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“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way...” – Charles Dickens

It was the 2004 OPTION Bodyboarding Awards, and here’s how it went down, brotherman:

After getting in line at about 6 PM (the supposed starting time of the event), the line quickly grew behind us until there were a couple hundred people waiting patiently to get into the festivities. There was quite a varied crew outside waiting for the gig: super groms with their (super-cool for bucking up and taking them to the event) parents in tow, uber-emo teens dressed in their deck digs, cocktail dress wearing pro-hos, trucker-cap and orange down vest automatons sporting the latest in 18-wheeler haute couture and even a couple of beach looking kids who decided to buck the fashion trend and wear jeans, t-shirts and comfortable shoes. Go figure. And speaking of fashion, don’t forget the super-stylish outfits that the Hubbard brothers, Brandon Foster and Maligs were sporting. I see a new trend in wearable art, I tell you, and these guys are leading the way, taste be damned (kidding, gents, you looked marvelous).

One of the highlights of the wait in line was seeing the No Friends “vehicle” that pulled up with a rowdy group of drunken Hessians on board. Let it be known that Manny Vargas is a gentleman and a scholar for taking it upon himself to get this rowdy bunch to the event in one piece. The fact that no one died on the way up the 5 is a testament to his eternal commitment to bodyboarding. Good on ya, Manny!

Around 6:30, for some unknown reason, the line started to grow in front of where we were instead of behind us. Now I’m all about hooking up the big names and not making them wait with the rest of the masses (if the pros and industry bigwigs don’t show at these events, it’s just another strokefest), but the way it was all being handled by the staff was amateurish at best. Letting the scores of late comers in ahead of the folks who actually paid their own hard-earned non-industry cash AND who had been waiting patiently for over an hour was a bit shitty. We all noticed.

(Now to be fair, this was the first time the OPTION boys had put something like this together, so some growing pains are to be expected, but at the same time common sense dictates having a better way of handling admittance, the lines and the rest of the pre-event issues. More on that later.)

When we finally got up to the front of the line and got our tickets, instead of going into the event center, we were instructed to “Turn left and go up the stairs.” Excuse me? For a minute it sounded like they were telling us to go into the parking deck. In fact, that was exactly what they were telling us. After slowly making our way up the flights of stairs (periodically being crowded out by the latest bum rush of pro-bros constantly pouring out of the elevators the rest of us were not able to use), we arrived at the top of the parking deck for the awards ceremony. At the top of the stairs was a tent with about ten or fifteen rounds of seating for the general public, each and every one of them filled before the vast majority of the crowd had even made it up to the top. Bummer.

Outside of the tent, was a stage with a projection screen set up flashing surf slides to peep while everyone was filling in. Directly in front of the stage were a large number of rounds specifically assigned to the VIPs (pros and industry players from BZ, Viper, Ebodyboarding, Alternative Surf, etc.). The problem was, there was more seating for the VIPs then there was for the paying public. This would be a problem once dinner was served, but luckily, directly behind the VIP area they had set up heaps of theater seating for everyone not named Hubbard or Roach to watch the video and the award ceremony. Good times, indeed.

Weather turned out to be a bit of an issue here. While holding an outdoor event in SoCal in the summer would be a no-brainer, holding one at the beginning of April was a bit of a risk, and unfortunately, no amount of finger-crossing could have made the sporadic rain and the windy, chilly conditions go away. Most of the attendees showed up expecting to be indoors in a ballroom for the festivities, and there were more than a few cold, wet and grumpy folks in the crowd. Give the people a roof to tear down next year, gentlemen, and feel the collective love.

If you looked past the lines that made the wait for Space Mountain look downright manageable, the food was one of the highlights of the evening. With tons of grub to go around, everyone got their fill of buffet-style tacos, rice, beans, chips salsa and guac as well as a couple of treats to satisfy everyone’s sweet tooth. The one-person, one-drink policy was a bit of a downer, though. When you pay $25 for a dinner, you expect that you’d be able to have as many soft drinks as you might desire without have to pay for water or soda. The lack of a cash bar also bummed out a few folks, but truth told, it was probably a good idea as it kept people from falling to their deaths from the top of the parking deck in their drunken revelry. I think it’s fair to say that 75% of the No Friends crew would have been decimated had they been able to continue their binge without the forced break.

