It is with a heavy heart that I begin this message. As many of you know our wonderful and beautiful friend, longtime surfer and Club member, Dawn Moore Johannesen lost her battle with cancer. Dawn’s warmth and radiant smile along with her straight forward head on approach to life, love and happiness is an irreplaceable treasure and will always be missed and always a part of us. Dawn is survived by her equally amazing husband Wayne and her son Patrick. There is no question, we will have a celebration of Dawn’s life and as soon as any of us know when, we will make certain that our Windansea family and surf world are informed. Rest In Peace Dawn!
As we begin our journey into 2020 I would like to introduce you to your new Board of Directors. Before I do so, I would like to thank the past board for their valuable time, input and energy. I would like to thank Kit Kantner, first and foremost for putting up with me and taking on the difficult challenge of Vice President. I would like to thank both Nancy McCandless and Harold Reid for their role as Treasurer in 2019 both of whom managed our banking and watched our finances like nobody’s business. Thank you Secretary, Mike Lovell, who got “the” message out, and additionally his depth of understanding the Club bylaws was invaluable. Thank you Director at Large, Jeff Morrow, for your measured, calm and wise approach to tackling challenging issues. Thank you Director at Large, Indy Calloway for your intelligent and straight forward counsel. Additionally, thank you Indy for making your warm and cozy home open to the board for meetings. Last but not least, thank you Comp Team Director, Jon Roseman, who with the heart of a lion led our team of Spartan women and men, young and old to back to back victories in 2018 and 2019. Thanks to Jon, the Board and special thanks to Ozstar de Jourday, we enter 2020 as Coalition Champions!
Your new board consists of the one and only Black Belt in Brasilian Jiu Jitsu, Black Belt in both Long and Short Boards, Joel Tudor taking on the role of Vice President and Coalition Comp Team Director. Jeff Morrow continues his tenure on the Board as your Secretary. Past President, Robb Luscomb is your Treasurer. Directors at Large are Charles Hasley, Chuck Davey and Cadu Villela. Thank you all for your service to the best Club and family in the world!
Over the past two years your Club, your Board of Directors and fellow General Members have been hard at work doing what we do best. Winning contests and expanding our role as a leader in our community.
The vision this year on both fronts– competition and community service is to further our strategic alliances and take on more challenges.
Competition
To satisfy the appetites of our hard core militant shortboarders and bring them back and into the fold, we have held three “Classics” per year at our favorite break, Windansea. We have named this series “The Underground Triple Crown”. In charge of this trilogy of competition is Andre Desjardins with assistance from Triple Crown regulars Ozstar de Jourday and Cordon Baesel. If surfing Windansea with just a few of your friends alone isn’t good enough for you then how about the opportunity to win one of “Uncle” Harold Reid’s hand crafted, with Love and Aloha, trophies. Stay tuned for a “Classic” coming this spring, summer, fall and perhaps even winter!
Thanks to the efforts of past Comp Team Director, Jon Roseman along with the 2019 and current board, The WSC has helped create The La Jolla Board Riders to be part of and compete in the West Coast Board Riders Series, www.westcoastboardriders.com. This is a highly competitive shortboard series that was brought to our attention by our own Scott Eggers as well as WSC tandem champion, Illa McEvilly. This series will provide the best surfers in our community a canvas to express themselves and hone their competitive skills side by side with top amateur and pro surfers. Leading the charge on this is Chuck Davey and Cordon Baesel. On many levels this is a wonderful opportunity for the Club and our community. Board Riders has its second contest this Saturday the 15th at Seaside. Come on up and support your home team!
For those of us who prefer to glide with toes to the nose and wish to display their long board talents feel free to contact Joel Tudor or Ozstar de Jourday and come help us be the 2020 Coalition Champions. Please see the Club calendar for Coalition Contests. Our first in a series of ten is the “Big, Bad & Ugly” being held this weekend, Saturday the 15th at Morro Bay. Why do they call it the “Big, Bad & Ugly”? Well, when your lifeguard tower has a sign that says “Death From Drowning Happens Once In A Lifetime” that spells it out in plain English!
If you’re not into surfing in the contests come support the team by hanging out with us at the events. If you're feeling generous the comp team will gladly accept donations for those who need assistance with the entry fees and travel costs.
To cap it all off we have the Menehune Contest this year on Saturday Oct 3rd. So many of our members step it up to make certain this is the best 16 and under contest in the surfing world. Club members such as Chris Nyhan, Nancy McCandless, Harold Reid, Mike Perrault, Marney Cheney and Pyratt Billy Bottin, Russel Benton, Kellen Lovell and many others.
Past President and Menehune Director for the past ten consecutive years, Chip Hasley has done an amazing job organizing and executing this awesome event. To make the event even better, Chip came up with the wonderful idea of awarding scholarships for the winners. At last year’s Menehune the scholarship recipients along with the parents were totally stoked and I am certain that there will be bigger and more scholarships to follow.
Remember, surfing is now an Olympic sport and the official sport of California.
Community Service
On the Community Service front, your Club is stepping it up in a big way this year.
