Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128635
second Annua l '!he SI1q>/Billabang/Asterisk SUrfercross (Left) Seven -time Supercross Champion Jeremy McGrath couldn't buy a decent wave when It was h is tum to compete. He made up for it at the f ollowin g day's motocross • at Glen Helen. (Right) Sunny Garcia Is the Jeremy McGrath of surfing. He's a pretty good n1otoc~sser , too. (Be low) Yamaha's press guy Teny Beal competed in the Industry c lass. " I got a good start and rod e my own w ave ," he said. S TO RY A N D PHOT O S B Y KIT P A LM E R SAN ONOFRE, CA OCT. 3-4 , t p rett y much goes without saying that m otocrossers like to s u rf and th at s u rfe rs like to ride motoc ross . E v en t hough o ne activity is per form ed on two wh eels a nd the other on a fibe rgla s s bo a rd . bo th provi de an e q ual a mount of excite ment a nd fun . Throw in a little friend ly com petition, and all that excitement a nd fun dou bl e s , so to moto cro ss er J e re m y Al brecht and surfe r Mike Pars on s, com in g up w ith a compet it ion between motocro ssers and su rfer s only se emed like the natu ral thing to do. Albrecht and Parsons hosted th e first Surfercross competition la s t ye a r, a nd when we heard how much fun everybody had , we ju st ha d to see for ou rs el v e s th is year what thi s S u rfe rcr o s s t hing was all a bo ut. Unfortunatel y, our usual hect ic weekly schedule at Cycle News allowed us I 30 OCTOBER 18,2000' cue • e only enough time to attend the first of the two -day competition , but that day (Tuesday ) was th e surf day. the day we were most interested in. anyway. We wanted to s ee j u s t how we ll seve n -t ime Su p e rc ro s s Champion J erem y McGra th, last year's winne r Na t ha n Ram s e y , an d the othe r motoc ro ss entra nts fa ired in th e su rf; after all , we a lrea dy know how well they ride moto rc ycles . The format fo r the S u rfe rc ro s s is simple: Motocross riders a nd s urfers a re pa ired (via a random dr aw ing ) o n the opening day of competition. a nd their scor es ar e combined aft er Tuesda y's surf competition , which incl ud ed a Pro Surfer cla ss a n d a Rid e r Surfe r cl as s . and Wed n e sd ay' s moto cro ss ra ce . T h e du o with t h e most points wins. T his year , a new te a m was c row ned: Da vi d Ping ree a nd h is Pro -class s u rfer teammate Ma t t Co le m a n . Individual surf and motoc ros s winners we re declared. as well. n e vv s Some of the big na mes in the surf class that attended were S unn y Garci a and long-time surfer riva l Matt Archi bald. Archi bald ended up taking the Pro Surf class win. "This is a lot of fun," said the cu rren t ASP Wor ld Cha m pions hip points leader, G a rc ia. "I like t o r id e motocr oss as we ll, so to com bine this with motocros s is a lot of fun for me. I ride as much as I ca n, but the [su rfing] tour makes that ha rd to d o . But I'm rea lly looking forward to tomorrow." Th e actual surf competition for ma t in c lu d e d h eats , sem is and a final tw o - man showdown in eac h class . Unfortunately for Mc G ra t h, h e n e ver m ad e it out o f the fi rs t h e a t. Da ve Cast il lo and Br ian McGa varan were in his heat , and th e surf se emed to go flat when it wa s t he ir tu rn to compete . Du rin g their 15-minu te s u rfi ng wi ndow , McGrath floa ted outside t he s u rf lin e , waitin g for the b ig set that never came, whi le Ca stillo a nd McGavaran hung out closer to the be a c h a nd m a d e do with the smaller bre a kers . Castillo and McG a va ran 's s trate gy p a id off, w h ile Mc G rath was sent pack ing . "It' s all p o lit ica l: McG rath jo ke d . Of co u rse , he wo uld get h is re venge th e n e xt da y at Gl e n He le n Ra c eway , th e site of the m oto c ro ss seg m ent. Mc G r a t h wo n b o th m o t o s over McGava ra n and Casey Jo h nson . Bu t it wasn 't eno.ug h to to p Ping ree and Coleman for th e overall c ha m p io ns h ip. The photos o n th is spread were ta ken during Tuesday's surfing competition . We thought we'd show you what some of this country's top motocrossers look like at a surfing competition. Sorry , but we couldn' t get a shot of McGrath or anyone for that matter - in action, because our $10,000 500mm co mpany lens and waterproof ca mera were still in t h e shop (hav ing never b e en p u r chased) . CN