Drop and Give Me Twenty

When I was a wee lad, all the way back in the mid-80's, I was a sponsored amatuer surfer. These sponsorships consisted of a Sun N' Surf Shop Team t-shirt and sticker, a few free tail pads from Trac-Top and 6 months of clothes from Rusty. And all I did was surf a few contests (poorly). The goal was to make it to Easterns.

Easterns is the final contest of the year for the Eastern Surfing Association (ESA) held in Buxton, NC at the legendary Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. I never made it to the contest there or even to Regionals, but i've surfed all over the Outer Banks in the last twenty years and it is truly a wonderful place.

This year come September, I'll be attending The Easterns for the first time.

As a coach.

I've had the pleasure of surfing with the Sopranzi Family for the past couple of years. Tony and I have become great friends, traveling to distant lands (Costa Rica! In front of our houses! Down the street a bit! The new inlet thingy!) in search of surf, but it seems the tide is changing. His daughters, Emilia and Elena have made the cut and will be surfing Easterns this year and I have been asked to join them on their journey as, for lack of a better term, coach. Stoked! Both excellent surfers, Emilia will be surfing in Women's Longboard and Elena is a first alternate for Girls Longboard. We'll be using this Summer to train, stretch, run some heats and watch a ton of longboard footage in preperation for their inaugural run at the title! Wish them luck!

Emilia Sopranzi, contest tip time.

Elena Sopranzi, cross steppin'.