I was out west mid January to compete with the Fox surf team in the Katin Team Challenge. We ended up taking 4th place in surf that was Maxing out the North side of Huntington Pier. I almost killed my self trying to advance out of my first round heat. Out of the three other competitors in the line up, only six waves were caught due to the strong drift into the pier and less than desirable closeouts bombs coming through. I needed a score, and pretty much gave up on trying to find a good wave and turned on the biggest thing that came through. The bomb took me high-speed towards the pier giving me only the opportunity to snap under the lip and come flying out with the explosion, dead set for the most piling congested part of the pier, the “T”. I bailed, turned on my sonic the hedgehog forcefield and hoped for the best. When I came up, I had traveled between the barnacle covered, concrete “life-enders” with out a scratch. I made the heat, but I scared the crap out of myself..

Moment before the bail, and my pinball manuever..

The pics below are from one of the free surf sessions I had on the south side of HB pier during the event with Ryan Carlson, Jesse Evans, and the Turner bros. There was an against the grain left barrel that offered one of the sickest views of the pier I’ve seen, inside lookin out… We traded off catching “the one,” a wave that appeared to be a closeout into the pier that offered a perfect tuberide and exit about ten feet in front of the treacherous pilings. There was no “Huntington hop” going on this session, just perfect drainers and punchy air sections! We had a blast!

The air section was sick!