Over the years the Body Glove Surfbout at Lower Trestles has evolved into one of the most coveted prizes in mainland competitive surfing. This 4-Star WQS has always had heaps of world-class talent buzzing into town for the chance to showcase their arsenal in the perfect conditions. Everyone turns it up a notch at Trestles, and that’s why it’s become the proving ground for anyone on continental soil. Though the crowds may not be gigantic, rest assured everyone there is watching...and watching closely.

Kelly Slater, Mike Chamberlain, and bodyboarder Mike Stewart.

Both Jeff Booth and local boy Shane Beschen have dominated Lowers over the course of their careers, each winning this event three times. Booth was California's highest rated surfer through most of the early ’90s, and Beschen, who’s three years his junior, picked up where Booth left off, both at Lowers and on the world stage. Taylor Knox and Tim Curran are also both past winners of the Surfbout and they’ve each gone on to become accomplished World Tour veterans in their own right. Last year, WQS stalwart David Weare stepped up to the plate to take 1st in the Surfbout, an achievement that helped catapult him onto the World Tour.

Weare, 2005 Winner

Two particular Body Glove Surfbouts from past years will undoubtedly end up in competitive surfing’s hall of fame, for they marked pivotal turning points in surfing history. The first one is the 1989 event, when local Christian Fletcher became the first surfer to win a pro contest based solely on the merits of an aerial attack. Fletcher’s landmark performance not only validated the aerial movement, it changed competitive surfing forever, paving the way for hundreds of high-flying risk-takers to follow. In fact, the very next year, in the 1990 Surfbout, a young Floridian by the name of Kelly Slater used a combination of Fletcher’s aerial approach, plus his own high-speed slashes and carves, to announce his presence as a pro, setting the stage for his own historic career.

 

 

 

Machado 1998

PAST WINNERS

1988 Jeff Booth

1989 Christian Fletcher

1990 Kelly Slater

1991 Jeff Booth

1992 Shane Beschen

1993 Shane Beschen

1994 Taylor Knox

1995 Jeff Booth

1996 Shane Beschen

1997 Tim Curran

1998 Rob Machado

2004 Andy Irons

2005 David Weare