Cut Back

by Todd Strasser

  Kai got to the beach, returned his jersey, and headed for his friends. The judges were still tabulating the results of his heat and had not yet announced which of the contestants would move on to the next round. Jillian, Shauna, and Bean were all on their feet, waiting for him.

  “What was that last move?” Bean asked. “I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything like it.”

  “That’s probably because it’s completely unmakeable,” Kai said.

  “It was still awesome,” said Shauna.

  “Thanks.” Kai turned to Spazzy. “Smart wave selection. Smart rides.”

  “Thanks,” Spazzy said. “I figured I’d rather be safe than sorry. Besides, I really wanted to get past this round since I’ll definitely get killed in the next one.”

  “Why do you say that?” Jillian asked.

  “I don’t have the moves or tricks,” Spazzy said.

  “Hey, you never know,” Bean said. “One good wave is all you need.”

  The air horn sounded and the green flag went up for the next heat. Kai and the others watched the six surfers in Lucas’s group start to ride. Sam caught a wave and did his signature snap, throwing huge spray. Kai had a feeling Lucas had shared the surf-wax-on-the-fins trick with him.

  Meanwhile, on the beach, the beach marshal with the megaphone cleared his throat. “Your attention please,” he announced. “The contestants from the last heat who will move to the next round are Herter, Rodney, and Winthrop.”

  “We made it!” Spazzy cried.

  Everyone exchanged high fives. Spazzy was so excited, and twitching so hard, he missed most of them, so the others patted him on the back.

  “Now what happens?” Jillian asked.

  “We wait,” Bean said. “It’ll be a while until the next round.”

  The sun was overhead by now, cooking everyone on the beach. The heat, plus the salt from the water, made Kai and the others thirsty. Kai took out a bottle of water and finished it. Jillian had water for herself and Spazzy. A little while later the men’s long board heat was announced and Bean got up and stretched. Everyone wished him good luck as he picked up his board and went to get a jersey.

  “I can see the difference between a long board and a short board,” Jillian said after he’d left. “Why would he choose one and not the other?”

  “The long board’s more traditional,” Kai answered. “It’s easier to ride, but harder to look good. To me it’s real subtle. More of the thinking man’s board. Kind of an intellectual thing.”

  “Really?” Jillian seemed to like hearing that.

  They watched Bean paddle out wearing a white jersey. There were only five competitors in his heat. Kai wasn’t surprised. Long board competitors were definitely in the minority. The five long boarders got outside. The air horn went off and the green flag went up.

  For the next ten minutes they watched the long boarders ride mostly for distance and duration. Here and there someone would try an off-the-lip, but it mostly just looked like any old day at the beach.

  “It certainly is different,” Jillian observed with a yawn.

  The air horn sounded and the yellow flag went up. By now hardly anyone on the beach was even watching. It was Shauna who got their attention.

  “Guys,” she said.

  Everyone turned and looked. Bean was in the pocket of a wave, crouched down, five toes over the nose, arms stretched out in front of him. Classic cheater five position. A few hoots and cheers rose up from the crowd, and more heads began to turn. As the wave gave out, Bean cross-stepped back to the tail and turned the board around just in time to catch the reformed inside break. It was closing out, and he turned the board once again, this time heading straight in. Then he grabbed the rails, bent over and placed his head on the deck, and did a headstand, his long black braid actually hanging off the side of the board and dragging in the water.

  By now the whole beach was watching, hooting and cheering.

  “Is … is that allowed?” Jillian stammered.

  “Only if you’re Bean,” Shauna said.

  After that ride Bean didn’t even bother to go back out and finish the heat. He didn’t have to. Back on the beach everyone congratulated him, then settled down and waited for the next set of junior heats to begin.

  Nearly two hours passed before the call came. Again it was a three out of six elimination. The names were called off. Spazzy was grouped with Sam and four other surfers.

  “Oh, well, it was fun while it lasted.” Spazzy shrugged.

  “That’s the spirit.” Bean slapped him on the back. “Quit while you’re ahead.”

