KING of the COAST

Mike Sciacca

Not even enthusiastic crowd support for a local favorite could derail

Laguna Beach’s Bill Bryan from winning yet another East Coast

Skimboarding Championship event.

With the pro-east crowd cheering on local favorite Joey Vavala,

Bryan, competing as a member of Victoria Skimboards, did what he does

best: his switch stance and maneuvers earned Bryan the Pro Division

title in a competition held at Dewey Beach in Delaware.

The surf was small and weather erratic, yet Bryan, 30, overcame

Mother Nature -- as well as the crowds that packed the shoreline,

many of whom were there to root on Vavala -- to win his eighth

consecutive East Coast Skimboarding Championship.

Having won the seven previous event titles, you’d have to think

that Bryan was a marked competitor.

“I’d say I’m a very marked man, but I thrive off that,” Bryan said

upon his return to Laguna. “Nobody here really, though, even

mentioned that I had won the last past seven East Coast titles.

“In an event like this, I think about it and plan things out. A

lot of guys were out here just having fun, but I have a game plan

when I compete. But I have fun with it, too.”

Bryan won the Pro Division and Vavala placed second.

Bryan headed a group of five Victoria Skimboard athletes who

finished among the top 13 in the Pro Division.

Brandon Sears finished sixth, Brendan “Noogie” Stevens was eighth,

Keith Fanning placed 11th and Keith Peery finished in 13th-place.

Sears wowed the crowd with his multiple combinations and Stevens

won it over when he nearly landed a kick flip maneuver four feet into

the air.

Stevens managed to get his body and board in full rotation but

could not completely stick the landing.

Bryan, a 10-time skimboard world champion who joined the

professional ranks 14 years ago, won the World Championships event

held at Aliso Beach back in July.

His East Coast Skimboarding Championship triumph gives him 12

consecutive competition victories.

The Victoria Skimboard athletes will compete this weekend at the

Gold Coast Classic at Deer Creek Beach located between Ventura and

Malibu.