During a unique June 11 surf contest at Wrightsville Beach, local surfers will test their creativity and skill as they compete to ride the best waves on a handcrafted finless surfboard.
Surfers of any age and ability may enter, and 20 will be accepted to compete. There are no divisions for age, gender or skill and every surfer will ride the same finless board. Contest organizer Sean Griffin, owner of Wrightsville Beach business Sean’s Private Surf Instruction, intends the Sliding Into Summer contest to be an annual summer kickoff.
Surfers will meet at Annex Surf Supply at 7 a.m. and put their names in a hat to determine in which order they surf. Then, one by one, they will take the finless board down to the ocean and surf for 20 minutes while a videographer records them. At the end of the day, participants, family and friends will meet back at Annex Surf Supply to review footage of each surfer’s best waves and, based on that, vote on the winners.
Griffin created the unusual format to accommodate town rules restricting large summer events on the beach strand, but the low-key setup allows for other benefits. Many surfers don’t like the pressure of surfing in contests, he said, because “you don’t feel natural.”
This competition will feel more like a regular surf session, Griffin said.
“You’ll just stroll down to the beach and go for a quick little surf,” he said.
While the contest will likely pit shortboarders who compete regularly against the longboarding soul surfer types, the finless board will level the playing field.
“No one has ever ridden a surfboard like this,” Griffin said.
The board might actually favor those who ride longer boards, he added. It is a 7-foot shape modeled after those ridden by well-known Australian surfer Derek Hynd. Without fins to anchor it, the board slides down the face of the wave and surfers must keep their center of gravity low to stay in control, Griffin said.
“Because of the way it slides, it’s almost like painting on the surface of the wave,” he said. “You can do whatever you want so it opens it up for a lot of creativity.”
The contest is meant to inspire creativity and fun. Since the competitors won’t able to watch each other’s heats, the video compilation at Annex Surf Supply will reveal how successfully — or unsuccessfully — every surfer rode the board. Ballots will be distributed and the top three vote getters will receive prize packs from sunglass brand Electric and Annex Surf Supply.
“So hopefully [the surfers] will have rallied a bunch of friends and family to come vote for them,” Griffin said.
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