RIGHT FOOT FORWARD: Owen Wright wins a goofyfoot-heavy Hobgood Challenge presented by Pac Sun

Damo

Actually, no competitor went home entirely empty-handed.

Early in the week, as surfers waited on a swell – and Dion and Garut who were delayed by a cyclone — CJ and Damien ran several smaller challenges. The first, a game of “S.U.R.F.” — a surfing version of the basketball favorite “P.I.G.” — pitted Wright against Marzo and Geiselman versus Payne. For three hours each, the surfers shouted maneuvers before standing up, repeatedly matching each other whether the call was a “frontside three” or a combo of roes and snaps, until finally, dramatically, their opponent folded. The best example? Geiselman’s double-grab one-footed air to take down Payne.

The next day rose to less swell than before, calling time for a no-fins showdown. The original plan was simply to pull as many consecutive 360s as possible but – after pushing through that awkward dropping phase — some began doing turns, and in the case of Marzo, tuberides and airs. Meanwhile, Payne grabbed a retro Mark Richards twin-fin from the boat and went to town, prompting a challenge within a challenge. And though Wright surfed the vintage stick longest, it was Payne who took home a $25 I-Tunes certificate for bringing the dinosaur into the modern age, while Marzo claimed the no-fins honor and Wright and Geiselman cashed in on the S.U.R.F. game.

That’s right. Twenty-five bucks each. Nothing else. The twins knew from the start that sweet victory was more of a motivator than cold cash (as proven by the competitors splitting Pac-Sun’s $16,000 purse). In fact, Owen’s reward for winning the whole damn thing was just one U.S. dollar more than the others – and an icewater shower after the ceremony. Still, the comp’s youngest surfer was hot on the result.

“I’m over the moon, really,” he shivered, shaking frozen cubes from his air. “These are some of the best guys in the world. And the wave? Can’t imagine anything getting much better.”

Neither could anyone else. But, come the day after the Pro Junior, all experts would be happily proven wrong once more as the surf went from merely perfect to full-on mindblowing, putting a winning smile on every face, as Damo nabbed one of the top backside tube rides of his whole career and CJ claimed, “The best righthand wave I’ve ever surfed.”

For the proof, stay tuned to www.pacsun.com for three separate webisodes beginning March 1.

And look for the complete feature story from a week’s worth of challenges in the June issue of SURFING Magazine.

RESULTS OF THE HOBOOD CHALLENGE PRESENTED BY PAC SUN:

Owen Wright
Dion Atkinson
Clay Marzo, Garut Widiarta
Dusty Payne, Eric Geiselman

The Invitees.

[Special thanks to Scardy at World Surfaris, the crew at Wavehunters, Boardsports Management, Continental Airlines, Paul Barranco and Erik Ippel for their production savvy and PacSun and Globe for all their support. ]

 

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