It was the first time he had ever qualified for the finals, and you might think there wouldn’t be much to complain about on a day like that.
But there was hardly anything resembling a wave during the 15-minute heat. The clouds rolled in, turning a warm afternoon cold.
 Rachel Graham took home two medals from Sunday'€™s surf contest despite kelp, a lack of waves and the occasional lost surf board. |
“We were talking about how cold the water was, how freezing we were and how small the waves were,” Maki said. “When it’s cold, we complain a lot.”
Teammate Rachel Graham was in the very next final, also the longboard. Though she and her competitors didn’t get many waves, she made enough of an impression with the judges, winning that title. She was also third in the shortboard. Teammate Samantha Vingo took second.
Half Moon Bay had a bye in the team competition. But it will compete as a team on Dec. 20 when the Cougars host the next meet at Surfer’s Beach.
Maki took sixth in his division, receiving a medal.
“I took whatever I could,” Maki said. “I did it to the best of my ability.”
It was a different tale in the semifinals when Maki finished third. Three-foot waves helped the cause.
“Even though there were no waves (in the finals), I still made it to the finals,” Maki said. “That means something to me.”
The surf and weather were only some of the problems.
“There was a lot of kelp,” Graham said. “It was really shallow. You do what you could do with it.”
The surf started to come up during one of her semifinal heats but Graham had some other drama. She had to cut one ride short when an unattended surfboard popped up. She knocked the board down, then fell off her board.
There were no errant boards or waves in the finals.
“In the shortboard final, there were about three waves,” Graham said. “I had one wave that I managed to do some stuff on. No one else was getting much either. It was just luck of the draw, the right place at the right time.”
“All of us were excited to be out there,” Graham said. “We like to compete.”
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