George Bryan Wins The
Slotstik World Championships

GEORGE WAS MISTAKENLY AWARDED THE WIN DO TO A SCORECARD TABULATION ERROR.  BRAD EVERS WAS THE TRUE WINNER WITH GEORGE TAKING THIRD PLACE. -Ed   08-09-2002

Just when you thought Bill Bryan had the entire tour in his pocket, here comes little bro to the rescue.  George handily defeated the competition in a contest in which he did so much to organize.  In this writer's estimation, the only problem the judges faced was deciding which five of George's eight (or so) barrels were going to count in the final heat!  Congratulations to George for rescuing the tour from another Bill Bryan sweep!  These were the top six:

1. George Bryan
2. Bill Bryan
3. Brad Evers
4. Paulo Prietto
5. Mike Stanaland
6. Keith Peery

I was even a bit surprised that Bill got second!  The waves during the finals were setting up perfect for the goofy footers and Bill, being the only regular footer in the final heat, wasn't getting much love.  It could have been the aerial big spin back onto the wave though...  Brad Evers proved that he is more than just a great trick skimmer by getting the two best barrels of the contest (and snatching a trophy for doing so).  Paulo Prietto was on fire during the entire contest consistently getting barreled as well as mixing in a trick or two.  Mike Stanaland and Keith Peery rounded out the top six with some solid skimboarding (the exact same placings they got at the Victoria World Championships...  eerie).

On Saturday the contest was held at Deer Creek as scheduled.  The conditions were a little mediocre however and when everyone arrived "early" Sunday morning we saw that the new swell had exposed a lot of rocks and the waves were pretty unreachable.  Lucky for us, a few miles up the road was Point Mugu and it was firing.  The south swell was reeling down the point and unloading onto the beach.  These were probably some of the heaviest conditions ever for a Pro/Am contest, more or less Ventura County!  I was stoked on it.  The conditions were tough but it allowed the riders to show the crowd what really great skimboarding is all about.  Some of the waves at this contest were just like you would see in a video, big and gnarly.

A stiff onshore wind was an ominous sign for what might happen in the afternoon.  But instead of getting worse, the wind died down and the sun came out, just in time for the finals.

Congratulations to Brad for winning best barrel(s) and Paulo Prietto for wining the expression session with a big spin down the line barrel.

Thanks to the Bryan Bros, Grady Archbold, Mike Taylor, Adrian Prince of Slotstik Skimboards, and everyone else who helped out for making this contest happen.  It was definitely worth the effort.

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