Sports

Lucky enough to once again secure media credentials to cover the U.S. Open tennis tournament, I needed to do a bit of fishing myself to see who is really hooked on fishing.

The crowd of children and adults early on Friday afternoon, hours before its official reopening, were a clear indication that the renovated Lars Simenson Skatepark in Montauk is a hit. "What happened was a very organic process of people just building enthusiasm, community coming together . . . until we ended up with something that is world class," said a member of the Montauk Skatepark Coalition.

Sergey Avramenko, 37, of Hampton Bays, Jenny Grimshaw, 31, of San Francisco, and her mother, Judi Donnelly, 65, of Southampton and Wellesley, Mass., the first among breast cancer survivors, were winners at the 27th Ellen’s Run in Southampton Sunday to benefit the Ellen Hermanson Foundation. Another worthy organization, Hoops 4 Hope, benefited from a pleasing turnout at its inaugural 3-on-3 basketball tournament at East Hampton High School Saturday.

The 46th weeklong Hampton Classic Horse Show, one of just nine five-star-rated shows in the country, is to begin at the 60-acre Snake Hollow Road, Bridgehampton, showgrounds on Sunday at 8 a.m. with leadline classes for children judged by Joe Fargis, an Olympic gold medalist, in the Grand Prix ring.

The Town Police Benevolent Association squad had high hopes going into the East Hampton Town women’s slow-pitch softball league final with the pennant-winner — and defending playoff champion — East End Land Planning, but the P.B.A.’s forward movement was arrested in the end.

“Lots of weakfish are around, plus there are porgies, blowfish, fluke, sea bass, snappers, kingfish, and even some black drum being caught,” reports Sebastian Gorgone of Mrs. Sam’s Tackle in East Hampton.

The Lars Simenson Skatepark, on South Essex Street in Montauk, will reopen Friday after an extensive renovation made possible through a public-private partnership.

On Saturday, the eighth annual Johnny Mac Tennis Project's Pro Am in the Hamptons will be held at the Sportime Amagansett Tennis and Swim Club on Abraham's Path. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Johnny Mac Tennis Project, a nonprofit founded by tennis legend John McEnroe that aims to introduce tennis to thousands of under-resourced children by helping to remove racial, economic, and social barriers that often face them.

"We joke and say it's the world's second oldest profession," said Ike Birdsall, owner of Birdsall's Hotshoe, a farrier based in Sag Harbor. Farriers, who tend to horse hooves, are an essential but unheralded segment of the $122 billion horse industry, and the job hasn't changed substantially since 400 B.C. when the earliest horseshoes were made.

Leif Hope has always painted his Artists team as devil-may-care when it comes to winning and losing and the Writers as self-loathing loners obsessed with winning, and so, in the end, at the 74th meeting of the rivals at East Hampton’s Herrick Park Saturday afternoon, all went according to form as the Writers, who had trailed 18-2 — yes, 18-2 — entering the bottom of the ninth inning, wound up winning in storybook fashion 19-18.

Two South Fork standbys, the Artists and Writers Softball Game at East Hampton’s Herrick Park and Ellen’s Run, now based at Southampton’s Intermediate School, are slated for the coming weekend.

Again the Hampton Lifeguard Association, a team comprising guards from East Hampton and Southampton Towns, enjoyed a strong outing at the United States Lifesaving Association’s championships, which were held last week at Hermosa Beach, Calif.

For boat owners, the fact that diesel has dipped below $6 a gallon is welcome news, even if it's still expensive. As any owner of a power boat knows, fuel is just one part (actually a very small part) of the overall expense of the craft. Other expenditures like dockage, insurance, maintenance, and other factors, significantly overshadow the bill at the fuel dock.

Despite the confusion and tragedy of American life in 2022, they somehow return each spring; like flying foil-wrapped gifts come to life. And now, as early as this week, the males will depart from our area to begin their largely daytime migrations south. This is one of the most entertaining weeks to “feeder watch,” as they defend their last sips.

We’re hot and then we’re not,” Erin Abran said with a smile after last Thursday night’s women’s slow-pitch playoff softball game. The Police Benevolent Association, led by its pitcher, T. Schirrippa, and its shortstop, Nicole Fierro, downed Groundworks 9-4 in the third game of a best-of-three semifinal series, advancing the P.B.A. to the final round with East End Land Planning, the defending champion.

The July 23 crossing from Montauk Point to Block Island was the 12th for Paddlers for Humanity, an event that to date has raised more than $2 million to help local children and families in crisis.

Hoops 4 Hope, a nonprofit founded by Mark Crandall of Amagansett to work with young people in Zimbabwe and South Africa, is now also working with youngsters here, using basketball as a means by which to teach them how to be a good teammate.

The 47-year-old Amagansett resident, assisted by a crew of 14, swam a 23.9-mile U-shaped arc in the Atlantic Ocean between Block Island and Montauk last Thursday. Her time of 8 hours, 39 minutes, and 45 seconds, which the Marathon Swimmers Federation is expected to certify, is most notable for the fact that apparently no swimmer has ever before spanned Montauk and Block Island.

Despite the excessive-heat warning from the National Weather Service, our intended quarry was a species that’s more recognizably caught in the bone-chilling winds and cold of winter: the iconic codfish.

Jacky Loving, a German-born, Montauk-based skater, surfer, paddleboarder, hiker, and all-round adventure-seeker, founded Loving Adventures to teach kids life skills through outdoorsy and challenging sports. “I’m just providing tools to get outside."

The Bad News Bubs repeated as the A bracket champion in the Travis Field memorial double-elimination softball tournament in Amagansett last week, while the Bud Heavies were the B bracket champs.

More than 300 male and female junior lifeguards ranging in age from 9 to 15 competed in a lifesaving skills tournament at Amagansett's Atlantic Avenue Beach Saturday and Sunday.

Teenage siblings, Trevor and Rose Hayes of East Moriches, were the male and female winners of the 5K contested in memory of Lance Cpl. Jordan C. Haerter on Saturday in Sag Harbor, a race that's a special one insofar as community spirit goes.

This is her first season running the Hither Hills Racquet Club, on the Napeague stretch, after five years in that role at the tennis concession at Montauk Downs State Park, where she grew up playing the sport.

“The fluke bite has really picked up over the past week or so,” Paul Apostolides said. “Nice fish up to 10 pounds have been taken.”

The Sag Harbor Whalers, with a part-time East Hamptoner, Brett Borcherding, pitching in relief, defeated the Westhampton Aviators 6-5 at Sag Harbor's Mashashimuet Park on Sunday to win the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League's championship series 2-1. It was the first H.C.B.L. championship for a Whaler team since 2008.

The Travis Field memorial double-elimination coed softball tournament, which many say is their favorite event of the summer, is to begin Thursday at the Terry King ball field in Amagansett with 17 teams — seven in the A bracket and 10 in the B bracket — vying for trophies.

Long Beach nosed out East Hampton Town’s men’s A entry by 2 points in last Thursday’s 17-team invitational lifeguard tournament at East Hampton Village’s Main Beach. Smith Point won the women’s competition, with East Hampton Town’s A team the runner-up.

Fishermen can be a rather superstitious lot. Many have unusual habits or a routine that is indelibly ingrained based on past history — sometimes on fact but more likely fiction.

Cristian Compuzano, a stocky striker who plays for F.C. Tuxpan, took over the 7-on-7 men’s soccer league’s Golden Boot lead with a hat trick at East Hampton’s Herrick Park on July 19, treating his team to a 3-1 win over the defending-champion East Hampton Soccer Club.