Surfers slide and spin during finless contest

Competitive surfing is a sport governed by structure and rules, but a surf contest held June 11 at Wrightsville Beach put the focus on fluidity and fun.

During Sliding into Summer, a unique competition organized by local surf instructor Sean Griffin, 20 surfers paddled out, one by one, to catch waves on a finless surfboard. A filmmaker recorded the best waves of their 20-minute heats and, after the contest, the participants gathered to watch the clips and 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 allowed for other benefits. Many surfers don’t like the pressure of surfing in contests, he said, because “you don’t feel natural.”

Still, some of the best competitors in the region like Nick Rupp and Connor Lester took turns on the finless board. Karson Lewis, who recently placed third in the women’s pro longboard division of the Steel Pier Classic in Virginia Beach, said she enjoyed the less rigid format.

In most contests, she’s careful about which waves she catches because she’s only allowed to ride 10 while the best two count towards her heat total. But during Griffin’s contest, she caught as many as she wanted, laughing as she tumbled off the finless board in the crumbly shore break.

After a few tries, she was able to slide the tail of the board around while cruising down the face of the wave. The key to riding it, she said when she got out, was adapting to the loose, sliding motion of the board instead of forcing maneuvers.

“You just have to conform to what it’s doing. If you try and set your rail it’s just going to throw you off,” she said, “so you have to be formless and let it shape you.”

Griffin said he was surprised how quickly the surfers figured out how to ride the board, considering none of them had ridden one exactly like it before.

He shaped the board as a cross between an alaia—the wooden finless boards ridden by ancient Hawaiians—and a Mini Simmons—the short, wide boards noted for their straight rails.

Griffin stood on the beach around 4 p.m., looking on as one of the competitors popped up on the finless board. Griffin reluctantly admitted he should return to Annex Surf Supply to set up the video compilation and awards party, but he was having too much fun watching the surfers.

And the surfers had a good time too, said Brandon Mitchell, who emerged from the water after his heat grinning.

“[The finless board] makes surfing waves like this a lot more fun,” he said. “It put a smile on my face.”