This past weekend’s World Beach Invitational was a huge success, with great beach jamming conditions all weekend, and was combined with the Aloha Beach Festival this year, run by none other than our generous tournament director and host, Chipper Bro Bell. There were 5 simultaneous alternative sports contests (freestyle disc, canine disc, softboard challenge, longboard challenge, and a volleyball tournament), great food, and local island themed craft booths all along with 14 bands through the mega freaky slam bam sound system of Richie Bartle and BIG productions.

Chipper Bro, Corey, and the whole surfclass.com crew did a tremendous job pulling together their first festival. Sideline cameos were abundant with Mark Regalbuti, Carolyn and Steve Hubbard, Peter Laubert, and Danny Camernesi jamming up the beach. There was also a Scott Star and Ritchie Smits sighting along with Jan and Shane Sobel and the rest of the Sobel gang, who by the way are running the Beach Bowl this year in Malibu Aug. 27th. (e-mail for info at whizbo88@aol.com )

The conditions were kind wind and June gloom. The competition consisted of alternating canine and human routines. Saturday was a feeling out day with solid play by most with Dave Bailey and Dan “Monkeyman” Sullivan shining like their Miller tour days of old and Dave Lewis putting on his usual clinic as we’ve all become used to seeing. Chipper Bro, forever the consummate performer, threw down his mike, walkie-talkie, and clipboard and went out there and crushed some of the sweetest roll combos to huge finishes seen all weekend and the crowd let him know it.

Sunday saw the exact same conditions as Saturday, but folks seemed to get a little more fired up and hit their stuff. Mixed started with Cindy Kruger and Dave Lewis showcasing their Worlds routine, nailing it with lots of nice co-ops and diff. Next Amy and I came out, feeling the pressure of Cindy and Dave’s crowd response, and hit our routine with only one drop and goosebumps for all. Open had Chip warm it up again with his smooth charismatic style. Next, Pipo and I came out and redeemed our lackluster Saturday performance with an all out freak unleashing, highlighted by Pipo’s 3 or 4 ( I lost count ) triple spinning gitises. Dave L. and Jeff Kruger were next and had some great passes and radical indies. Dave’s fully dropless commitment to really difficult moves and getting completely soaked (shoes and all ) was quite memorable. Monkey and Bailey were hoping to repeat the previous days’ awesome performance, but a few early drops were too much to overcome.

All in all, a great time was had by all who attended, and Chip hopes to have another great turnout next year. Thanx, good luck to all going to Italy for the Worlds, and I’ll be seein ya at the Masters.

Peace and Love, schillz