Hedonism Isle is the newest BIG wave beach around and we are looking at running a future surf contest here (sometime in May). Owned by Phelan James and managed by Flynn Sheridan, this sim is almost entirely OCEAN, so the ride is longer. The benefit for everyone is that all the spectators for the contest can sit on the neighbouring sim, have a great view, and not cause any lag for the surfers! Woot!

Come by around 5 pm SLT (PST) this Thursday… surf, hang, relax, whatever. There are FREE Hedonism Isle surfboards here for you to pick up. Let us know what you think of the new beach!

Catch ya, Keala

Congratulations to SamyJo Ah for being the winner of the first SL surf contest, Namiko Pro at Chi!!!

Here are all the results:

Finals

1. SamyJo Ah
2. Blue Alonzo
3. Polysilox Apogee
4. Seano Osumi

Semi Finals

5. Flynn Sheridan
6. SurfBoy Wollongong
7. Gerran Voss
8. Surfdaddy Orca

Quarter Finals

9. Kitt Snookums
10. Malcolm Sydney
11. JD Snook
12. Thor Bishop
13. kiddd Ikarus
14. Kimmy Leroux

The entire SL grid shut down for emergency maintenance just a couple hours before the contest, but luckily it all came back up in time. We packed Chi to the brim! In fact, Poid had to increase the limit on the number of people allowed in the sim so that we could get one of our judges onto the island plus some other competitors. The turnout was simply STELLAR!

Thank you so much to our judging panel: Surferjoe Wind, Kiana Foxley, and Sebastian Saramago for all their hard work watching and scoring the event. All the surfers were fantastic… but the girls ripped. Seriously.

Thanks to all the competitors for sticking it out… All the competitors beat lag (even though Mal requested MORE laggy conditions), they beat missing waves, they beat lost surfboards… Seb even summoned the pipewave gods at one point… good times, good times. You guys all rock.

Thank you to our event sponsors: GR Boards, Sport2.de, Sebastian Saramago, Poid Mahovlich and Sally LaSalle!

And thank you to Sierra Sugar for doing an INCREDIBLE job with the MCing and DJing — everyone loved the music. Thanks to Valent1ne for shooting the machinima — she’s got 9.3 GIGs worth of video footage that she’ll be editing this week. Look for the video soon!

Joeru Pugilist, photographer extraordinaire will have photos shortly. Here are some that Poid took during the event:

http://flickr.com/photos/poid/archives/date-posted/2007/03/24/

NEXT SURF CONTEST: Tentatively, Saturday, April 14th… it’ll be a big wave event! IM Keala Mimistrobell if you want to compete :)

The competition is heating up!! Several competitors were down at Chi doing some late evening surfing, practicing for the comp, of course. It’s so exciting to see other people excited about the comp. Indeed, I spent the large part of the evening at Chi building out the stage area and grandstands… working on the competitors scoring… but that’s not what you’re here for. You want to know which heat you’re in. :)

So, entries have closed and the heats have been created:

Heat 1

Blue Alonzo
Surfdaddy Orca
Malcolm Sydney
Thor Bishop

Heat 2

SurfBoy Wollongong
polysilox Apogee
Kimmy Leroux
AlexSurfer Hirons

Heat 3

Seano Osumi
kiddd Ikarus
Gerran Voss
Kitt Snookums

Heat 4

SamyJo Ah
JD Snook
Flynn Sheridan
Caly Sleaford
Filipe Rasmuson

There were a couple other changes since the original notice went out. Unfortunately, Heather Goodliffe will not be able to judge this weekend but she hopes to join us at the NEXT surf contest (tentatively scheduled for Saturday, April 14). We are very lucky, however, to have Kiana Foxley judge alongside Joe and Seb. Kiana hails from the North Shore, Oahu in Hawaii… her RL local spots being Pipeline and Waimea.

So! If you are competing, remember we start at 1 pm, so try and come a bit early. If you are not competing, come early anyway, so you don’t miss anything :)

Remember to DETACH (not just turn off) your AOs, HUDs, and blingy things. I’ve heard rumors that there will be nearly 60,000 residents online at the same time this weekend, so we’ll need to do everything we can to minimize lag for both the spectators and surfers.

If you have any questions about the rules or the contest in general, please send an IM to Keala Mimistrobell or an email to keala [dot] mimistrobell [at] gmail [dot] com.

One of the original goals of the Namiko Surf Co. was to support the organization and management of a series of elite and dynamic competitive and non-competitive surf events within Second Life. So, we are starting now… with the first ever SL surf competition.

Entry deadline will be Thursday, March 22 so that we can organize the heats and post them on the website ahead of time.

Rules and Scoring

Heats will be randomized at the start. Depending on the number of entries, heats will either be two or four surfers at the same time (most likely four at a time). Women and men will compete all together — no division based on gender.

One person per wave — please respect priority. If someone is up for a wave in rotation and misses it, they have to go to the end of the rotation (a small penalty for a swing and a miss). The waves are a bit random so there is a bit of luck and skill involved choosing the waves. Surfers can take off on either side of the wave and line up wherever they wish.

Each surfer will get scored on 5 waves with the top two scores counting towards the final score for that heat. Top half of the heat moves on to the next heat.

Scoring will be based on 1) length of ride, 2) tricks, 3) style, 4) technical execution (like hitting the wave at the right spot, right timing). Each of these points can be scored from 0 to 3 with the total score for the wave adding up to a maximum of 12. Riding backwards in the wave doesn’t count. A wave that disappears when you catch it doesn’t count either.

Chi has both foamy waves and Pipeline waves. Surfers can choose to surf either of these waves. It may or may not be more difficult to score higher on a foamy wave, but that is the individual competitors choice.

Surfboard, Equipment & Attachments

In the interest of fairness and also to prevent/minimize issues with lag while surfing, competitors should detach all HUDs, flight enhancers, and AOs (’detach’, not just ‘turn off’). No other attachments, other than prim hair and minimal jewelry, if any. No bling, please.

To ride in the contest with Heather Goodliffe’s waves, you’ll need a board that has been built by Sebastian Saramago. Any of Seb’s boards or the Namiko Surf Co. boards will be fine. The only restriction is that no extra scripts of animations have been added to your board (e.g. no jet hoverboards, no enhanced copy/mod boards, etc.).

If you do not own a board, we will supply boards at the comp for you to use on the day.

Prizes & Points

Prizes to the competitors are still to be confirmed, but will include a combination of cash $L, points (for use in exchange for merchandise) plus surfboards, wetsuits, swimwear, and clothing (from Namiko Surf Co and GR Boards). Plus we will give out raffle prizes to spectators during the event.

In terms of points, everyone will get points for participating in the event. These points can be traded for merchandise with the Namiko Surf Co. (surfboards, bikinis, boardshorts, etc.). One point = $1L. The breakdown will be:

• 1st place: 2000 points
• 2nd place: 1500 points
• 3rd place: 1000 points
• 4th place: 500 points
• 5th to 8th: 100 points
• 9th and up: 50 points

Feedback & Questions

This being the FIRST surf contest ever, I am totally open to suggestions and feedback. Send your questions and comments to Keala Mimistrobell in-world. Sometimes my IM’s get capped, so you can also send an email to keala [dot] mimistrobell [at] gmail [dot] com.