First Ever Nelscott Reef Paddle In Contest Announced!
LINCOLN CITY, Oregon, July 16th, 2008 - Behemoth, LLC is proud to announce the 2008 Nelscott Reef Tow In Classic lineup and a new paddle in contest, a first for the Classic. Coming off three years of perfect contest conditions, Behemoth has raised the bar for the 2008 contest. Once again, the world’s best tow in surfers will converge in Lincoln City, OR for the one-day event to be held sometime between October 1 and December 31st, 2008.
This years contest will once again attract some of the biggest names in the sport. Previous winners of the event, Jake and Zach Wormhoudt and Garrett McNamara and Kealii Mamala will return, competing against such names as Brad Gerlach and Mike Parsons, Greg and Rusty Long, Tyler and Russell Smith, and an Irish team of Alistair Mennie and Andrew Cotton. This year there will be 16 teams competing for the prize money, rather than 20 teams from previous years. The smaller field will allow more waves per contestant and minimize interference. New this year is the introduction of a paddle in contest, to be held in the one hour slot between the preliminary heats of the Tow contest and the finals. The winner of the paddle contest will get a seed, along with their tow partner, to the 2009 Nelscott Reef Tow In Classic, plus a cash purse.
Behemoth has always advocated the philosophy that ‘Big Wave credentials are established by paddling big waves not by the simple purchase of a PWC’ and is a requirement to be a competent and safe tow in surfer, a philosophy shared by many if not all of the pros. The addition of the paddle in event is a natural extension of that philosophy. “This is the best way for the locals to prove that they have what it takes to compete against the best in the world”, says Forse. “The winner of the paddle contest will get a seed, along with their tow partner, to the 2009 Nelscott Reef Tow In Classic, plus a cash purse”.
Behemoth has set aside half of the available slots for the locals. The locals will have their work cut out for them, with the field of ten surfers vying for the biggest and baddest wave they can paddle into. The pros competing in this year’s paddle in event will be Zach Wormhoudt, Mike Parsons, Shane Desmond, Greg Long, and Al Mennie. Local Oregonian invitees are Steve Harnack, Tim Hinton, Dan Hasselschwert, Jay Senewald, and Jason Garding. The contest has a 3-month holding period to allow for the best possible combination of large surf and weather. During that time, John Forse, the pioneer of Nelscott Reef, monitors the forecasts and when conditions look right, he makes the call, which is a 48-hour notice of the start of the event. For three years in a row, his call has been the right one, with each year bringing bigger and better conditions on the contest day. The 2007 event was split between 2 days, with waves up to 50 feet on some of the sets.
The Nelscott Reef Tow In Classic, unofficially marks the opening of the Pacific big wave season. With the absence of La Nina, which plagued the North Pacific with poor conditions last year, conditions could be epic again.
2008 Confirmed Tow In Contest List:
Shane Desmond (N.Cal) Tyler Fox (N.Cal)
Garrett McNamara (HAW) Kealii Mamala (HAW)
Raph Bruhwiler (CAN) Keith Malloy (S.Cal)
Zach Wormhoudt (N.Cal) Jake Wormhoudt (N.Cal)
Brad Gerlach (S.Cal) Mike Parsons (S.Cal)
Greg Long (S.Cal) Rusty Long (S.Cal)
Russel Smith (N.Cal) Tyler Smith (N.Cal)
Dave Mcgill (Oregon) Matt Esnard (Oregon)
Yuri Soledade (Brazil) Everaldo Pato Texeira (Brazil)
Jeremy Rasmussen (Oregon) Tom Miller (Oregon)
Al Mennie (Ireland) Andrew Cotton (Ireland)
Jeff Kafka (N.Cal) Brent Simpson (N.Cal)
Alec Cooke (HAW) TBD
2008 Paddle In Contest List:
Zach Wormhoudt (N.Cal)
Mike Parsons (S.Cal)
Shane Desmond (N.Cal)
Greg Long (S.Cal)
Al Mennie (Ireland)
Steve Harnack (OR)
Tim Hinton (OR)
Dan Hasselshwert (OR)
Jay Senewald (OR)
Jason Garding (OR)
