I certainly don’t want people towing into waves that I can paddle into, but in situations where gas power is the only way to get into 40-foot-plus waves, I’m undecided as to whether or not I have a problem with it. I’m as open to your arguments as I am to the guys who have offered to let me tag along next time the charge the reef.

Thanks for finding us and taking the time to post here. I’d love to take you up on your offer to tell us more about the Oregon tow-in scene, maybe developing a better story (or even movie) about the guys who pioneered and surf Tackle Buster Reef regularly. I’m sure it’s something our audience would find amazing.

Thanks again,
Rick

By Laura Eberly of the News-Times

A stream of spectators walked up and down the Coast Avenue hill on
Friday, stopping here and there to peer between the beachfront houses at
Nelscott Reef about three quarters of a mile offshore, a formation that
gives rise to the big waves that brought tow-in surfers from throughout
the world to the Oregon coast last week for the second annual Nelscott
Reef Tow-In Classic.

Top competitors had been waiting since Oct. 1 for word that optimal
North Pacific conditions would provide larger-than-usual waves, and for
the accompanying green light that meant contest invitees had 48 hours to
get to Lincoln City for the big wave competition.

On the day of the contest, passersby walking from the boat launch at the
bottom of the hill at Canyon Drive Park to the spectator lot provided by
contest organizer Behemoth LLC near the top couldn’t help but hear the
upbeat sounds of a live band coming from the beachfront yard of a
vacation rental located just a few doors down from the contest-
sponsored lookout, a house with banners hung from the second floor
deck railing encouraging onlookers to “Support the local tow-surfing
teams.”

By mid-day, a crowd of spectators of all ages – from very little people to
mature appreciators of the big wave riders – had gathered in the yard to
groove to the band and cheer for the pros out on the ocean while
standing and sitting next to local tow-in surfers who wait all year for a
day as big as Friday, and who, out of respect for their fellow surfers on
the waves, stayed off the reef and watched from the cliff above, many
wishing they were cheering for one of their own.

“This is a peaceful protest party,” said local tow-surfer Dan
Hasselschwert, a regular surfer, of Nelscott Reef – known by locals as
Tackle Buster Reef – where conditions run from “small” waves of 18 feet
to larger than Friday’s estimated heights of more than 30 feet.
Hasselschwert is a local middle school teacher, longtime surf instructor,
and owner of Ossie’s Surf Shop in Newport. It was he who, with the
support of a dozen or so local tow-surfers, rented the Coast Avenue
house for the day of the contest, made up the banner, brought in the
band, and invited anyone interested to come on over and watch the waves
from the yard as a way of bringing attention to what numerous local tow-
surfers perceive as a flaw in the organization of the fledgling contest – a
flaw they strongly feel can be remedied while the event is still in its
formative years.

Showcasing Oregon’s best
The Nelscott Reef Tow-In Classic, which just enjoyed a successful second
year, is a professional surf competition for invited participants only. It is
also the only pro surf competition in Oregon and the only pro tow-in surf
competition in the continental United States.

When organizers implement a contest area over a local surfing area,
protocol within the international surfing community encourages the
inclusion of selected local surfers who represent the best athletes among
those who regularly surf the contest break; while the locals may not be on
the professional competition circuit, they possess the experience of
having surfed the contest area for years, as is the case with numerous
surfers of the Nelscott Reef break.

Behemoth LLC – the contest host organization led by frontman John
Forse, owner and o
perator of the Nelscott Reef Surf Shop in Lincoln City –
invited two local tow-in teams to participate in the inaugural contest and
again invited two teams to participate in Friday’s event. Because of the
way the teams were selected, however, the local invitees chose not to
participate in this year’s contest.

Contrary to numerous expressions of frustration voiced by area surfers,
Forse contends “there is no controversy. It’s an invitational. The whole
thing is an invitational,” he told the News-Times. “There’s no organization
(in place) that has rankings or anything like that.”

