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Press Release by White Whale Productions
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Boulanger wins trip to Barbados at 8th Annual K-Coast / Reef Surf Festival
OCEAN CITY, MD. – It only takes two waves and that’s all local teenager Vince Boulanger needed in the final to pull off a stunning victory over some of the top East Coast surfers at the K-Coast/Reef Surf Festival Saturday, Oct. 14.
Rachell Harrell, of Ocean View, Del., won the Open Girls, Cole Richards, of Murrells Inlet, S.C., took the Grom division and Art Baltrotsky, of Berlin, Md., placed first in the Open Longboard division. All three won new surfboards and prize packages from K-Coast Surf Shop.
The eighth annual competition brought 104 of the best surfers from South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey and more than $10,000 in prizes were given away. The event also raised $2,000 for the Ocean City Career Firefighters and Paramedics Association and $500 for Darin Ruark, a 17-year-old Salisbury School student who was paralyzed in a car accident.
Boulanger, a 17-year-old high school senior from Ocean City, Md., earned a trip to Barbados and a slot in the Reef Bowl Invitational Surfing Classic professional competition November 3-5.
“I’m still trying to figure it all out – it was such a surprise,” said Boulanger, who was mobbed by family members in a wild celebration on the beach at 35th Street after being named the winner. “My mom (Teri) ran up and hugged me and everyone was screaming.
“I’m still freaking out about it,” he said two days later. “All the guys in the heat – especially Jeff Myer (who finished second) – were really good and surfed really well. I kept seeing those guys getting sick waves and I couldn’t get anything.”
Boulanger did catch a decent wave in the beginning of the heat that scored well and then found a better one toward the end of the heat where he had a chance to do some critical maneuvers. In between, he paddled up and down the beach searching for a set and watching the other competitors’ shred.
“I knew there were some really good surfers in the contest and in the beginning my goal was to just make the final,” said Boulanger, who won every heat on his way to the final. “I thought I got maybe second or third, but not first.
“But I think that very last wave is what did it,” he said. “I managed two turns and it was just enough.”
Boulanger, who has dominated the local surfing competitions this summer, now has a chance to compete at the highest level in Barbados – if he can get there.
“Right now I have to get a passport and I’m scrambling to get my stuff in order,” he said.
Girl’s Open winner Harrell scrambled before the competition just to find a shortboard to ride. Days before the contest her brother Roy found one in a dumpster, but it was broken into three pieces. Her dad, Roy, glued it together and sanded it down.
She used that makeshift board to win her first brand new longboard, which she promptly traded in for an Andy Irons model high performance shortboard at K-Coast Surf Shop.
“[The pieced together] board rode like a regular board but it was a little heavy in the nose,” said the 13-year-old who is homeschooled.
During the Girls final an onshore breeze made the clean waist-high surf mushy and bumpy and all the competitors had a difficult time finding anything to ride.
“It was a close heat and it was hard to tell who was doing well because the waves were pretty bad,” Harrell said. “I was lucky to find a couple of sets and got a couple of waves. I never had the chance to work them – I just tried to stay on because it was so bumpy.”
But now rides should be a lot smoother with her new board. “I tried it already and I really liked it,” she added.
K-Coast, Surf Shop and Reef are already planning to make next years event even bigger. Other surf industry partners that made this event possible were DaKine, Xcel Wetsuits, Smith Optics, Freestyle Watches, L*Space Swimsuits, The Eastern Surfing Association, Global Surfboard Industries, X106.9 FM and Belly Busters.
The next Delmarva ESA event is the Sea Witch Surf Fest on October 28 at Tower Road State Park in Dewey Beach, Delaware. For more information about the Eastern Surfing Association, visit www.DelmarvaESA.org or call 410-641-3329. To help raise money for Darin Ruark, contact Judy Sieg at 410-208-9615 or visit K-Coast Surf Shop at 35th Street in Ocean City, Maryland to purchase raffle tickets to win a new surfboard and raise money Darin Ruark.
K-Coast / Reef 2006 Surf Festival results:
Open Shortboard (all ages)
1. Vince Boulanger of Ocean City, Maryland
2. Jeff Myers of Virginia Beach, Virginia
3. Chris Todd of Virginia Beach, Virginia
4. Drew Meredith of Duck, North Carolina
5. Raven Lundy of Virginia Beach, Virginia
6. Waldon Remington of Ocean Pines, Maryland
Grom (14 and under)
1. Cole Richards of Murrells Inlet, South Carolina
2. Cam Richards of Murrells Inlet, South Carolina
3. Caleb Buchler of Fenwick Island, Delaware
4. Dillon Harrington of Ocean City, Maryland
5. Brady Dashiell of Salisbury, Maryland
6. Spencer Ashton of Berlin, Maryland
Open Girls (all ages)
1. Rachel Harrell of Ocean View, Delaware
2. Jenna Landon of Newark, Maryland
3. Kelsey Willison of Ocean City, Maryland
4. Kate Bassett of Berlin, Maryland
5. Kaitlyn Curran of Whitehaven, Maryland
6. Danielle Ariano of Lewes, Delaware
Open Longboard (all ages)
1. Art Baltrotsky of Berlin, Maryland
2. Cole Richards of Murrells Inlet, South Carolina
3. Chris Makibbin of Ocean City, Maryland
4. Corbett Monica of Bradley Beach, New Jersey
5. Jake Buchler of Fenwick Island, Delaware
6. Dane Wooleyhan of Millsboro, Delaware
For more information about the Eastern Surfing Association contact:
Art Baltrotsky
Delmarva District ESA Director
http://www.DelmarvaESA.org
P.O. Box 207, Ocean City, MD 21843
410-641-3329
Art@ArtBpics.com
The Eastern Surfing Association (ESA), founded in 1967, a non-profit, IRS tax-exempt corporation, is the largest amateur surfing organization in the world with more than 7,000 members. It is dedicated to the sport of amateur surfing, to the operation of a program of amateur competition for surfers of all ages and abilities, and to the establishment and preservation of public access to a clean shoreline and ocean environment. The association's activities are organized in a total of twenty-six districts, which extend along nearly 2,000 miles of coastline, stretching from Maine through the Gulf Coast of Florida and Alabama and also around the Great Lakes. The Delmarva District currently has more than 350 active members and is operated by a non-paid, all volunteer staff. Visit the Delmarva ESA on-line at www.DelmarvaESA.org.