This is as close as the author (14) got to the front on the first day of Surfercross. It turns out that Mexico for a week + no water + motocross + 104 degrees = heat exhaustion and a trip to the hospital for some IV fluid replacement.
For the last several years I've been kicking myself for missing
Surfercross, an event that allows professional and industry types from the worlds of surfing and motocross to compete in both disciplines to decide overall winners in each class. The catch is you don't know who your partner is going to be until they pull the name out of a hat. After years of seeing coverage in magazines weeks later and realizing I missed it again, I finally got my chance this year.
I got my reminder when Yamaha's Terry Beal called to confirm my attendance at the 2006 TTR50E press introduction. When he said it would be over by mid-morning so Surfercross could run, the light bulb went off in my head and I was in the Industry class. The only catch was that he wanted me to ride a YZ125 to increase the presence of blue bikes out there. Whatever. I was in. I would ride a Hodaka Combat Wombat if I had to in order to ride and surf with some of my surf and moto heroes.
However, the more I thought about riding a 125cc on an MX track in the days leading up to the event, the more I became a little uneasy about the idea. After all, I hadn't ridden a 2-stroke in about three years, let alone an extinct teen-bred 125. I hadn't ridden at all for two months because it's summer in SoCal and I surf camp most of the hot months. And finally, I'm basically a lame trail rider now, camping out in the desert with my family and friends, so I only get to ride on a motocross track a handful of days a year when I'm testing with MCUSA. I was out of my elements (at least those are my bank of excuses).
Early on the first day, event organizers, big-wave legend Mike "Snips" Parsons and Bubba's factory Kawasaki mechanic Jeremy Albrecht, began drawing names to make the teams. It was cool to see pro motocrossers like Kawasaki's Michael Byrne, former MX and SX Champion Jeff Emig, "Factory" Phil Lawrence, KTM's Josh Hansen, Team Honda's Ernesto Fonseca, Stephane Roncada, and David Pingree get paired with Pro surfers like former ASP world champion Sunny Garcia, Parsons, stuntman Brock Little, air masters Josh Hoyer and Josh Sleigh, bad boy Christian Fletcher, shaper/pro Ryan Sakal, and big-wave rider Chava Greenlee among others.
Team riders had to switch an armband every other lap, and each rider did seven laps. Overall Pro winners David Pingree and Adam Wickwire demonstrate. Somehow, no serious collisions occurred.
When it came time for the Industry class blind draw I pulled out number 14, which paired me with Taylor Rambo. What a cool name I thought. Immediately, gnarly images of the Sylvester Stallone movie Rambo flashed into my brain, with the hero stitching up a hole in his body with a needle and thread from his survival knife. In actuality, he ended up being a teenager from San Clemente who tagged along with his brother, but I had a feeling he could surf.
The rider's meeting was held after the blind draw to remind all the participants that we were there to have fun and not to hurt each other. We were going to be doing seven laps each, switching an armband between every lap in the start area. The funny thing was, the armband switching area ended up being the most dangerous thing I've seen in quite a while. Just imagine a corridor of bikes with riders sliding in, switching bands, and blazing back through it to get back on the track. Amazingly, I didn't see one collision in either class, just a few puckering near-misses.
The Pro class races went off with out much of a hitch. Stephane Roncada soloed to the win in the first moto when his partner Troy Gibbold wadded up and retired from the race. Ron-Ron just kept raging through the armband-switching corridor and took the win. He was protested however, and his team was credited with last place in the overall moto standings. When the two moto scores were tallied, the win went to Phil Lawrence and O'Neill's Garth Tarlow, followed by the team of Ernesto Fonseca and Ronnie Nelson in second, and Adam Wickwire and David Pingree in third.
To make a long story short, in the Industry class my partner and I ended up dead last. We both got poor starts on our 125s and were basically pretty slow. We had a good time, however, until my entire body began to lock up and cramp from heat exhaustion. You see, I had spent a week surfing in Mexico in the days leading right up to the event. And you know what they say about Mexico - "Don't drink the water." So I didn't. I drank beer and, consequently, dehydrated myself.
Stephane Roncada came out and churned some fast laps, but when his partner Troy Gibold crashed on the first lap, Ron Ron ran solo. He won the race, but his team was relegated to 16th on the technicality.
I finished the second moto for the sake of my teammate "Rambo" but bonked hard when I got back to my van. I knew I was in trouble, called for an ambulance, and spent the rest of the evening in a Moreno Valley hospital having four IV bags pumped into my arm. I loved laying there for hours next to my neighbor, who had pneumonia and kept hacking into the air. I've got to give a special thanks to my friend Sean Borkenhagen, who helped and stayed with me during the whole ordeal.
