Surfing weekend looms

Surf city: A longboard extends from a pickup outside Noll Surf Shop. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

The annual Noll Longboard Classic starts Friday, and local surfers and businesses are ready.

Referring to the rainy weather during much of last year’s event, organizer Beverly Noll said, “we made it past it, the superstitious 13th even brought a storm, but the smiles remained on everyone’s faces last year.”

And, according to National Weather Service Met­eorologist Jeff Tonkin, this weekend’s forecast doesn’t look too bad.

“It probably won’t be sunny,” Tonkin said. “But it should be pretty decent.”

Hosted by Noll Surf and Skate and sponsored by a variety of Crescent City businesses, the event was started as a chance for local surfers to compete.

“The Noll Longboard Classic began for me as a venue for competition, and has evolved into a wonderful coming together of the best people I know, full of camaraderie,” said Rhyn Noll.

The theme of this year’s competition is the Polynesian word “makai,” which means down to the ocean, according to a press release from Noll Surf and Skate.

“In the Hawaiian language, the word makai literally means ‘towards the ocean’ or ‘toward the sea’,” writes Rhyn Noll. “It is a directional term and is used the way north, south, east, or west might be used.”

Not only is the theme fitting, since participants will be meeting “down by the ocean” on South Beach, it is also personal for the Noll family, because it is the name of Rhyn Noll’s new daughter.

• Friday: Second annual Stand-up Surfer Event, 10 a.m., South Beach

• Saturday: Longboard Classic heats begin at 7:30 a.m., South Beach

• Sunday: Quarter and semi-final heats, finals and the awards ceremony, with first heats starting at 7:30 a.m., South Beach

• Sunday night: Wipe Out Night, Chart Room Restaurant; “Come eat, drink and talk story.”

The stand-up surfing contest includes a race around Muscle Rock, which is directly in front of the Beachcomber Restaurant on South Beach.

Stand-up surfing, while a relatively new take on wave riding, actually hails to surfing’s Polynesian origins. The roots of stand-up surfing reach back more than 100 years to when wave riders in Hawaii used paddles and wood planks for transportation.

The modern stand-up surfer rides a board that is big enough and stable enough to stand on in flat water.

Instead of paddling from a prone position with their hands, stand-up surfers do just what the name implies;  stand up and use a paddle to move through the water and catch waves.

Due to the fact that they are always standing, looking out at a break full of stand-up surfers is eerily like watching people walking on water.

Both competitions are open to surfers of all ages and abilities, so long as they are riding a board 9 feet or longer.

Registration is currently under way, and because of limited space, organizers recommend that people register as soon as possible.

While the event is all about surfing, onlookers will find plenty of food, vendors and music to occupy their time between watching heats.

On the beach all weekend will be, “great grub, coffee, T’s, hoodies, hats, massages, jewelry, raffle prizes and surprises,” the press release states.

And on Saturday there will be a free yoga class for surfers at 11 a.m.

“We’ve got the heat sheets up on the Web, last-minute entries are encouraged because they haven’t filled up yet this year,” Bev Noll said. “The number of spots left changes hour by hour, and people are already arriving. We’ve had a lot of people through the store; it really is like a big family reunion.”