|
|
One of the favorites to win the this weekend's World Bodysurfing Championships is Leucadia's Tim Casinelli, left, congratulated by his brother, Gary, at last week's Carlsbad Bodysurfing Championships.
To hear a bodysurfer tell it, their sport is not an activity, it is an experience.
No doubt they get a kick out of jumping into the water on a hot summer day with nothing but a bathing suit
and swim fins, and the health benefits are evident from the work it takes to get into the surf and wait for the right wave. But bodysurfers take it well beyond the extreme.
There may be no better
example than Bill Missett, who co-founded the World Bodysurfing Championships in Oceanside while serving as managing editor of the Blade-Citizen newspaper. The event is set to hit the water for the 21st
consecutive year beginning Friday.
Upon his retirement, Missett moved to Puerto Escondido, Mexico, which by no coincidence is considered Baja's finest wave.
"There's an incomparable
feeling bodysurfing, that you are one with the wave, and you experience that wave like no other being on Earth," said Missett, who retired in 1991 from the Blade-Citizen, predecessor to the North
County Times, which still co-sponsors the event.
"You ride up in the barrel of this creature of nature, and it's an extraordinary thrill. It is you and Mother Nature, and the experience
eventually improves you mentally and physically and opens you up emotionally and spiritually."
Bodysurfers will tell you these things are beyond the comprehension of a non-surfer, and why
many of those who give it a chance don't ever give it up. It seems to be a sort of therapy, which may explain why you will see more than just a pack of beach bums on the Oceanside shore Friday morning
for the opening rounds of the World Championships.
"Most bodysurfers are very together people, contrary to popular conception," said Missett. Among those competing this week will be
doctors, politicians and executives, and some beach bums too.
"It's one of the few sports you can get away from technology," said Dr. Chris Lafferty, a San Diego obstetrician who will
attempt to win his second age division title at this year's Worlds. "There's no way for someone to talk you out of bodysurfing. In anything else, you can have a phone on you or a pager. This way,
you can get away from it, and you have a good excuse to get away from it. You can't take a phone out in the water with you."
Oceanside Mayor Dick Lyon got lured by the waves long before he
was a politician, but a busy career hasn't forced him to give it up.
"I got addicted to it in high school," said Lyon, who will compete in the 65-and-over division at age 74. "It's
just you in the wave and you're closer to the water as you can possibly get. It's like the boogey-boarder craze. They're very close to the surface of the water without anything but yourself and some swim
fins."
There is one prominent local executive who will be out of town for this year's Worlds. Chargers GM Bobby Beathard will be in Minnesota for the team's exhibition game, but still found
time to compete in the Carlsbad Bodysurfing Championships last weekend.
All of them struggle to put into words what they experience, but there is an understanding between all of them, which may
explain why bodysurfers bond as they do. And also why they keep coming back, year after year.
The favorite for the competition may well be Carlsbad champ Tim Casinelli, an eight-time age division
winner and former grand champion who is a local from Leucadia. Mike Cunningham of Gardena, also an eight-time winner (six as grand champion), is the defending men's grand champion.
Tish Denevan of
Santa Cruz is the defending women's grand champion. Virginia Cartwright of New Zealand is a seven-time champ who finished second last year.
Clearly, it's tough for new blood to crack the top
ranks. Contestants are judged on wave selection, quality of takeoff, position in the wave, style and length of ride, maneuvers, quality of exit, sportsmanship, and originality.
There is more to it
than that, bodysurfers will tell you, but the secrets will forever lie with the bodysurfing gods, who seem to only speak through the barrel of a wave.
|
|
