Ox wishes he was a pro surfer!
Toyota Surfercross 2010 presented by Muscle Milk did not disappoint! The Surfercross is always a fun event, pairing together athletes from two completely different sports of surfing and motocross. I don’t think either sport really helps to train for the other, and when you get these guys together it is very apparent! This is how it works–pro surfer draws a random pro moto rider’s name out of a hat and that is their partner for the next 2 days of debauchery!
Words by Jeff “OX” Kargola
Day 1 went down at Starwest for the motocross portion of the event, which is comprised of 2 motos. In moto 1 the professional moto riders start and complete one lap, then they have to find their pro surf partner on the track and hand off a wristband for the surfer to ride 1 lap around the track…over and over…and that’s how it goes down. 1 lap for moto guy and 1 lap for surf guy until all laps are completed. Same scenario for 2nd moto but with the pro surf guys taking the start gate…which was COMEDY!!! Some of the teams included Josh Grant/Sunny Garcia, Ronnie Faisst/Nathan Fletcher, Ox/Kealii Mamalla, JCR Honda’s Johnny Campbell, Eric Siraten, Kendall Norman. Trigger Gumm/ ummmm can’t seem to remember that one haha. Day one was great, Wahoos hooked up the grinds and everyone made it out relatively unscathed. The score keeping was slightly suspect and we all enjoyed Cameron Steele making fun of just about everyone on the Mic.
Day 2 of Surfercross took us to my very own backyard in San Clemente! Trail 6 in San Clemente hosted the surf contest portion which was more comedy! The weather was beautiful, water was warm, Wahoos and Muscle Milk kept our bellies full and, yet again, Cameron Steele was on the mic making fun of everyone! Only problem with the surf was that it never really made an appearance, which I’m pretty sure the moto guys didn’t have a problem with. Some of the funniest surfing attempts had to have been the ones made by JGR’s Josh Grant! He decided to ride my partner Kealii’s stand up paddle board minus the paddle and took some good diggers! But with a little help from his world champ partner Sunny Garcia he soon found his zone and got a few waves under his belt. One of the biggest surprises to me had to be the skill that Jersey Shore himself Ronnie Faisst had! This guy actually knows how to surf! After the first round of heats, Faisst actually had the highest score of all the pro motocross riders which was a shocker ’cause, well, I figured I had a couple good ones. The waves really weren’t cooperating but everyone was still glad to be at the beach. Little did they all know, that very same day less than a mile down the beach there was footage taken of 2 great white sharks swimming in the surf! Check out the video below…it’s crazy! Ya, I bet they still don’t know they were literally on the menu!
With the contest wrapped it was the team of Josh Grant/Sunny Garcia taking the overall win! I took 3rd in Pro Surf and 4th overall. I really don’t care about the other results so good luck with knowing what they were. I know one thing though, next year when it comes time for X Games and the US Open of surf in Huntington Beach, I’ll have a giant smile on my face knowing that its time for more SURFERCROSS!!!!!!!! Thanks J Bone, you made it happen yet again!
