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The ASC Tent and a Few Others - Where Are the Other Pics?

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The Ride for a Cause surfing contest was organized as a way to have a fun day surfing together and at the same time raise funds for the March of Dimes. The ASC participated as a Club for the first time in 2007 and found this event to dovetail nicely with our Club's goals. Both this year and last year we have had a great time doing what we love, riding the waves, and donating some of our time and money to a worthwhile cause. Brett Carey and the MOD crew have done an excellent job in lining up sponsors and making sure that this a fun event... and it seems to improve every year. Below is the banner for this year's contest with a picture of several ASC team members from last year.


This year's MOD contest was postponed from Oct 4th to Oct 11th due to a forecast of near total flatness ("ankle or less"). Unfortunately, a number of our club members had prior commitments and were unable to attend the Oct 11th make-up date. Nonetheless, we were six strong at our beach house headquarters and drafted a few others to fill out our team rosters: Troy Saunders (Austin's dad) and Terry Newcomb rode on their Austin paipos for Team Lunch Tray and Myron Ware rode with us on ASC Team Statue (the surfboard team -- many ASC'ers know Myron from the GuidoPalooza gatherings in Cape Hatteras the past 10 years). Our two teams participated in the Team Division and Myron participated in several of the longboard and quad divisions as well.

There were 5 divisions in addition to the Team Division:

• Old School Longboarding. Classic old school tricks will be scored the highest (i.e., headstands, dying cockroach, etc.). Retro longboards are not required. Regular tricks will be scored but the judges want to see you go old school.
• Open Switch Stance Longboarding. Break out your log and ride it opposite stance from normal!
• Shortboard Open. Ride your sickest potato chip and go big!
• Surf Kayak. This event welcomes are paddling bros and sisters. (Cancelled and substituted by the Paipo Open.)
• Quad Shortboard Open. Ride a four-finned board!    

The event was held on Saturday, Oct 11, 2008, at the southside of the Sandbridge Pier, in Virginia Beach, VA, in windy on-shore conditions with surf ranging in the 3 to 6 foot range. Everyone had a great time.

Members of our Club raised a total of $3,975 in sponsoring contributions, and the Club donated an additional $240 in entry fees, for a total of $4,215. All proceeds went to the March for Babies (formerly known as the March of Dimes). The next closest sponsoring contributor group raised $695 which speaks volumes to the efforts of our Club members. Many thanks to our 7 sponsored teammates and the many Club members that assisted in this effort by sponsoring members from our MOD teams:

• Neal Carver
• Jack Crowley
• Kevin Filer
• Gary Lay (top fundraiser at over $1,000!)
  
• Rick Miale
• Rod Rodgers
• Chris Smith

Also, many thanks to Chris Smith for hooking up the Club with this event. We first heard about it 3 years ago but were unable to pull the trigger in 2006. Last year we had more time to plan and clear our schedules and both these last two years have been successful and rewarding.

Friday
KC, Neal and I rode down together in the Red Sled, stuffed to the gills with large quantities of longboards, shortboards and paipos, arriving to VaBeach in the early afternoon. The surf was rather small and choppy so we opted for a quick lunch, supply run and to check-in to our oceanview condo. Rick Miale joined us before too long. For dinner we took a quick spin to the Da Rican, a good Puerto Rican restaurant, for our ritual pre-contest mojitos, pork and rice and beans.

Saturday
The alarms started ringing around 6am. Made the obligatory espressos and coffee, quashed some junky breakfast foods and packed the bags/coolers for a day at the beach. It was about a 5 minute drive down to the pier after a 20-minute packing session. We set up the tent and settled in for the contest day. Christian Surfers provided water, eggs, breakfast burritos and donuts. Pizza was delivered around lunch time (missed that - the groms inhaled it all very quickly). Late afternoon we had a catered meal provided courtesy by one of the sponsors - very tasty jerk chicken, slaw, pork bbq and many other goodies. The highlight of the day were the Red Bull girls passing out samples in their thread bare silkies amidst the windy conditions :) There must be a pic somewhere!

For dinner we enjoyed some hogies on the condo lanai along with some favorite beverages.

Sunday
After checking the surf we breakfast'd and then KC, Neal and Rod packed up and headed home late morning.

Gearnut (Chris Smith) and Rick Miale went out on Sunday afternoon for a short session. The conditions were about the same except it was a tad smaller but still chunky. On Monday morning, Rick reported that some lines were forming but there was not enough juice and the high tide killed it. After dropping the keys off he headed west towards home.