The Eastern Surfing Association Great Lakes District's "Goblin's Surf Contest" will be held on:

Sunday

29 October 2006

2 p.m.


at The Palmwood

in Crystal Beach

Ontario, Canada

on the freightening shores

of Lake Erieeeeeeeeeeee

$5.00 Canadian Entry Fee


We might move the contest westward to a better location if we find the waves are not good enough for a competition in Crystal Beach. If we move then check Wyldewood Beach by O'Hears cottage on the lake. Go to the end of Wyldewood Road and turn right on last fire road and go to end of road. If we move from there then I will leave a note on the back of O'Hear's cottage telling you where we relocated to, if we do so. In these high wind conditions a competion director has to be flexible. We live in the Great Lakes and on any given day conditions at consistant surf breaks might be blown out and beaches that are normally under consistant can be epic. Before I get to The Palmwood I am going to check other local well surfed and under surfed breaks.




All competition divisions in shortboard, longboard, bodyboard, and OPEN shortboard for males and females will be held for competitors that show up.

All competitors must be current members of the ESA.
Anyone can join online at surfesa.org or on the beach before the contest.

A trophy for first place will be awarded.

All competitors will get one ticket for the end of the year Great Lakes raffle.

All Canadian competitors will be brought up to date on present and back issues of Surfing Magazine (part of your membership) and will be given current issue of Eastern Surf Magazine.

Competitors will be judged on your best two waves with a maximum allowance of ten waves and no more.

Competition Points will be awarded to top placing surfers. Competitors need competition points for possible slotting or alternate slotting in the Spring 2007 ESA Northeastern Regional in New England. Competitors you want to advance up this ladder. The progression is from District competitions to the Regional competition to the ESA Finals in Sept. 2007 in Cape Hatteras. At the ESA Regionals the competition bar is raised higher and at the ESA Finals you are in the company of some of the best amateur surfers in the world. Don't cut yourself short because a Great Lakes surfer can be one of the best amateur surfers in the world IF YOU WANT IT BAD ENOUGH.

This is contest two for the ESA Great Lakes District (East Lakes)

Please bring your warm clothing because snow will probably be flying or more likely horizontally flying east to west. The water temperature is falling. You will be most comfortable for longer time in the water with a 5 mil full wet suit or thicker and booties, hoods, and gloves.


Local Restaurants:

Tim Hortons in Crystal Beach

Palmwood Bar and Restaurant on Lake Erie in Crystal Beach

The S Bend near Pleasant Beach Rd on Route 3 in Port Colborne. The 222 is the best priced deal for the low funded surfer.


The Cedar Bay Inn Bar and Restaurant in Port Colborne (UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT) on Lake Erie. Bob Sobering and Frank Kunkel MIGHT have surfed Cedar Bay first but there might have been some surfer in the sixties that road it first before home word processors appeared on the market. The Point Break east of Cedar Bay and about a half mile offshore was ridden first by the Wyldewood Surf Club and is named "Old Crows."

Tim Hortons in Port Colborne two locations on Route 3.


Surf's up! At last checked the buoy in Port Colborne was showing wave heights of three feet off shore.




Weather Report:

"http://www.crh.noaa.gov/forecasts/NYZ010.php?warncounty=NYC029&city=Buffalo"



GET READY FOR SCREAMING GOBLINS RISING UP FROM LAKE ERIE TOMORROW. WARNING THIS SURF CONTEST IS NOT FOR THE FAINT AT HEART.

See you all on the beach.

"http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/res/glcfs/lwv+12.html"

Those who showed up were not spooked by reports of freightening conditions in Lake Erie. The ESA Great Lakes District's-East Lakes "Goblins Surf Contest" was held on 29 October 2006 in Lake Erie at the historic Palmwood surf break. We saw a green wet-suited surfer wearing snowboarding gloves, three kayakers spining about back and forth, Legend Chris Furminger just nailing some superb longboard rides, Rob Dobias dominating shortboarding, the Toronto Crew: Vladamir and Raphael, Sebastian Duque have some fun drops, and others, Matt Roy wearing a camo green wetsuit, new faces, photogs, Charlie Dunham spectating (good to see you again), Icelander Brendan Smith getting turned into a solid block of ice in human form, Masahiro Terada surfing in his first Great Lakes surf contest, many on lookers watching from the comfort of their automobile bleachers, girlfriends, wives, Mums, Bill Uliki converting to shortboard, (was that Grant from S. Africa?), and many more. If I missed naming you I apologize in the midst of running a small surf contest.

