Surfercross 2022
Most people think that surfing and motorcross couldn’t be any more different. A lot of people who are experienced in either one of these two disciplines would also agree. But to a certain group of us, it’s this very difference that has attracted us to cross the divide between the two. Me personally, I would argue that the similarities are endless. They’re both creative and adventure outlets experienced in the great outdoors. Whether you’re drawing lines across the sand or out in the ocean, reading the terrain or waves. Understanding the flow of a track or a idiosyncracies of a particular line up. Most likely though, is we just want to get out there and have a good ol’ fashioned great time and that’s where Surfercross steps in.
Each year for the past 23 years, Professional Motocross and Supercross industry kingpin, Jeremy Albrecht, has carefully plucked professional athletes and industry people from motocross and surfing putting them together for a two day event in Southern California. The event randomly pairs a pro surfer and pro motocrosser together to compete as a team in both these sports.
Day one sees the surfers line up on the grid to race alongside the moto guys in a two-moto format. On day two both the surfers and the moto guys paddle out in 20 min heats, in bracket style elimination, in an effort to make the final as a team.
It does all boil down to the luck of the draw. Everyone hopes to get matched with the dual athletes that have a fighting chance in both days of competition. Talk about coming out of it super lucky, I got paired with my good pal, Brandon Tipton, he’s a former professional surfer and an avid desert racer.
With 6-6 finishes in the moto portion of the event and after surfing our way to a 3rd place finish in the final, our scores stacked up enough to best the rest of the homies to take out the overall Surfercross Championship!
It was both of our second time winning separately and first time winning it together.
I am incredibly thankful to be a part of this event, it really is one of the most fun events of the year for surf and moto enthusiasts and I must give a shout out to the huge effort and hard work that Jeremy and his team puts into making these events happen.
Forrest Minchinton
Photos - @mounce
