Forsing Nelscott: Anger and Controversy Erupt at the West Coast's Only Big-Wave Tow Contest

The Oregon coast is an unlikely place for a surf contest. Known for frigid water temperatures, incessant rain, shark attacks, and hostile locals, the contradictions involved in holding an international surf contest in these perilous waters are seemingly as many as there are fish in the sea. Yet the Nelscott Reef Tow Classic is a diamond in the rough. Even stranger is the fact that the contest is the first and only tow-in surfing competition on the West Coast of North America. Yet now, after it’s second successful year, tension between local surfers and contest organizers has risen to create a level of animosity that could rival most family blood feuds in the Ozarks.

The Nelscott Reef Tow Classic is the brainchild of Oregon surfer John Forse, who first attempted to surf the reef in 1995. Yet John quickly learned that pioneers who make great discoveries are often seen in two kinds of light. Some view them as revolutionaries, who have risked their own hides to push humankind further down the path towards enlightenment; yet others view them as self-serving exploiters, seeking fame and fortune, and willing to sell their new discoveries to the highest bidder. Columbus, Cortez, James Cook, Lewis and Clark - they have all shown their bravery and made monumental discoveries, but are not always seen by everyone as the heroes that history books have made them out to be. One thing is certain, however: new discoveries are becoming more and more rare, as the globe seems to grow ever smaller, and every inch of ground seems to have been trodden many times over.

Not so in the world of surfing, which is what makes the sport somewhat unique in today's world. Some of the world's most ferocious big waves have been discovered in just the last decade alone - places like Peahiin Hawaii, Shipstern Bluff in Australia, Teahupoo in Tahiti - and more are certainly out there, waiting for the next pioneer to stumble upon them. Technology has opened new doors - wet suit improvements pushing explorers further towards the poles, and the introduction of the personal watercraft allowing surfers to ride waves that they could previously only dream of surfing. One such discovery was made in the small Oregon town of Lincoln City, by surfer John Forse; but like many of those great men before him, Forse not always been revered for having brought this new wave world-wide fame. Some say he is an exploiter, and has sold out Oregon's surf; yet others recognize his feat as one of unbridled bravery, which led to one of the best big-wave surf spot discoveries in North America: Nelscott Reef.

Oregon is not your typical surf destination, to say the least. The state mostly offers up miles and miles of beach break, with a few world-class waves sprinkled along the coast, all of which are heavily guarded by some of the most protective locals one could ever expect to encounter. The localism is somewhat understandable, considering the over crowding line-ups just one state to the South, but the fear that massive hordes of Californians will move north has never materialized. In fact, most Californian surfers have never ventured north of the Golden Gate, let alone crossed the Oregon border, but the fear festers in the psyches of most Oregon surfers. One particular spot, which is considered the best left point in either state (name deliberately withheld to protect the author’s safety), has developed a reputation for localism that is so intense that many 'Caliwhackers' (as Californians are affectionately referred to) simply refuse to surf there at all. A car with California plates is like an open invitation to vandalism - park anywhere near the spot and you most likely will return from the near-freezing water to a junk heap where your car used to be. Others have been beaten up for simply paddling out, and some of the locals prefer to hurl rocks at the trespassers rather than bruise their knuckles. It's like the wild west all over again, and you've just trodden across the wrong guy's mining claim.

Nelscott Reef is away from all that - it lies about half a mile off the coast in Lincoln City, and wasn't even ridden until a few years ago. No one can lay claim to these waters, as no one has surfed them for long. The coastline, rain-soaked and punctuated by rolling hills of fir and spruce forest, is ruler straight, pure beach-break with no curves or channels, no points or jetties to provide shelter from the incessant wintertime swell. The reef lies in deep water and only begins to make waves break when the faces reach about 12 feet. The wave reaches its true potential at 25-foot plus.

The biggest challenge at Nelscott is simply getting out to the reef – the beach-break’s waves are equal in size, and the massive, shifting peaks make it nearly impossible to paddle out to reach the deep waters beyond. There aren't many surfers that live in Lincoln City, but they all will confess of the torturous years spent watching perfect waves break on a reef that was just out of reach.

John Forse was one of those surfers, and one year he decided he was going to surf it - somehow. 'In 1995 we took a 35-horse, under-powered zodiac out through the river mouth, and it was just a crap-shoot. We had no idea how big it was out there, and we tried a few times to get out through the beach break and had to turn around because a set was coming. My friend Jason Zinn was with me, and finally I thought I saw a hole and decided to go for it, and Jason was yelling 'no, no!' but I gunned it and luckily we made it out there. Then there we were in the open ocean, feeling dwarfed by these massive 20-foot swells, and we motored about a hundred yards or so out past where the biggest waves were breaking. I paddled over to where the peak was on my 10-foot gun and waited for a set.'

'We all thought John was kind of nuts,' admits Jason Garding, a Lincoln City surfer who now rides Nelscott regularly. 'I mean, the waves are perfect, but look what you've got to go through just to get out there. The fishermen are terrified of that place, and they are the bravest guys on the water. That should tell you something.' Garding was the one of three Oregon surfers that participated in the inaugural competition, held in 2005. 'John was the first guy to try riding it, and I have to give him credit, he really opened our eyes.'

