Manasquan
"NO RULES, NO LEASHES, NO COMPLAINTs"
On the third Saturday of September, Anthony and I packed up our photo gear at 5am and beat it an hour and a half south to Manasquan Beach, New Jersey - a first for all of us. Paul was competing in the Men's division of the Manasquan 24th Annual Classic Longboard Contest. The rules are this: NO RULES, NO LEASHES, NO COMPLAINTS and surfers must ride a pre-1967 longboard. Paul checked in with his late 60's single fin David Nuuhiwa Bing Noseriding Model at 7:30am on the north side of the inlet. Throughout the morning, contenders trickled in from the parking lot and started stretching and waxing their boards. Some even jumped in for a quick dip to warm up.
Mia, Anthony, and I laid out our blankets and set up camp for the day. We crunched down some granola bars and got ourselves all caffeinated up with some cold brew iced coffee from one of the beach concession stands. The day was spent jumping through waves in between surf heats, snacking, and catching way too much sun. The sets rolling in spewed out 3 foot waves right up against the jetty. It was a special site, watching surfers on one side of the jetty, and humongous fishing ships heading out to sea on the other. Each heat was 11 minutes of who could catch the best waves. Paul surfed his way through three heats, dancing and sliding along his board, and into the finals. All in all we had a wonderful last day of summer and headed straight for the famous and frankly well deserved Surf Taco.
