Predicted inclement weather for Saturday, March 23 in Green Sea, South Carolina cut the CSCA March Competition down to a one day event and forced the rescheduling of Tommy Farmer’s much-anticipated long distance surf casting seminar to Sunday.
Several local surf fishermen were able to adapt to the scheduling change and enjoyed the benefits of a smaller group and more one-on-one attention as Tommy covered his trademark “5 Fundamentals of Power Casting” over the course of 2 hours. The seminar participants were then directed to the casting court to have a casual contest among themselves mixed in with the main competition.
Seminar attendee Chris Deal came out on top with the longest cast of the seminar group, while Eric Smith saw the biggest increase in distance between his pre-seminar cast, and his contest casts thrown after Tommy’s instruction.
The seminar, contest, and concurrent main competition were hosted on a giant sod farm graciously provided by local farmer Kevin Clemons. It was an ideal venue, with clear skies and high winds predicted for the day.
In his first time back out in nearly two years, AA caster Chuck Howell bested CSCA president Matt Tuers’ distance by one inch.
Local South Carolina resident Conner Brown continues his progress and led the “Master” class of casters with his new pendulum casting skills. Brown had previously adopted a ground-cast-only posture for this formative part of his casting career, but in light of qualifying for the USA Surf Casting Team and preparing to compete in the 2025 FIPS-Mer Long Distance Casting World Championships, Brown and trainer Tommy Farmer accelerated his learning curve and moved to high-swing pendulum casting earlier than planned.
As could be predicted, CSCA vice president and USA Surf Casting Team captain Ryan Lambert eclipsed the entire group. Lambert had anticipated casts close to 900’, judging from the favorable wind forecasts, but possible thermal disturbance or crosswinds downfield suppressed Lambert’s casts to the low- to mid-800s.
A big “thank you” goes out to Tommy Farmer for providing his world-class casting knowledge, Kevin Clemons for providing a beautiful venue, CSCA member Conner Brown for coordinating with Kevin, ABC-15 News for covering the competition, and to everyone who came out to participate and support the sport.
Results from Seminar/Contest
Name | Pre-seminar cast | Post-seminar cast | Gain | Sinker weight |
Chris Deal | 349′ 0″ | 415′ 8″ | 19.1% | 125 gram |
Rich Hardick | 319′ 0″ | 314′ 3″ | – | 125 gram |
Andy Helton | 360′ 1″ | 330′ 11″ | – | 8 ounce |
Eric Smith | 283′ 6″ | 345′ 4″ | 21.8% | 175 gram |
Dan Wike | (NCR) | 325′ 5″ | – | 125 gram |
Results from Main Competition
Name | Class | 100 gram | 125 gram | 150 gram | 175 gram | 8 ounce |
Bob Babington | AA | (NCR) | ||||
Chuck Howell | AA | 605′ 8″ | ||||
Matt Tuers | AA | 605′ 7″ | ||||
Conner Brown | Master | 777′ 6″ | 787′ 6″ | |||
Chris Chance | Master | 738′ 10″ | ||||
Goddy Ferrer | Master | 758′ 0″ | 763′ 7″ | 622′ 9″ | ||
Ryan Lambert | Elite | 842′ 5″ | 832′ 6″ | |||
Tommy Farmer | Senior | 707′ 5″ |