This absence of some form of consensus selection process was the crux
of Friday’s peaceful protest and is the aspect of the contest local tow-
surfers would like to see changed.

Currently, contestant selection is at the discretion of Forse with input
from Behemoth LLC partners Adam Wagner and Jim Kusz. During the
Ossie’s Surf Shop house party on Friday, many regular Nelscott Reef
surfers said they would like tow-surfers whom the locals believe best
represent Oregon’s tow-surfing community included in the contest, rather
than see the slots reserved for locals given to participants based on no
other criteria than whether Forse believes them to be qualified.

Inviting locals to participate in surf contests is a tradition “that is done in
some cases,” Forse said. “However, this is a little bit different
circumstance than a lot of contests because this is such a dangerous
sport, there are lives on the line. I’m not going to throw somebody out
there who I don’t think can survive a wipeout on a 30-foot wave. If they
think they’re much greater than they are and I don’t think they are, I’m
not going to put them out there. These waves are dangerous, people die,
and if somebody misinterprets that as a lack of courtesy – I’m not just
going to throw a bunch of amateurs out there because they think they’re
ready and they’re not.

“Two teams were. They were marginal, but as a courtesy I invited them,”
Forse continued, adding he feels “there are very few qualified individuals
around here that belong out there in the first place.”

Local tow-surfer Ollie Richardson, a longtime surfer and surf instructor
and teacher at Newport High School, has been tow-surfing the reef for
several years. He admitted that, on a different note, many local surfers
would rather not see the competition take place at all.

“It’s not that we don’t want anyone to come up here and experience it and
have a great time, it’s that the local people miss out on one of potentially
only five or six days out of an entire year when it’s good,” Richardson told
the News-Times. “It was kind of unfortunate, if the contest wasn’t going
on I would have been out on the reef towing where the pros were towing
on the local break. We’re losing a day. There could end up being only
three days where it breaks all day long, and in fact Friday could have been
the best day of the whole winter season, and the locals couldn’t tow it
because they weren’t in the contest. It’s a really big issue for all the locals
around here.”

Richardson and Hasselschwert emphasized, however, the issue at hand is
not whether or not the contest exists – both recognized that Oregonians
seem excited about the competition and enjoyed seeing the exhibition –
but rather that local surfers’ inclusion in the contest is at the whim of one
or two organizers and does not necessarily represent the best of Oregon’s
tow-surfing community.

“In a best case scenario there would be a non-biased way to select two
teams from the area to compete in the contest and I think the way to
choose those teams would be that everyone who surfs out there on a
regular basis, who knows each other and how they surf, do a poll,”
Hasselschwert said. “Do a poll of those people, the people who are
actually out there. They can decide. What’s important is what the group as
a whole really wants.”

“To figure out the teams that best represent Oregon and the sport of
tow-surfing,” added Richardson.

“For future generations of this contest, there should be a fair, unbiased,
and competitive way to be included in the competition,” Hasselschwert
said. “I’d like to see us in the same house with the same band cheering on
Oregonians in next year’s contest.”

dan

Thanks for all that info. I enjoyed your article and found the resulting editorial dialog really interesting. Anybody wanting to dig deeper into the Nelscott contest controversy should check out those links above!

Take care,
Rick

It’s posted at:

http://www.newportnewstimes.com/articles/2006/12/13/news/news02.txt

News-Times Managing Editor Gail Kimberling’s editorial regarding the matter is posted at:

http://www.newportnewstimes.com/articles/2006/12/13/opinion/opinion01.txt

Contest organizer Adam Wagner’s letter to the editor is posted at:

http://www.newportnewstimes.com/articles/2006/12/20/opinion/letters/letters02.txt

and Ossie’s Surf Shop owner Dan Hasselschwert’s letter:

http://www.newportnewstimes.com/articles/2006/12/27/opinion/letters/letters01.txt

Thanks for the info on that. I’m going to hook up with Ryan to find out more about the situation. I think that they may also be glad to have a contest that honors their spot once a year. Hopefully next year they will be in it!

Rick