Well it all came together for this Harbour Day.
As we all know, once Todd (Boardhound) took over organizing the event a couple years ago, the gathering keeps getting better and better. First he brought on t-shirts, then catered food from Jeff and his family, then the raffle was born. Every year, Todd strives (works his butt off) to make the event more enjoyably and memorable for all. And this year was no exception.
It all started off Friday night at Woodies in Seal Beach, where a large crowd gathered to watch Rich's vintage surf footage and enjoy food, drink and companionship.
But Todd had planned a little something extra this Harbour Day's eve and soon John (srf4life), was presenting Rich with two bottles of Red Wine, engraved with the 5oth anniversary logo (no labels, so pretty sure 2 buck chuck, but oh well) and two very nicely engraved wine glasses. A cake was also presented which added a 50th Anniversary sweetness to this event.
After the masses left, a few of the die hards made their way over to Henneseys for one more pint to store up the carbs for the next day's surf.
Dawn found the coffee shops bustling with Harbour Owners excitedly making their way to Tower 20 in Bolsa Chica State beach, I pulled in around 6:15 in the Falcon, to an already filling parking lot and the roar of what promised to be a pounding but fun morning of surf.
Few Harbour Owners waited for one another as one by one, board and rider hit the water.
It was a namesake "Bolsa-Bitch" day, where rides would be fast and fierce, crashes many and brutal paddle outs the norm--which always makes for great pictures!
After an epic morning of barrels and wipe outs, we all headed to the canopies for the traditional group picture (see first photo) and some great food.
This years sojourner from afar was Tim Sale, who came over from England with his wife Pippa in order to meet fellow Harbour Owners, shake Rich's hand, and pick up the beauty of a board (a 40th anniversary) shown above. Tim also got the unexpected experience of surfing this board finless, when unbeknownst to him, the fin had popped out and he took off on his last wave without it...squirly but fun times for him. Rich was nice enough to replace the fin, so all ended well.
Now, ever since Jeff Stauffer and his giving family started preparing the meal for Harbour Day, it's been mouth watering fantastic. But it was taking it's toll on them and we all wanted Jeff out in the waves with us before 3 o'clock this year. So even though he'd been happy to do it Todd made the call to give Jeff and his family a hard earned break from catering duties. I was sure we'd be dissapointed with whatever food replaced it but Todd brought in an upstart catering company which knocked it out of the park with Hawaian barbequed chicken, steak, rice...
I can still taste that chicken.
So with mouths watering in bliss we gathered around, caught up with old friends, ran our hands down rails and told tales of the surf.
Surfer and Shaper together; Terry Simms and Rich Harbour
After the stomachs settled a bit, and the last raffle tickets were sold, it was time to give away some prizes.
Rich's renewed health thanks to succesful (and one of many) neck surgeries was apparent as he easily handled the ticket calling duties for the raffle, calling names and giving hugs (well, the girls anyway) to the winners.
Here he is with the big winner, Mark (woodnsea), who was all smiles after winning the big prize of a Harbour surfboard. Soon after this photo, he made the quickest exit I've seen, "Where ya' heading?", I asked. "To the shop!" And he was gone.
After clean-up, the crowds slowly made their way onto other Saturday doings, but a few of us went out again, and enjoyed the afternoon waves that continued to roll in.
As the afternoon waned, a tired and injured Todd settled back with a few of us in the Falcon and enjoyed a cold one, "I think this was the best one yet."
I agree.
TDRevolver
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All photos labeled Awe F'shore courtesy of Ron Woolhether, contact him for purchase of prints.
For a killer slide show, with many more photos of the day, go to JB's website, Harbour Slide Show it's definitely worth checking out, support JB by ordering some photos!
Here's a write-up from Laylan (photo above), a soon to be Harbour Owner (I'll be checking next year Laylan) at the Orange County Register.
http://beach.freedomblogging.com/2009/11/07/harbour-surf-day-honors-seal-beach-shaper/18599/
Here's the slideshow from that page: http://www.orangecounty.com/sections/article/gallery/?pic=22&id=1982
As the pictures roll in, I'll post links and and more photos as additional posts, but I wanted a summary of the day up asap. Hopefully, we'll have Lia's photo's including their Rincon post Harbour Day voyage to view shortly.
Keep the Stoke, hope to see you all on the waves.
TDRevolver
