We couldn't believe a whole year had already gone by and it was time again for the annual Buffalo's Big Board Surfing Classic held over at Makaha Beach.  Determined to have a better showing this year than in the past (2007-didn't advance, 2008-made it to the Semis), we tweaked our sequences to better match the Buff's heavy judging emphasis on surfing over lift difficulty (no ITSA rules here!).  Being a highly localized contest, our main goal was to have fun, make it to the Finals and surf well in our heats.

The day before our opening heat we headed out to Makaha in the early evening to get a last minute session in with similar conditions to what we could expect on Saturday.  A month earlier we had what we like to call "a run in with the reef", so we decided to be picky about taking off only on the waves that were coming in wide since conditions were pretty small.    Our motto - Just say no to reef!

Come Saturday morning, the contest director wasn't sure if tandem was going to run due to an extremely low tide and safety concerns for the tandem teams.  So we had a pretty leisurely morning in town until we got the call that we were on...and soon!  Unfortunately, there was a big gas spill on the main highway and it had been closed in both directions!  So we fought through traffic on an alternate route not knowing if we'd make it to Makaha in time.  Luckily, we made it out there before the tandem event started and easily advanced from our first heat again three new teams (Bobby Friedman & Laura Desoto / Micah Desoto & Vanina Walsh / Sean Remos & Megan Talabis).

Sunday morning brought chilly conditions and slightly better waves.  We paddled out for our Semi Final heat hoping that we'd get the rides we needed and pull off some of our "oldie but goodie" lifts like the Back Angel and Star.  The highlight of our heat was making it out of a pretty critical situation with the wave breaking on us and pulling a One Leg Shoulder Stand in front of the crowd less than 20 feet from the beach.  We got an "Oh my God!" from the announcers for that one, lol.  (The other teams in our heat were Kalani & Ala Vierra / Duane Desoto & Ha'a Keaulana / Matt Perez & Kim Iarossi.)

We were a little unsure whether or not we had advanced and right when we were ready to start changing our clothes, we found out that we had actually advanced to the Finals.  What a shocker!  The Haole boy and the Kalihi girl finally did it!

The Finals line up was tough with three former and current world champion teams (Brian Keaulana & Kathy Terada / Kalani & Ala Vierra / Us) and Makaha favorites Mel Pu'u & Nani Kealoha.  We took an anything goes approach to the heat and aggressively paddled for waves one after another - catching five of them back to back, putting up solid sequences on each one and riding three all the way to the beach. 

We were so excited to make it to the podium at the Buff for the first time, that results weren't really that important to us since we had surfed a strong heat.  In the end, Makaha will always be Makaha and final standings went in the predicted order (1st-Mel Pu'u & Nani Kealoha / 2nd-Brian Keaualana & Kathy Terada / 3rd-Kalani & Ala Vierra / 4th - Us).  Many commented that we should've ended up in second place according to the non-ITSA Buffalo rules, but no big deal...we finally made it to the finals at Makaha!

- Haole Boy & Kalihi Girl  :)

The 2008 ITSA/ISA World Title of Tandem Surfing opened on Thursday morning with a total of 24 qualifying teams from Hawaii, California, Florida, Costa Rica, and France competing in six Opening Round heats.  We comfortably won our 20 minute first heat despite the small (1' - 2') and inconsistent waves that slowly rolled through in between long lulls.  On Friday morning, we won both our 20 minute Quarter Final and Semi Final heats in even flatter conditions, which left teams floating for most of our heats and scratching for waves whenever they appeared. 

There was a bit of an upset in one of the Quarter Final heats when a relatively new Waikiki team bested 2006's World Champions, Brian Keaulana/Kathy Terada (HAW).  This ultimately landed Keaulana and Terada in a stacked Semi Final heat with one of the highly favored teams, Rico Leroy/Sarah Burel (FRA), and 2007's World Champions, Kalani Vierra/Ala Vierra (HAW), who we were runners up to last year.  We expected all three of these teams to be in the Final with us and were surprised that one of them would be eliminated earlier than expected.

Teams who advanced to the Final on Saturday afternoon were: Chuck Inman/Tiffany Rabacal (HAW), Rico Leroy/Sarah Burel (FRA), Brian Keaulana/Kathy Terada (HAW), and Clay Huntington/Kristen Huntington (USA).  The 30 minute heat was held during high tide and set waves were few and far between.  After missing the first three waves we paddled for, we finally got onto a total of four waves and were able to cleanly complete both lift sequences we had planned while getting our surfing maneuvers done.  And at the end of the day, our best was good enough to clinch a close victory over the French team...our very first win!!! 

A big mahalo to all our friends and family who came down to support us!  :)

- Chuck & Tiff...World Champions!!!