On John’s first attempt in 1995, he quickly realized how difficult it was to paddle into a wave at Nelscott. As the first set approached, he was in position and paddled for the first wave. 'I had that feeling, kind of like when Greg Noll rode that huge wave at Makaha, that it was now or never. If I didn't try my hardest to catch that wave, I might never have another chance, I might regret it for the rest of my life.' The wave stood up behind him and John paddled as hard as he could. ' I don't know how big that wave was, but it was blacking out the horizon, and as I paddled the offshore winds kicked in and held me up at the top of the wave, and below me was this deep dark chasm. The thing was moving so fast it was incredible. At the last minute I realized I wasn't going to make it, and the wind just blew me right out the back.' Behind that wave was the rest of the set, bearing down on him and threatening to blast him into oblivion. 'I paddled like hell to the north, and somehow I just escaped being hit by that set, and then I thought that's it, I'm out of here. At least I still have my hide.'

Even though Forse didn't catch a wave that day, the desire to ride Nelscott never left him. 'I knew that Nelscott was perfect for tow-surfing, but I didn't have a partner and knew nothing about the sport,' Forse admits. 'It wasn't until 2003 that the place was properly ridden, when I invited Peter Mel and Adam Repogle up here on a big, perfect day. If anyone should get credit for riding it first, it should be those guys.'

Tow surfing involves the use of a personal water craft (PWC), or jet ski, to tow the surfer in to a wave at high speed so that a wave of unusual size can actually be caught and ridden. Waves of this size move at such high speeds across the ocean surface that paddling into them is at times extremely difficult, and other times nearly impossible. With a PWC, though, surfers can ride ten such waves in an hour.

'When they [Mel and Repogle] first got here it was like 50 feet,' continues Forse,' and Pete told me he was nervous as hell. That's when I knew we had something really serious here. I've seen Pete riding some of the world's biggest waves, so I knew he didn't get scared easily.' They went out on two PWC's that day, one piloted by Forse with photographer Nate Lawrence, and the other by Mel and Repogle. 'That was the first day I rode a wave at Nelscott,' admits Forse. 'They pulled me into a twenty footer, and I have to admit I really didn't know what I was doing. The thing just clobbered me. I was held under for long time, until my lungs were burning, and then I missed my pick-up, and took another on my head. It was then that I realized that I would have to get my shit together if I was going to surf this place.'

As it turns out, however, Mel and Repogle really weren't the first to surf it, a fact which Forse acknowledges, although he claims the conditions that first day were less than perfect. A few years earlier, Craig Spujit, a surfer from Humboldt County, had met Forse while working in Lincoln City, and heard his descriptions of the reef and its potential as a tow-spot. Spujit had already been towing the coast of Northern California for a few years, so he was excited to try out a new break. Spujit's first attempt to tow-surf it, in 2001 with partner Kirk Johnson, was guided by Forse but the conditions deteriorated before many waves could be caught, and most were not very big – hardly good by Nelscott standards. But regardless, Spujit goes down in the history books as having ridden the first waves at Nelscott. Spujit’s second trip to the break saw much larger surf. He came up in 2002 and found good conditions at the reef, but his partner no-showed. He called Forse and asked him to tow him into the 20-foot-plus waves, but the team didn’t manage to catch any waves that day. When Spujit was questioned, he was evasive about the reasons. Forse was more forthcoming. “It was real Nelscott, 15 feet at 17 seconds – about 20feet on the face – but when I got Craig into the spot he wouldn’t drop the rope.” Hardly surprising – I mean really, how many of us would?

The argument regarding who surfed Nelscott first seems to have reached a fevered pitch amongst the West Coast surfing community. But is it really necessary to say who rode it first, who planted the flag at Nelscott? Columbus is widely regarded as having 'discovered' America, but it turns out he wasn't the first European to stumble upon it. The Vikings had long preceded him. But it was Columbus who had follow-through, whose discovery led to a monumental change in world history. And then there's the often-ignored fact that America was already inhabited by humans - so it wasn't really discovered at all -but the natives lacked some of the tools, skills and weapons that the Europeans had. Sound familiar? Nelscott Reef wasn't really discovered by Forse - everyone in Lincoln City knew it was there - but Forse had the gumption to be the first guy to try to ride it, and the reef became his obsession. 'My dream, besides riding it myself, was to see the best surfers in the world out there charging these waves. That has always been my desire. Let's face it, I'm not a young buck anymore, I can't do these waves justice.' Forse's efforts brought surfers up to ride it - albeit from California - which planted the seed in the minds of local surfers that they, too, could ride Nelscott Reef, as long as they had the right tools.

'I'm not really a big wave surfer,' admits local Jason Garding, 'but when there's a huge swell and offshore winds, there's nowhere else to go around here. Nelscott's it. I decided I'd rather learn to tow in thans it on the beach and watch.' Since then, at least four other teams from Oregon have begun to tow the reef regularly. But this is where the fork appears in the road, where opinions diverge and where the controversy begins.