  “I wouldn’t even bother going out there,” Kai said. “Why not just give up now? It’s a lot better than facing all that humiliation.”

  “We could just pack up and leave, and they wouldn’t even notice you were gone,” Shauna said.

  Spazzy grinned. “You guys suck.” He picked up his board and headed for the tent to get his jersey.

  “Does he really not stand a chance?” Jillian asked after he’d left.

  “Hard to say,” Bean said.

  “You never know,” added Kai.

  Forty-three

  This batch of surfers was a lot better than the last. Most went for slash-and-gash tricks. Once again Spazzy bucked the trend and went for number and length of rides. When the heat was over, Bean and Kai traded looks and shook their heads. There was no way to tell whether Jillian’s brother had made it or not.

  Spazzy stripped off his jersey and ran back to Kai and his friends. Seawater dripped out of his hair, and he was breathing hard and had the biggest smile on his face.

  “What’d you think?” he asked. For that moment he didn’t twitch at all. It was as if he’d forgotten. Kai watched Jillian’s face as she saw the effect surfing had on her brother’s condition. “I think that no matter what, you’re great,” his sister said.

  Of course, Spazzy immediately started twitching like an electric wire, but somehow that was okay.

  The beach marshal announced the results of Spazzy’s heat. “Moncure, Sarnoff, and Winthrop.”

  “I made it!” Spazzy’s shout of joy was so loud that people all around looked up and smiled. He threw his arms around Kai’s neck and hugged him.

  “I guess that’s the definition of stoked,” Bean quipped.

  Once again Kai stole a peek at Jillian. He wasn’t sure who looked happier, Spazzy or his sister.

  A little while later Bean went out for the finals of the long board competition.

  “Why are there only three surfers?” Jillian asked.

  “With only five contestants, they only needed two heats,” Kai explained. “So whoever wins this is the winner.”

  Jillian clasped her hands together. “You mean, Larry could win the whole thing?”

  Kai still couldn’t get used to anyone calling Bean by his real name. “Right,” Kai said.

  “He could win the whole thing right now.”

  Jillian let out a small gasp. Kai winked at Shauna.

  The air horn blew and the green flag went up. The three long boarders took turns catching waves. Bean got another nice cheater five on one ride. One of the other long boarders had more or less the same move. As the heat wound down, Kai could not have predicted who the winner would be. Both Shauna and Jillian seemed to have grown tired of watching heat after heat and were talking.

  The five-minute air horn went off and the yellow flag went up. Out in the water Bean spotted a wave and turned his board toward shore. With an effortless, almost lazy-looking stroke he caught it, stood up, and angled along the face.

  With his knees slightly bent and his arms hanging loosely at his sides, Bean stood motionless, as if content to ride the wave out. Only then did Kai realize that his friend was gradually getting ahead of the bowl. Suddenly Bean swung his arms and upper torso around in a huge, sweeping roundhouse cutback.

  Kai had never seen Bean pull a move like it before. It seemed as if no one on the beach even noticed. Kai glanced at the judges. All
three were busy scribbling on their clipboards. Kai felt a smile grow on his face. At least the people who kept score had noticed.

  Way to go, Bean.

  Winners wouldn’t be announced until the awards ceremony at the end of the day, but Kai had no doubt who the men’s long board champ would be.

  The final air horn blew, and a few minutes later Bean walked up the beach with his board tucked under his arm. Jillian looked up from her conversation with Shauna. “How’d you do?” she asked.

  “Okay,” Bean said, picking up a towel and drying his face.

  “That last move was pretty nice,” Kai said.

  “Thanks,” Bean said. “It felt good.”

  The beach was emptier now. The sun had moved well past the midpoint of the day and many of the eliminated competitors had packed up and left. The mood among those who remained had changed. The lighthearted, what-the-hell feeling had been replaced with something grimmer and more serious. Kai was thirsty. He’d finished all his water and was angry at himself for not bringing more. He was tempted to ask Jillian for some, but she was getting pretty low too.

  “Know what’s amazing?” Shauna said. “More than half the crowd’s gone, but everyone in our group is still in the competition.”

