The final day of the Amateur World Championships was something to see. The weather was not ideal for a contest and most of Delaware was under a heavy thunderstorm alert. The wind was strong out of the south but helped out the leftover swell from the week prior. This weather and rain did not slow down the Zap team by any means. Chris Brown and Jacob Capps were in the first heat of the day and skimmed well but did not make it through their heat. Zach Belmonte found some good waves in the heat after, advancing through to the men’s final. Sam Mccoy was a huge standout in the contest all day with really consistent riding. Zap team riders Libby Rendall, Helen Holt, Casey Ritzer, Sam McCoy, Dave Bracht, and Zach Belmonte all advanced to the finals.
The rain started coming down around lunch time and didn’t seem like it was going to stop. Either way the contest must go on and it did with most of the crowd taking cover under the Zap tents and any other shelter they could find. Around 4 o’clock somehow the skies started to clear up just in time for all of the final heats. The women’s division was up first and both Helen and Libby skimmed great. Helen took 3rd place and Libby 2nd place with some nice backside wraps. In the mini division Casey Ritzer caught liner after liner leading him to getting first in his division. The the boys final was up and Patrick Monigle Started off his heat catching some really good waves throwing all kinds of shov-it maneuvers. But in the end it wasn’t enough to take out Portugal’s young rider Afonso Ruiz. Max ended up with 2nd place and Patrick pulled through with a 3rd place finish. Next was the jr. mens final which was the second most exciting heat to watch next to the semi-pro final. The waves started to pickup with the incoming tide and everyone was killing it. Sam Mccoy, with his diverse skimming skills, took home 1st place closing out the day just as he started. Mens division was up next and Zach was pumped for his heat. Taking off for the first wave of the heat, landing a nice bigspin, he put the pressure on for the other competitors. Zach took home 3rd place and was stoked on a successful weekend. Dave Bracht also took 2nd in the sr. mens division with some skilled riding. With this contest being an amateur event only the highlight of the day was the semi-pro division. And highlight is a huge understatement of how it went. The final consisted of Dan McDonald, Sam McCoy, Sean Kennedy, and John Webber. This heat was something to see! All of the riders were trading off with the longest liners of the day throwing all kinds of tech in between. The crowd was amping and the level of rider was not in the least bit short of a professional final. Dan took 1st, John 2nd, Sam MacCoy 3rd, and Sean with 4th.
Overall the contest went really great. Between the competitors and spectators the vibes were great. This contest was very unique and we were glad to be apart of the 30th anniversary. Hope to see everyone again at next years event and as usually here are some pictures to recap the day. Enjoy!