The competitors were greeted with clear skies and clean conditions at the 2019 TAC Skimblast in Santa Cruz.
For the pro women, local favorite Jackie Gollbach went up against Amber Torrealba and Sam Victor. Jackie was able to throw a lot of spray and lay down some big hacks, but Amber brought some tech game that proved enough to give her the win.
The first two rounds of pro men were held in small but prime 1-3 foot conditions, making for some especially competitive heats with lots of technical combinations. Blair Conklin and Lucas Fink were the clear standouts early on. Blair was able to loft some very stylish airs, including a few clean backside big spins off the lip. Lucas was proving that he was out for the win early on, linking many of his rides with shove its before and after waves. John Weber was planing out farther than almost every other rider, catching some of the biggest waves of the day with plenty of speed to spare. Bill Bryan was another stand out in the early rounds, breaking out some of his switch stance skills, including a switch 360 shove it, something no other competitor was doing.
In the quarter finals during the afternoon, the swell dropped along with the tide, making for slightly more challenging conditions, but it was still very contestable. Blair took down Bill in the first heat. Lucas also had a great quarter final heat, including one wave with a two 360 shove its, one before the wave and one after, defeating David Haefele. John Weber had an especially competitive heat against Jack Klingman, who made the quarter finals for the first time in his pro career. Austin Keen took to the air in his heat, defeating Paddy with some lofty backside spins. The semi finals were especially close, with Blair and Weber battling it out with similar smooth styles. Blair ended up edging out Weber and advancing to the final. Austin came out gunning in his heat against Lucas. Austin attempted a bigspin grab to fingerflip. While he didn’t pull it, it was still one of the more memorable tricks of the contest. Lucas nonetheless was able to pull ahead in that heat and advance to the final.
The final was set with the top two UST finishers from 2018, Lucas and Blair for the last heat of the day. During the final, Lucas opted for a more technical approach while Blair looked for bigger airs. Lucas stomped a 540 shove it off the lip early along with a few other technical combinations, giving him an early lead. On one wave, Lucas also pulled two 360 shove its before wrapping back to the shore, giving him the highest score of the final. During the last 5 minutes of the heat, Lucas drew an interference penalty after Blair and Lucas collided while running for the same wave, costing Lucas his top score from the heat. Shortly after that call, Blair was able to land a 540 shove it down the line.
After the heat, the banter on the beach was that no one was sure who had won the heat. Even with the interference call, it seemed like Lucas had skimmed well enough that he still had a chance. When the scores were tabulated and the interference was accounted for, Blair won by less than one point on two of the three judges’ scorecards, giving him the title of TAC Skimblast champion for 2019.
Words By David Haefele