The scoping of the conditions. My discoveries in the search:

Before arriving at The Palmwood I did a surf check. My route of travel was west to east. The trip began at Cedar Bay where I ran into Bob Sobering suited up and going out to sample some knee to waist high clean surf. Correct me if I am wrong but I belive that I saw Frank Kunkel out there with another surfer. There was a wife documenting them. Old Crow's Point was working far outside but the paddle is long therefore I assume nobody made the effort.

Heading to Mayor Bodner's grocery story on Highway 3. I see he is running for re-election. Some campaign literature was about inside and outside his business. The clerk run up a loaf of fresh round bread, a can of pineapple, a pumpkin pie, and some butter tarts to add to the competition prize raffle.

After throwing the groceries in the car it was off to Wyldewood Beach where I ran into Charlie Dunham. The surf was bigger there. At O'Hear's the waves were coming in on head high sets that broke from O'Hear's to Magilla's. That's the names of the two sand bar breaks that run from east to west at Wyldewood. We founding members of the Wyldewood Surf Club do proclaim these names of two of the first ridden eastern Lake Erie surf breaks in this part of the Great Lakes before 1962. The lefts were better and more makable than the rights. It doesn't always woprk that way.

On the road again my ride took me to Area 51. There I encountered the Toronto Surf Club and saw bug overhead bombs closing out hard.

It was approximately 2 p.m. when I arrived at The Palmwood and ran into Rob and Sebastian heading down the boat launch ramp. I climbed up the breakwall to check out the waves forming far outside and smacking the wall. Rob and Sebastian began snagging some nice waist to chest high and surfers began to arrive in greater numbers as the afternoon progressed. At sunset the conditions were at their peak best in this absolutely banging, beautiful, sunset.

The ESA Great Lakes Distict's "Goblin Surf Contest Results:

Division: Men Shortboard (18-24)

Sebastian Duque- Thornhill, Ontario, Canada

Red Rash Guard


Wave Scores:

1st wave: 1
2nd wave: 4
3rd wave: 5
4th wave: 9
5th wave: 1
6th wave: 5
7th wave: 6

Best Two Wave Scores: 9 + 6 = 15 points

Place: 1st
Competition Points: 1000



Division: Master Shortboard (25-34)


Rob Dobias- Toronto, Ontario, Canada


White Rash Guard

Wave Scores:

1st wave: 5
2nd wave: 6
3rd wave: 13
4th wave: 8
5th wave: 9
6th wave: 12
7th wave: 13
8th wave: 14
9th wave: 4
10th wave: 11


Best Two Wave Scores: 13 + 14 = 27 points


Place: 1st
Competition Points: 1000


Brendan Smith- Geogetown, Ontario, Canada

Blue Rash Guard

Wave Scores: 0

Note: Withdrew Due To Cold From Summer Wetsuit

Place: 2nd
Competition Points: 900



Division: Mens Longboard (18-34)


Matthew Roy- Amherst, New York, U.S.A.


Orange Rash Guard

Wave Scores:

1st wave: 2
2nd wave: 7
3rd wave: 9
4th wave: 5

Best Two Wave Scores: 7 + 9 = 16 points


Place: 1st
Competition Points: 1000



Division: Senior Masters Longboard (35-49)


Masahiro Terrada- Scarborough, Ontario, Canada


Green Rash Guard


Wave Scores:

1st wave: 4
2nd wave: 3
3rd wave: 7


Best Two Wave Score: 4 + 7 = 11 points


Place: 1st
Competition Points: 1000


Judging: Magilla Schaus


Judge Scoring:

A Poor Ride.......1-4
A Fair Ride.......5-8
An Average Ride...9-12
A Good Ride..... 13-16
An Excellent Ride16-20


Congratulations to all competitiors who made the effort to come out today. We hope you had a good time and will continue to compete and improve your competition skills.

Thank You for a fun day.

I hope to be back by November to compete and keep my fingers crossed that we have surfable conditions for the rest of our scheduled competition season and that we even slip in an unexpected competition before 2006 ends.

The weather forcast says that in the Pacific the El Nino is heating up which could give us warmer winter weather. This might translate into open waters for surfing this winter. However we can get hit by some strong Northeaster Atlantic cold, snow bearing events and ice.


