Grayden-Labiak said, adding her daughter taught herself longboard tricks by watching videos of professionals like Kassia Meador.

Labiak said one of her favorite parts of the weekend was getting to know the other surfer girls in the mellow atmosphere created by music blaring from the judges’ scaffolding and crowd-favorite events like the teenie-wahines — girls age 10 and under — and tandem surfing.

The tandem final was the last heat of the contest, and competitors, family members and casual spectators approached the water’s edge to watch. Four pairs of girls paddled 10-foot stand-up paddleboards into the surf and entertained the crowd by performing stunts.

Fifteen-year-old Julia Eckel and 16-year-old Carley Carter, best friends from  Wrightsville Beach, took home first place, letting their creativity and enthusiasm compensate for a lack of experience.

The girls tried tandem surfing during a Virginia Beach contest earlier in the summer, but the Wahine Classic was only their second time attempting moves out in the water.

“We did try a couple moves on land,” Carter said.

The girls said when a wave approached, their strategy was to hop on the board and pull as many tricks as they could before collapsing into the water, giggling.

“We would be like, ‘Baby! Wheelbarrow! Jazz Hands!’” Carter said, laughing.

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