Brandon Sears Wins In Melaque
Words by Luis Uribe, edited by Steve Taylor
It’s been more than 8 years since the first contest that I (Luis Uribe) and Drew Peace organized in Melaque. By that time the international skimboarding scene did not know anything about this tiny town that is located in the middle of the jungle in Mainland Mexico. After the contest I couldn’t be more surprised for the insane growth in skills of the local riders that had been killing it with woodies for years and the potential shorebreak that this area had to offer.
I still remember talking to Aaron Peluso about this place and one day he and Paulo came to support the sport in this area, and then Paulo and Matt Adams decided to come down to film a movie: Wunderkind. The rest is history, the sport has grown so much with the help of Diego Barba and his brother Jorge doing a great job putting together a contest that goes beyond expectations. In my opinion, it is more of a big skimboarding celebration that brings together people from all over Mexico and nowadays people from USA, France and Venezuela. Besides Cabo, it is definitely the biggest contest in the country and every year more and more people come to taste the real Mexico with warm water, warm people and fun waves.
With an extremely competetive amateur divisions, this contest also holds one of the most competitive pro divisions in skimboarding. This years conditions did not seem to be cooperating much in the beginning of the week but luckily by the weekend a southwest swell hit the area providing fun conditions for Saturday heats and even bigger and better waves for Sunday morning.
This year Diego decided to run man and man heats which made everything more interesting. It is great to see such an equal competition even when you have the big names in the sport competing with the local riders who were dominating the whole weekend. Tim Fulton, Scrappy Flores, “Chopa” and Tule were skimming great, landing big airs and getting things done on the technical side. Morgan Just skimmed solid all weekend making it through heats but was halted in the semi-finals by Brandon Sears. Tim Fulton also was knocked out in the semi’s but not before racking up the highest heat total of the event in the second round of competition. Tim walked home with 4th place and Morgan with a respectable 5th. That left Sam Stinnett, Juan Nazario (Bullo) and Brandon Sears making the final. They ran the final on Sunday evening, wind had picked up by that time and made conditions more challenging. Juan and Sears decided to go more technical while Sam was trying to get to some far out backside wraps. Juan pulled a bigspin to backside wrap all the way back to the beach while Sears landed and huge bigspin grab that threw the crowd to their feet. Sears narrowly beat out Juan and Sam taking home the win.
In the end the Melaque contest is more of a big brotherly celebration where everyone goes home with smiles on their faces and tales of good times and better waves. This place or I should say these people make you feel at home during the competition days which reminds you the reason why we all skimboard; the reason why people from all over the country and different countries travel for this experience: because we all love skimboarding and the lifestyle around the sport.
Thanks do Diego Barba for all his work organizing the contest, and all that helped him put the event together. Until next year.
