Tori Moore from Port Orange Florida
Shows off her Old School Surfin' Style
- July 19, 2012
- 0 Comments
- By Story/Photos By Brent Woronoff
The first time Tori Moore stood up on a longboard, she knew the old-school surfing style was a perfect fit for her.
"I feel graceful on it," said the 14-year-old Port Orange resident. "Like I can express myself more. I love to hang 10."
This weekend, Moore will be nose riding and cross-stepping in the Surfing America USA Championships in Huntington Beach, Calif. She is one of seven local surfers entered in the contest.
She's been competing less than a year but has earned enough points in Atlantic Surfing Federation contests to qualify for the championships in Girls Under 18 Longboard.
"I got her a couple of shortboards over the years, but she didn't have any interest in (them)," said Tori's father, Tim Moore, who also qualified as an alternate this weekend in the Senior Men's Over 40 Longboard division. "There's something about that old-school longboard. It's more of a glide. You don't have to fight it. It's just a whole different genre of surfing."
It's a style that Bernie Crouch, owner of Mad Dog Surf Shop in Daytona Beach, has embraced. He has been riding the wave of nostalgia by reproducing five classic boards originally produced by the Daytona Beach Surf Shop in the 1960s.
Crouch even brought back George Miller, a board shaper who founded Daytona Beach Surf Shop in 1962.
"A lot of people rode these boards when they were younger," Crouch said. "It piques their interest. People want to get on them and ride them like they used to."
And a lot of younger people want to ride them for the first time.
Miller designed a 9-foot noserider for Tori Moore.
"It's an amalgamation between old-school and modern," Miller, who will be 71 later this month, said of the reproduction. "It has old-school qualities and modern technology."
Two weeks ago, Tori borrowed a vintage 1965 noserider from Crouch to surf in the Cocoa Beach Waterman's Challenge Retro '60s Division. Competing against men and women of all ages, she finished third.
"It was so heavy, but it was fun," she said. "My dad and I had to carry it (to the water)."
Last weekend, she was back in Cocoa Beach competing on her own board against girls her own age and finished first in an ASF contest.
"Tori is a young, modern surfer who has a feel for the old-school ride," Crouch said.
Tori has surfed in California before with her father -- as well as Costa Rica and the Bahamas -- but this weekend's Surfing America contest will be her first competition out of state.
"I am so excited," she said.
Thanks to Brent Woronoff from the News Journal for this article...
www.news-journalonline.com
