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!!!

Another version of the ITSA Lift Chart was released earlier this month and posted online at www.itsatandem.com although no communication was sent out to ITSA members that a change had been made.  At least this time changes were made somewhat public a week before the third stop on the WTT in Seignosse, France (no international teams chose to attend this event).

The changes to the ITSA Lift Chart are as follows: addition of #15 Neck Roll (every lift above it through the #32 Foot to Head moved up in difficulty by one position due to this addition), #38B One Arm Kennedy (formerly #32), #41b Cobra (formerly #42), #42 Butterfly (formerly #41 ), #43B Flat (formerly #44), #44 Scorpion (formerly #43B).  In an interesting twist, the Neck Roll was downgraded in value drastically from the #26 position Rico Leroy agreed upon in person back in March.

- Chuck & Tiff

The preliminary 2008 ITSA Lift Chart was finally released on March 6, 2008 to competitors in the Noosa Festival of Surfing just one day before competition started.  As of today, it still has not been posted on the ITSA website (www.itsatandem.com), but an email distribution was sent out on March 8, 2008 to members of the Tandem Waveriders Organization (www.tandemwaveriders.com) in California and Hawaii.

Deadline for 2008 new lift submission was originally September 30, 2007, but was extended to February 29, 2008 to allow for more input from teams.  Our following lifts were accepted: Neck Roll (#26bis - somehow Rico forgot put it on the lift chart, but it is now recognized by the ITSA), Halo (#33), Side Y (#35), Front Arch Split (#40), and Butterfly (#41).  Rico/Sarah of France submitted the Contortion (#42bis - replaces original Contortion, which has been downgraded to #31) and Scorpion (#43bis).

Please keep in mind that this is not the final version of the Lift Chart for 2008 and that more changes are being made by ITSA Co-President, Rico Leroy.  Release date TBD.

- Chuck & Tiff