The Mountain and Wave

The 2009 Quiksilver King Of The Groms leap frogged its way up to the chilly waters of Santa Cruz, Saturday February 28, 2009. With fun 1-3 and occasion 4ft inconsistent lines hitting Pleasure Pts 1st Peak, the KOG delivered competitors more than enough canvas to showcase their many talents. The KOG U16 uses a “skins” format that offers the kids the opportunity to surf two times if they don’t win their heats. For those that do, they have the chance to catch fire and get on a roll and each “skin” is worth $100. Andrew Jacobson opened up his campaign with a trifecta nailing 3 “skins” from heat 3 that would not be contested until the 2nd round hit the water.  With a backhand attack of vert slams, speed snaps, and pendulum like timing, his approach looks that it has been honed and perfected at Malibu and its surrounding nooks and points. Speaking of Malibu, Colton Sarlo son of LA Godfather Allen Sarlo showed the family DNA for ripping has been inherited by bringing home a couple “skins” with an act that made dad proud.
Locals Jake Logan and Willie Eagleton and Garrett Colfer weren’t to be shown up in their backyard and pulled down 4“skins” between them. Andrew Jacobson’s Rnd 2 campaign was uneventful but his earlier performance   kept him atop the leader board. Then came Mr. X , Jordan Heaselgrave who traveled all the way from Barbados to compete, didn’t make as much as a boat wake in Rnd 1 and came scorching out of the blocks in Rnd 2.  Jordan rallied hard to catch Jacobson’s 3 with a forehand attack that saw the most consistently high scoring claims of the event! The dinger was his 9.5pt ride on a bomb that saw Heaselgrave unleash a series of deep bottom turn to giant carves and lip blasts off the top that equaled Andrews 3 “skin” count and forced the KOG into a sudden death “surf off.”  Going into the last heat of the day and all the marbles riding on the heat, Heaselgrave and Jacobson both opened up solid but held out on claiming rides in the 6 and 7 range. Then it was Jacobson who put a fork in it at around the 10 minute mark where he loaded up the rail off the bottom, pulled the trigger and released it into the lip, sent a Xmas tree fan into a speed check slash on the fat section which propelled him into a closing section with another vert backhand blast, releasing his fins, briefly hiding himself in the foam and emerged to his LA Posse’s screaming, shouting and jumping up and down for him to claim it! Andrew hesitated and then threw his hands in the sky and was rewarded an 8.66 and the title of Quiksilver’s King Of The Groms. One of the most hilarious part of the event was the Ultimate Paddle Battle where 3 kids had to paddle out to the nearest longboard and back into the beach for $100! It had locals, parents and the kids screaming encouragement, directions and sarcasm at the top of their lungs…..in the end it was a neck and neck battle with Johhny Mel (Peter’s son) and Tenzin Mendenhall who just crossed the finish line a few steps ahead of John for the win! Big thanks to Steven and Tracy Baker our QS reps for posting up and representing all day!!  photos: Sardelis

Andrew Jacobson:       $400
Jordan Heaselgrave:    $300
Colton Sarlo:                $200
Willie Eagleton:            $200
Frank Curren:              $100
Matty Passaquindici:    $100
Garrett Colfer:             $100
Decker McCallister:     $100
Skylar Lawson:            $100
Jake Logan:                 $100

Tags: KOG 2009

This entry was posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 at 4:08 pm and is filed under Surf Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.