'The only reason most of these local guys started towing in at Nelscott,' claims Forse, 'is when they saw the cameras come out. None of them have the skills yet to survive a huge day out there, let alone compete with guys who have been at it for years.'

Garding disagrees. 'The guys in Santa Cruz are no better at towing than us. Want proof? How often do they get a chance to tow? The answer is about a tenth as much as we do up here. There are days the Reef is breaking and Maverick's <a big-wave spot in California is a lake.'

The first contest at Nelscott Reef was organized by Forse, who along with friends Adam Wagner and Jim Kusz, formed Behemoth LLC and got permits from Lincoln City to hold an international event in the offshore waters. The event was called in early December 2005, and featured mostly Californian big wave riders who had honed their skills at Mavericks. Local surfer Jason Garding teamed up with Californian Don Curry. Also included were Mark Builder and Keith Galbreath from Lincoln City. But a few of the local tow teams were excluded. As expected, Forse came under a lot of criticism for not including all the tow surfers from Oregon. Forse responded by telling the press that the event was an invitational, meaning it was up to the contest organizers to decide who surfed in it, and he didn't really think many of the Oregon surfers had the skills yet for competing against the world's best tow surfers. So the event ran with only three Oregonians on the list, which didn't go over well with Oregon's tight-knit surf community. 'I kind of felt like a token Oregon surfer,' said Garding, 'but I must admit, I don't have the skills that some of these guys do. I mean, if it had been 50 feet, there's no way I would have ridden it.' Regardless, Forse came under attack from all sides. His response to local complaints was not always diplomatic, and some of his new enemies vowed revenge. But Garding’s admission was telling – what most of the contestants wished for –huge 50-foot surf – was over his head, both literally and figuratively.

The 2006 contest saw controversy long before the first horn blew. A group of Oregon surfers, along with representatives from towsurfer.com, claimed to have approached the Oregon state government and secured permission for their own contest at Nelscott, then attempted to use their new permit as a bargaining chip with Behemoth LLC to assure that more local surfers were invited. Otherwise they threatened to hold their own contest and compete with the Nelcott Reef Classic. Forse accused them of extortion. They accused him of purposefully barring qualified local surfers from the contest. What followed was a twisted web of accusations, insults, and threats, which continue to this day. 'The reason we decided to obtain the permit was to attempt to encourage Behemoth LLC to include more local athletes,' stated Dan Hasselschwert, owner of Ossie's Surf Shop in Newport, Oregon. 'That is the major bone of contention with Behemoth LLC's 'contest', it is not a contest at all. It is not designed to see who can surf the reef the best because it does not include the best people who surf it on a regular basis.'

Eventually John was able to reach a grudging agreement with towsurfer.com, agreeing to include (ironically enough) the owner of towsurfer.com, Eric Asiskalian, and his partner, Chuck Patterson, in the contest. “Eric tried to wedge a worthless state permit that gave them no exclusive use of anything, for two invitations for themselves,” said Forse. ”And they’re not even locals.” On the day of the event, not a single Oregon surfer was on the list. What happened? A handful of local surfers were vocally furious. They claim Forse made it extremely difficult for them to participate – preventing them from choosing their own partners, trying to charge them extra fees, which finally forced them to opt out. Forse strongly disagrees, claiming he actually invited two teams to participate. 'There were no local teams in the contest because they never paid their entry fees, period,' he stated. “If you want to be in a contest with the best surfers in the world, the least you can do is get your check in on time.” Unfortunately the attempt by towsurfer.com to run a different contest had confused local surfers, and they didn’t know what was going to happen, or when, or whom to believe. “That’s what drew the locals into missing their entry fee deadlines,” added John somberly.

Regardless of the hard feelings this created with some of the Oregon surfers, the day brought perfect conditions for the event for the second year in a row. Solid 25-35 foot faces combed by a light offshore wind, and some serious surfing bravado. During the contest at least, the beauty of the waves seemed to wash away the tension in the air. In the end, Hawaiians Garrett McNamara and Kealii Mamala took home the gold. The locals, however, never got a chance. But that seems to be, at least in part, a predicament of their own making.

The aftermath of the contest did nothing to improve relations between Oregon surfers and their Californian brethren. Internet chat-rooms were buzzing with anti-Californian vernacular for weeks following the event. Accusations flew in both directions. The atmosphere was not unlike a Columbus Day parade on an Indian Reservation. A lot of local surfers were angry, and fingers were pointing every which way. Nonetheless, the non-surfing public was as stoked as ever. As the lovely girl who worked the front desk of my hotel explained, 'It's so exciting that we have something here in Lincoln City that the whole world wants to see.' There is no doubt that, without John Forse and his vision, Lincoln City would still be just another dot on the map. One would hope, however, that future contests give Oregon's budding tow-surfers another chance to prove themselves worthy of the Nelscott challenge, and that eventually, the fog of controversy lifts.

-Will Henry