(Oh, and a special word of thanks to the folks serving dinner. As hectic as things got, they were super helpful and always on it to make sure you got your grub and moved on as quickly as possible. A good crew did a good job.)

With the threat of more weather on the way, Soomin Kim got things rolling right away with the first ever OPTION Video Magazine. There were some very solid segments including the infamous (Eddie S), the unknown (the unsponsored Aussie rippa who’s name belongs here but I suck and forgot it), and the housing challenged (Lil’ Todd), but the highlight was the Gran Canaria piece with Tamega absolutely destroying it out there. Say what you will about the guy, but GT was pushing it way beyond the established boundaries with absolutely mad wave riding gymnastics. If you’re looking for a nice piece of bodyboarding lifestyle with your water antics, you could do a lot worse than picking up the 1st OVM. The hooting throngs of folks at the gig will attest to the stoke factor of this vid. On sale now online and at your local shops.

After the video, Jay Reale took over as MC and kicked off the OPTION Bodyboard Awards to the eager (and increasingly rowdy) public. Armed with an arsenal of absolutely cheesy early 80s photos and advertisements from the archives, Jay kept it real as he dished out equal amounts of praise and punishment to the attendees. Remember that the OPTION awards were chosen online by the public at large, so there were some interesting omissions (specifically with video nominees), but the crowd seemed to reflect the overall sentiment of the online voting.

The big winners of the night included Mike Stewart for the Lifetime Achievement Award (has there ever been a more gracious, stoked man in the bodyboarding world?), Jeff Hubbard for Bodyboarder of the Year (everyone loves this guy because he’s as great a guy out of the water as he is a great performer in it), Dave Hubbard as Dropknee Rider of the Year (big class points to Dave for giving it up for the originator, Jack Lindholm, in his acceptance speech), Damian King for Best Contest Rider, the BZ Crew for Team of the Year, the humble Mike Murphy as Rookie of the Year (can you give it up for JERSEY?!?!?!? EAST COAST!!!!!), and my personal favorite of the evening, Wilbur, who ate shit with such astounding grace as he attempted to vault up onto the stage to accept the award for Best Video for No Friends 6, that he will forever have a special place in my heart. Drink on, Wilbur! Drink on!

If you came to the event looking to get your hands on some free stuff, you were definitely in luck. The booty available here was insane, and I’m not even talking about the pro-hos in attendance. There were boards, fins, wax, shirts and just about every other kind of bodyboarding-related paraphernalia you can think of that gets a young sponger’s heart racing. In the beginning, the traditional method of calling out numbers to win stuff proved to be too slow a method of getting the goodies to the groms, so after the awards ceremony ended, the prize giveaway gleefully degenerated into something resembling the mosh pit during Metallica’s set at the 1988 “Monsters of Rock” tour. Luckily, the only injuries were bruised pride from not being able to wrestle away the last set of Vipers from that scrawny toe-headed kid from Newport. In all, everyone went home with a little more than they came with, including a real sense of belonging to the bodyboarding community.

See, that was the biggest positive to come out of the evening. Once you get past my whiny complaints about the logistics of the entire deal, what we finally had here was a tangible representation of bodyboarding as it makes its way into the 21st Century. While events like this might be a dime a dozen in other industries, for bodyboarding this was the first of its kind outside of a contest celebration. The young guns of the sport stood shoulder to shoulder with the veterans who showed the way, broke bread and had a good laugh at one another along the way. The groms listened while the old men talked of the good ‘ol days gone by and supportive parents rapped with each other in the wings while their kids wrestled for wax in front of the stage. In all, three generations of bodyboarders gathered together to celebrate bodyboarding, and it was good.

Would I have done things a bit differently? Maybe so. I would have liked to see more consideration given to the rank and file guests, I would have probably taken better care of some of the VIPs (Tom “Y” Morey should NEVER have to pay for anything, ever again) and I definitely would have staged the whole thing inside, among other things, but you know what? I didn’t do anything to make this happen. In fact, no one did anything to make this happen until Soomin and the rest of the OPTION crew took it upon themselves to put on the event. So all of you armchair event coordinators out there who thought the gig was weak and just know you could have put on a show that was infinitely better that what happened on April 3, 2004, take this as a challenge and let’s see what you can do.

The bodyboarding tribe has spoken.