  The same, Kai noted to himself, was true of Lucas’s crew. Sam and Lucas were still in the juniors, and Runt had made it to the semi-finals of the boys’ division. Buzzy had also arrived. Apparently he’d been confident his son would make it through the earlier heats and hadn’t bothered to watch. But now he was not only there, he had taken Lucas away from his friends, as if he felt his son needed to be less distracted and more focused on the competition. Lucas dutifully listened and nodded as his father spoke and pointed at the waves.

  A guy carrying a clipboard and a large plastic bag strolled up to the blanket where Kai and his friends were sitting. He had black hair and was wearing khaki shorts and a green polo shirt that said “Bonzo Kreem” on it.

  “Hey, dudes, talk to you for a second?” he said.

  Kai and the others nodded.

  “I’m Mark Curlin from Bonzo Kreem,” he said. “You ever hear of our product?”

  Kai and the others shook their heads. Curlin reached into the plastic bag and took out a bunch of sample-size orange-and-green plastic tubes and tossed them around. “Bonzo Kreem is new on the market. A kind of all-in-one salve for your typical surf-related skin disorders. It works on chafing, wax rash, jock itch, fungus, and sunburn. It’s waterproof and hypoallergenic, and if you leave it on for a couple of days, it produces a pheromone that drives the ladies wild.” Curlin grinned. “Naw, just kidding about the last part, but everything else I said is true and laboratory tested. So I hope you guys’ll try these samples and keep us in mind. We’re putting together the Bonzo Kreem Dream Team and we’ll be watching the results of today’s competition. Peace out, dudes.”

  Curlin moved on to the next group of surfers.

  “Do you realize what he just said?” Bean asked. “We could be on the Bonzo Kreem Dream Team, spreading waterproof jock itch cream to the far corners of the Earth.”

  “Gee whiz, Mr. Bean, are you really a professionally sponsored surfer?” Shauna pretended to be surf groupie.

  “You betcha,” Bean answered in a deep baritone. “Got a problem with chafing, young lady?”

  “Well, not really, Mr. Bean,” Shauna answered.

  “How about wax rash?”

  Shauna shook her head.

  “Jock itch?”

  “I beg your pardon, Mr. Bean.” Shauna pretended to be insulted.

  “Well, then, perhaps it’s sunburn we need to talk about.”

  By now Shauna was pretending to look elsewhere. “Oh, look, there’s the guys on the Deep Pit Surf Deodorant Team. See you later, Mr. Bonzo Kreem Bean.”

  “But wait!” Bean pretended to call desperately. “We haven’t talked about fungus!”

  They were interrupted by the beach marshal on the megaphone. “For the semifinals of the juniors we’ll have two four-man, twenty-minute heats. Two from each heat will go on to the finals. First semifinal heat will be Winthrop, Keller, Frank, and Herter.”

  “That’s us!” Spazzy jumped to his feet and grabbed his board. “Come on, Kai.”

  By now the competitors didn’t have to be briefed on what to do. They went to the tent to get their jerseys. Kai and Lucas arrived at the table at the same time.

  “Not bad for a guy who says he hates to compete,” Lucas said as he accepted the black jersey.

  “You talking about me or you?” Kai asked as he took the white jersey.

  Lucas frowned.

  A moment later they were paddling out. Spazzy had gotten the green jersey and the kid named Keller had the red. The second Lucas got outside, he turned his board around, caught a decent, but not great, wave, and ripped. It appeared to Kai that Buzzy had given his son a new strategy—put pressure on the other surfers. Get out ahead as soon as possible and make the others nervous. Force them to play catch-up. Kai understood the strategy. A nervous, anxious surfer was more likely to pick a bad wave, or try something too difficult on a good one.

  The logical response was to take your time and wait.

  A decent set came in and both Spazzy and the guy named Keller took off on the same wave. Spazzy was farther inside and up first, but had to bail when Keller popped in front of him. Kai doubted Keller dropped in on him on purpose. More likely the guy was feeling the pressure from Lucas, saw a good wave, and went for it without looking. But it didn’t matter. A whistle blew and the beach marshal called red in. Keller had been disqualified.

