National Surf League | The Game

Ventura’s Dane Reynolds

Close Call

Ventura narrowly defeats a determined Santa Cruz in first day of Quiksilver Game Week 

May 9th,  2004, Ventura Seaside Park/C street ‘Pipes’ - In yet another exciting and close game, a renewed Santa Cruz team challenged Team Ventura on home turf at the Quiksilver Game Week, losing to Ventura in the last two minutes by 3 points, VC: 171.5 to SC: 168.5.

The first day of the Quiksilver Game Week attracted a strong local crowd including many families on this mother’s day.  After both teams were defeated in last week’s Orange County three day sweep, Santa Cruz arrived in Ventura’s Seaside Park at C Street with a strong desire and refined focus to defeat Ventura.  After the traditional coin toss, Ventura opted for Santa Cruz to open the first quarter with long rides from Josh Loya, Josh Mulcoy and Jason ‘Ratboy’ Collins who posted double digit scores respectively.  The Ventura team responded with explosive surfing from Hank Mills snapping turns off of head high right hander waves while team mates Adam Virs, Keoni Cuccia and Nathaniel Curran attacked all wave opportunities with Nathaniel pulling powerful turns on clean lefts, which ‘Pipes’ provided.   At the end of the first quarter, Ventura leaded Santa Cruz by a small margin of 4.5 points (Q1: VC: 45 to SC: 40.5).

Ventura’s Bobby Martinez

Santa Cruz focused on keeping the momentum in the second quarter, as they pushed on to gain ground on Ventura.  Solid wave performances by SC’s right hand waves by Sean Peterson and Tyler Fox propelled SC to a 3.5 overall lead for Santa Cruz over Ventura (Q2: SC: 43.5, VC: 35.5).  Tyler Fox’s consistent flow and drive down the line rendered him a strong combined wave score for the quarter score of 12.  Meanwhile, the Ventura team, stacked with heavyweights Dane Reynolds and Bobby Martinez were unable to match Santa Cruz’s 2nd quarter consistency. 

Third quarter action saw Santa Cruz continue with their push to widen a gap between themselves and their adversaries with a 9.5 point overall lead.  Kieran Horn posted the game’s highest combined score of 15 and a best wave of 8, which had the crowd witness the 5 foot 11 surfer bust four huge powerful fans of spray.  Santa Cruz’s Josh Mulcoy’s top to bottom power turns matched Horn’s best wave for a solid 8.  Ventura responded with crowd cheering performances from Nathaniel Curran’s air reverse on a lefthander wave and Adam Virs’ 180 stall to reverse on a sizeable right hand wave.  Ventura’s strategy and local knowledge showed a pattern of positioning on more northern sections as the swell began to build with the rising tide. 

Santa Cruz’s Jason "RatBoy" Collins

With a sizeable lead, Santa Cruz could feel an impending win over Ventura while they played out their strategy and time outs effectively.  However, the sets were limited and the SC 4th quarter group was only able to post a 36.5 for the quarter for a combined overall game score of 168.5.  While SC hoped that their earlier momentum would provide a safety blanket from the Ventura offensive, the Ventura team pulled out another last quarter extravaganza previously seen last Saturday in Huntington Beach, when Ventura narrowly lost to OC by 5 points after an intense 4th quarter rally.  As the Ventura group paddled out, chatter in the SC team dugout were of quick calculations that their opponents needed to post a final quarter score of 46 points, a score that had yet to be seen in any of the three previous quarters by Ventura.  The local crowd, many who have seen the Ventura team surfers grow up in their community, cheered wildly with both fingers crossed.  Coach Sean Hayes’ excellent timing for a time out allowed heavy hitters, Dane Reynolds, Bobby Martinez, Josh Curren and Dylan Slater to anticipate one of the most powerful sets to hit all day.  Dane Reynolds caught several waves showcasing some of the most awe inspiring surfing seen in the California cup as he boosted a full throttle 360 air into the foam and emerging fully on the launch pad.  Meanwhile, team mate Bobby Martinez, who previously unleashed distinctly stylish hooks off of lefthanders, continued to wow the crowd and his teammates on the beach with powerful maneuvers, landing Bobby with the game’s MVP.  When everyone thought Dane Reynolds had pulled all the rabbits out of the bag, the beach went into hysteria as Dane pulled the most radical maneuver of the game with a mammoth frontside rip gouge carve.  Combined with Ventura’s late substitution of Nick Rosza for Dylan Slater, Rosza’s strong score of 12.5 combined with Josh Curren’s 9.5 generated a 4th quarter score of 49 points, narrowly surpassing the minimum to win the game by 3 points in the last 2 minutes of the game. Today’s win for Ventura, (VC: 171.5 to SC: 168.5) marks the first victory for the Ventura team in the California Cup series, in front of friends, family and a strong community who hold surfing close to their hearts. 

The Quiksilver Game Week features three home games for Team Ventura as visiting teams San Diego and Orange County challenge Ventura on Monday, May 10th and Tuesday, May 11th respectively at 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m, Seaside Park/C Street.  The Quiksilver Game Week is the second of four stops on the 2004 California Cup series, as four teams representing Ventura, San Diego, Orange County and Santa Cruz compete for the Championship Cup.  Many thanks to Quiksilver, Olas Mex Grill and the Ventura community for their support in Surfing’s revolution

Final Score:

Ventura County - 171.5

def.

Santa Cruz County - 168.5