Word: contestable
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Illinois Governor Pat Quinn clung to a narrow lead in his state's Feb. 2 Democratic primary election, winning 50.4% of the vote, with 99% of precincts reporting. The contest was the first of 37 gubernatorial primary races this election season. Fifteen governors are aiming to retain their seats, but many of them face opposition from within their own party. Six incumbents (four of whom are seeking their first election wins after being appointed following the resignations of their predecessors) may have challengers in what are all shaping up to be close races...
Most sensible men of Banner's age (he's in his early 40s) prefer to watch extreme sports rather than experience them. But nearly half of the 24 top riders in the Mavericks contest are in their 40s. It isn't really a competition for punks. Indeed, Banner sees surfing almost as a higher calling: "When I get out of the water, I feel cleansed, like it's what God intended...
...being "like an underwater Manhattan, with all its skyscrapers." Says Banner: "Being mentally prepared is not having that stuff mess with you." He adds, "You need to feel lots of air in your body, light." He will wait on his choice of surfboard until the morning of the contest, when he sees the size and direction of the massive Pacific swells calved from a storm off northern Japan...
Clark, now a surfboard maker, became the driving force behind the Mavericks Surfing Contest, which he started in 1999 with a novel idea: the competition would be called at 48 hours' notice and only when the waves topped 20 ft. Once a storm with swells that size was predicted, Clark alerted the 24 best big-wave riders from around the world, and they scrambled to reach Half Moon Bay, better known for its fog and eerie fields of pumpkins. Advertisers figured out swiftly that nothing sells better to the youth market than the heroic (and rebellious) image of a lone...
Banner agrees. He says he could use the money. He clears trees and works in construction, giving him the flexibility to surf whenever the titanic swells roll in. But when he takes off on a wave, he says, "I'm not thinking about the money or the contest. It's about you and the ocean. It could be the end of your life, and that's what gives the moment its purity...