  That left Lucas, Kai, and Spazzy. Lucas got another short, but half-decent ride. Of the three surfers now left in the heat, he was the only one who’d even scored a point. While Lucas paddled out, Spazzy and Kai waited for the next good wave. A set came in, and Kai saw instantly that it was out of Spazzy’s reach. It was Kai’s wave if he wanted it. He turned and paddled.

  The wave jacked up under him and Kai felt as if he’d stepped into an elevator and been boosted up a floor higher than he’d expected. He suddenly found himself on the lip of the thing, looking straight down the face into a deep blue trough. It was like sitting on top of a high wall. Had he sat back on his board, the wave would have rolled right under him.

  But Kai had no intention of sitting back. Only a few times in his life had he popped up on his board and found himself airborne on the way down. The board hit water and Kai did a sharp bottom turn and headed back up, easily getting vertical and doing an off-the-lip before it even felt like the ride had begun. What happened from that point on was strictly unconscious. Kai would later swear it felt as if the board simply did whatever it wanted to. Cutback, method, floater … It almost felt like the wave was having too much fun with him to want to stop.

  Kai could hear the cheers and hoots before the ride even ended. There’d definitely been luck involved. Somehow he’d found himself on a wave that didn’t want to quit. But he’d also taken advantage of what it had to offer.

  When he paddled back out, Kai wasn’t surprised to see the glum expression on Lucas’s face. The guy knew he’d been completely out-surfed. What did surprise Kai was when Lucas nodded and grudgingly said, “Nice ride.”

  Kai paddled up over the next wave. There was Spazzy, sitting on his board, shoulders hunched, looking even more bummed than Lucas.

  Only then did Kai realize what he’d done.

  Forty-four

  “Great ride,” Spazzy said.

  Kai could tell he meant it, but that he was also devastated. Kai thought he knew what had happened. Spazzy had come to Fairport that day without expectations. He only had those crazy fantasies all kids had about miracle rides and being declared the champ. The kind of fantasies you know never come true, but you cling to anyway. Then Spazzy made it through the first two rounds and found himself in the semifinals. A place he’d never expected to be. Just one round from the finals and the possible championship. Suddenly the impossible
seemed possible. After all, in any given heat anything could happen. Your opponent could break his board. You could find yourself on the wave of the day. Who knew?

  And so somehow, between the last round and this round, Spazzy had begun to think that maybe winning the event wasn’t a total fantasy. That it was within his grasp. And the truth was, at the beginning of the semifinal heat, that had been the case. Spazzy, Lucas, Keller, and Kai had paddled as equals. But things had quickly changed. Keller was disqualified, Lucas had turned in two solid rides, and Kai had just come off a monster rip. As a result, Spazzy’s fantasies, hopes, and dreams were crashing down like the waves they were supposed to be riding.

  A mediocre wave came in. Five minutes ago, no one would have taken it. But feeling the pressure, Spazzy took off on it.

  “So now what do you do?”

  Kai turned and found Lucas paddling close to him.

  “Right now you and I are a lock for the next round,” Lucas said, as if Kai didn’t already know. “Of course, that means your buddy’s finished.”

  “There’s still time,” Kai replied.

  Lucas gave him a “Yeah, right” look, but said nothing more.

  A lull in the waves followed. Nothing worth riding was coming in or even visible on the horizon. Lucas and Kai sat on their boards waiting and watching. It wasn’t long before Spazzy joined them.

  No one said a word. No one had to.

  The air horn blared. The green flag went down and the yellow went up. Five minutes to go and Spazzy hadn’t had anything that even approached a decent ride. Kai spied the peak of a wave out beyond the others. A new set was coming in.

  “Hey, Lucas,” he said. “Why not let Spazzy get one of these. It won’t make any difference to your score. You’ve already got enough points to move on to the finals.”

  Lucas tilted his head as if considering it. “Maybe I do. But you don’t.”

  “Maybe I don’t care,” Kai answered.

  “Forget it, guys,” Spazzy said. “I don’t want any handouts.”