| August 17, 2021
It’s been 22 years since the first Sufercross competition, which was the brainchild of Jeremy Albrecht, a former tuner for multiple top professional motocross riders, most notably James Stewart, before moving on to managing the Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) Team. At the time, he thought motocross and surfing, two very California sports, would be a good mix. He was right, and Surfercross is still going strong.
By BrownDog Wilson
Surfercross is traditionally held mid-week, one day at the beach and the other day at a nearby motocross track and is a team sport. Usually, a motocross specialist is teamed with a surfing specialist and their combined placings both days is used to determine an overall winner.
Motocrossers such as Stewart, Jeremy McGrath and Jeff Emig have competed in the past, as have top surfers, such as Sunny Garcia, Nathan Fletcher and Kalani Robb. This year was no different; in fact, it had more entrants than ever before, including past competitors Jeff Matiasevich, Robbie Maddison, David Pingree and McGrath, to name a few.
This year’s motocross was held at Perris Raceway. The moto race consisted of 12 laps, with partners sharing one bracelet that they had to exchange every lap.
In the surfing competition, they paddle out together, with the moto guys usually getting a push to take off when their surfing skills aren’t so good.
This year’s overall winner went to top wake surfer Josh Sleigh who partnered with motocrosser Carson Mumford, who could probably also compete at the pro level when it comes to surfing. Yes, he’s that good.
McGrath, who partnered with Jacob Szekely, took home the silver medal, and Dakota Tedder and Kalani Robb combined efforts for the bronze.
David Pingree and Nathan Fletcher took top honors in the motocross competition, followed by the Matiasevich/T. Alwohi and Corbin Hayes/Brandon Tipton teams.