For starters August 22nd will mark the 35th consecutive year of “Day At The Beach” that benefits kids from Father Joe’s Villages. Past Presidents Robb Luscomb and Jon Roseman together came up with the idea of taking kids from Father Joe’s surfing for the day, feeding them, hanging out with them and making them feel empowered and special. Soon thereafter Windansea Heavyweight, Scot Cherry became the champion of this remarkable event and poured his heart and soul into it for over twenty years and really made it what is today. If the DATB for Father Joe’s wasn’t enough, Scot added a second DATB for special needs surfers and 2020 will mark the 19th consecutive year of working with Special Olympics and Exceptional Athletes.
We are adding a third Day At The Beach.
Last year, soon to be probationary WSC member and long time Windansea Surfer, Steve Sullaway, presented the BOD with an opportunity to partner with the YMCA to help “At Risk” high school girls. Last June of 2019, we hosted 20 young women at la Jolla Shores for a Day At The Beach of pushing them into waves and in turn the girls pushing themselves past their own limits and past their comfort zone. In every way imaginable the event was a huge success and this year on June 13th we will host almost 40 girls for the second ever YStrong Girls Day At The Beach!
Kiwanis Club of La Jolla
In 2019 we began developing a relationship with Kiwanis Club of La Jolla. The primary mission of Kiwanis is to improve the lives of children one community at a time. The main source of capital for Kiwanis La Jolla is their signature La Jolla Half Marathon held April of every year. With what they make from the race, Kiwanis is able to provide grants in excess of $200,000 to entities and causes that benefit kids here in San Diego and South of the border. Last year, thanks to Herculean efforts of Jeff Morrow, WSC was able to provide 20 volunteers to help with the race. That same year we were the recipient of a $5,000.00 grant for the Menehune Contest. This year, we need 40 volunteers from WSC to help Kiwanis run the La Jolla Half and fill a number of race-related positions such as gear check, manning water stations, etc. With a strong show of support this year we stand an excellent chance of receiving additional grants from Kiwanis and gaining solid community recognition for our efforts.
The La Jolla Rough Water Swim, now called The La Jolla Cove Swim is an integral part of La Jolla’s history and is now being run by The Kiwanis Club of La Jolla. This event is not only in our wheelhouse it is one that we have contributed to for years. Everything from water safety to Joe Roper’s world-famous fish tacos, WSC’s DNA is indelibly imprinted on this amazing event. Last year marked the first running of the Swim after a five-year hiatus and as usual WSC members provided water safety. This year WSC will have an opportunity to play an important role in this 100-year-old open water swim competition. We will keep you posted!
What is important, is that we are forging strategic relationships with organizations that are pillars of our community and in doing so becoming a pillar in our own right!
Get Involved
If any of you have relationships with other such organizations, non profit or otherwise, and would like to explore the possibilities, please let us know.
An example of this would be WSC member Shawn Styles, who in 2018 introduced us to Habitat for Humanity San Diego. Twice we put together a band of merry surfers and helped build homes for the less fortunate. Anytime we want to show up with our tool belts and hard hats, Habitat would love to have us back. Hint-hint, great for community service requirements!
Last year Scott Eggers noticed an “Adopt a Beach” sign at the foot of Palomar Street right in front of Big Rock. Thanks to his and the efforts of Mike and Noah Brown, pretty soon that sign will say, “Windansea Surf Club has officially adopted the beach” from Big Rock all the way to Simmons!
Mike and Maddy Perrault the day before the first big rain of this season organized a “Street Cleanup” to remove cigarette butts and harmful plastics debris from Playa del Norte. All of us were there in Club gear and picked up literally thousands of cigarette butts, straws, etc. Up and down the street we were approached by local residents thanking us for our efforts. The image of Windansea surfers doing something good for the community and for the critters in the oceans will not be soon forgotten. One amazing Windansea Family after another.
Another WSC Family that does it all is the Jernigans! Nate Jernigan not only surfs for the comp team he comes with his family, Stephanie, and Cortez and surfs all the hard to get to and challenging venues i.e. Morro Bay, San Miguel, etc. On the community service side of the equation, Stephanie Jernigan, by successfully campaigning the City of San Diego for speed bumps and crosswalk flashing lights on streets used heavily by school kids, families and the elderly, has most definitely saved countless lives from reckless drivers.
Melinda Merryweather, along with past WSC President, Hans Newman, worked hard to get the Shack designated a Historic Landmark. Melinda is truly a champion of our surf community and quite literally I could sit here and write pages and pages of all the wonderful ways and things she has done for all of us since the 60s.
The list of contributions over the past two years is way too large to write down in one message.
The point is, if you’re not involved, please be involved! It’s not the same without you and when you are, it just feels good!
Thank you all for everything that you have done, the contributions you have made and continue to make for this truly amazing family we call Windansea.
To end, I would like to give special thank yous to our Aloha Warriors who travel both far and near, make financial, personal and family sacrifices to surf for the honor The Windansea Surf Club.
Thank you!
Respectfully,
Bill “Brasil” Fitzmaurice