Thank You to our ESA Great Lakes District-East Lakes competition sponsors.

Please patronize our sponsors with your business:



Silent Sports:
"http://www.silentsports.com/store/</a"



Board Sports:
"http://www.boardsports.ca/</a"


Origin Surf Co:
"http://www.originsurf.ca/"


Amuk Board Shop:
"http://amuck.ca/default.aspx</a"


GTA Surf School:
"http://www.durbanad.com/surfschool/events.html</a"



Five Surfboards:
"http://www.fivesurfboards.com/"

10 29 9:00 pm W 25.3 29.1 7.5 8 - - 29.87 +0.06 49.3 50.9 - - - -
10 29 8:00 pm W 23.3 27.2 8.5 8 - - 29.85 +0.06 49.3 51.1 - - - -
10 29 6:00 pm W 25.3 31.1 9.2 7 - - 29.81 +0.09 48.2 51.1 - - - -
10 29 5:00 pm W 23.3 29.1 9.8 8 - - 29.79 +0.10 47.7 51.1 - - - -
10 29 4:00 pm W 27.2 33.0 9.8 8 - - 29.76 +0.11 47.1 51.3 - - - -
10 29 3:00 pm W 29.1 38.9 10.5 8 - - 29.72 +0.08 46.8 51.4 - - - -
10 29 2:00 pm W 29.1 35.0 10.5 9 - - 29.69 +0.08 46.4 51.6 - - - -
10 29 1:00 pm W 31.1 38.9 11.2 8 - - 29.66 +0.09 45.9 51.6 - - - -
10 29 12:00 pm W 29.1 35.0 11.5 8 - - 29.64 +0.09 44.6 51.4 - - - -
10 29 11:00 am W 31.1 36.9 11.5 8 - - 29.61 +0.09 44.2 51.6 - - - -
10 29 10:00 am W 31.1 38.9 11.2 9 - - 29.57 +0.08 44.1 51.6 - - - -
10 29 9:00 am W 31.1 38.9 11.5 8 - - 29.54 +0.09 43.5 51.6 - - - -
10 29 8:00 am W 31.1 40.8 11.5 8 - - 29.52 +0.09 43.7 51.8 - - - -
10 29 7:00 am W 33.0 40.8 11.8 9 - - 29.49 +0.08 43.3 51.6 - - - -
10 29 6:00 am W 33.0 40.8 11.8 8 - - 29.46 +0.07 43.7 51.6 - - - -
10 29 5:00 am W 33.0 38.9 12.1 8 - - 29.44 +0.07 43.5 51.6 - - - -
10 29 4:00 am W 33.0 38.9 12.5 9 - - 29.41 +0.07 43.3 51.8 - - - -
10 29 3:00 am W 33.0 42.7 12.5 8 - - 29.38 +0.06 43.7 51.8 - - - -
10 29 2:00 am W 33.0 40.8 12.5 9 - - 29.36 +0.06 43.7 51.8 - - - -
10 29 1:00 am W 35.0 42.7 12.8 9 - - 29.34 +0.06 44.1 52.0 - - - -
10 29 12:00 am W 35.0 42.7 12.1 8 - - 29.32 +0.06 44.1 51.8 - - - -
10 28 11:00 pm W 35.0 46.6 12.8 8 - - 29.30 +0.07 44.4 52.0 - - - -

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Description of Measurements

Canadian Historical Data

Buffalo had 49 m.p.h. wind today.

New England had 100 m.p.h. wind today.

Lake Erie temperature at 11:17 p.m. is 56 F off Buffalo.

Lake Ontario temperature at 11:17 p.m. is 54 F off Rochester.

Winter is knocking on the door.

I was going to go to Cedar Bay but didn't...missed some nice waves....

If I had the contest at "Old Crows Point" east of there I think most of the competitors would have been too tired to surf once they paddled out there and I would have had to judge in a boat.

So that wasn't you. Sobering was there. Doc Kelly the founding member of the Wyldewood Surf Club used to own a house in Cedar Bay and there is a cottage there with a surfboard at another house in Cedar Bay. I don't know what that's all about.


Frank after tomorrow I am on the road back towards competing again. Best to you and the family.

You would have enjoyed the surf yesterday at Cedar Bay, Wyldewood, or The Palmwood. Cedar Bay was the cleanest and the smallest. I bet all the places were working very well at sunset.