When the Industry class crossed the finish line to end the first day of competition, it was Terry Beal and Paul Berton taking the win, followed by the team of Mike Bell and Joel Murphy, and Jeff Allen and Brendan Lutes in third. And yes, I did call Dragon Optic's Mike Bell "the ultimate sandbagger" for riding in the Industry class.
I actually had no idea if I could physically compete on the next day, but when the sun came up I felt pretty good and we loaded up the van to head to Trail 6 in San Onofre. I needed some redemption. I ran down the trail just in time to make my first heat and was impressed with what I saw. The contest area was sweet, with an announcer/judging tower, sponsor canopies, blasting music, Wahoo's Fish Tacos, and a mingling crowd of surfers and motocrossers.
I spent the day taking it all in with my family and a few friends. My friend Greg kept daring me to look at Sunny Garcia's wife with him, so we could see who would get beaten up first. Hey, I saw Fox's North Shore, and I saw that dude kick some asses for mere glances at his wife. We must have gotten lucky.
The author (pictured) got some redemption on surf day when he and partner Taylor Rambo made it to the finals and took third. They ended up 10th in the Industry class.
The most entertaining and punk-rock move of the day came when party master and surf legend Christian Fletcher paddled out into a heat with a lit Marlboro in his mouth. The announcer bet him 20 bucks that he couldn't paddle out with the lit smoke and keep it going. Well, Christian took it a step further when he caught a wave all the way into shore, held up the lit smoke, put it out on his tongue, and shoved down the neck of his wetsuit, which must contain a built-in ashtray instead of a key pocket. It was classic.
After numerous surf heats, the Pro class surfing final included the teams of Adam Wickwire and David Pingree, Mike Parsons and Dean Baker, and Ryan Sakal and Ryan Dudek. I never could procure the results from the surfing final, but when everything was tallied up for both days the results read in the same order as above. Pingree and Wickwire took the Pro Surfercross overall win, followed by Parsons and Baker, and Sakal and Dudek.
As for "Rambo" and myself, we fared pretty well on surf day. He was the shortboard stud and I was the logger on my new 9'6" Walden. Between his chop-hops and quality waves and my switch stances and dead cockroaches, we made it all the way to the finals to take third in the Industry surf class. Ah, redemption. Casey Landvogt and Kawasaki's Charlie Flippen took the Industry surf class win with Terry Beal and Paul Berton second.
Kawasaki's AMA MX pro rider Michael Byrne looks like he picked up a new sponsor on his way to sixth overall.
At the end of the day, Terry Beal took his third consecutive Industry class overall win, this time partnered with Berton. Neither of the following teams made the surf final, yet their good moto scores propelled Curt Biegel and John Haden to second, and Mike Bell and Joel Murphy to third overall.
As I drove home and made my customary stop by Pedro's Tacos in San Clemente (even after gorging myself on the catered Wahoo's Fish Tacos lunch), I began to reflect on my first Surfercross.
It was a blast and I will definitely be there again next year. Where else can an average schmoe like myself get to hang with some of the legends from two sports that I love? Next year, however, you won't find me at Papas and Beers the night before, and I may just switch over to that Combat Wombat if I can find one.
Overall Results - Pro Class:
1st Adam Wickwire / David Pingree
2nd Mike Parsons / Dean Baker
The Industry class surf podium (from left to right): Terry Beal and Paul Berton took second, Casey Landvogt and Charlie Flippen took first, and author Cameron Coatney and Taylor Rambo took third.
3rd Ryan Sakal / Ryan Dudek
4th Garth Tarlow/ Phil Lawrence
5th Josh Sleigh / Derek Natvig
6th Brandon Tipton / Michael Byrne
7th Chava Greenlee / Jimmy Lewis
8th Brad Ettinger / Jimmy McGuire
9th Christian Fletcher / Joel Albrecht
10th Ronny Nelson / Enesto Fonseca
11th Jeremy McCassey / Matt Armstrong
12th Scott Farnsworth / Jeff Emig
13th Sunny Garcia / Anthony Paggio
14th Josh Hoyer / Logan Darien
15th Brock Little / Dave Castillo
16th Chris McLaughlin / Alvin Zalamea
17th Joe Stauffer / Josh Hansen
18th Troy Gibold / Stephane Roncada
Overall Results - Industry Class:
1st Terry Beal / Paul Berton
2nd Curt Biegel / John Haden
3rd Mike Bell / Joel Murphy
4th Jeff Allen / Brendan Lutes
5th Mike Gress / Deron Wilson
6th Justin Dawes / Brandon Rambo
7th Charlie Flippen / Casey Landvogt
8th Billy Dalu / Greg Lasiewski
9th Brett Guerin / Ryan Federow
10th Taylor Rambo / Cameron Coatney
11th Eddie Casillas / Greg Giddings
12th Joe McKimmy / Kyle Kelley
13th Brian Barnhart / A.J. Sjostrom
14th Russ Brenan / John Louch
15th Phil Kuhn / Rusty Setser
