HB Surf Series event called off

Not since its inception six years ago has the Huntington Beach Surf

Series had to cancel an event.

That is, until now.

Because of polluted waters along the Huntington Beach shoreline

earlier this week, Series founder Seth Matson chose to cancel this

weekend’s event.

Matson did so, too - without hesitation, three days before the

event.

‘There’s no way I was going to have our guys go out into that

water,’ explained Matson, whose two-day competition was to be held at the

River Jetties. ‘I came to my decision right away, that I wouldn’t have

our surfers risk anything, such as their health.

‘Surprisingly, though, I’ve seen a lot of surfers go into the

water, despite the warning signs.’

Matson’s comments came Wednesday night. By Thursday afternoon,

Huntington Beach lifeguards discovered about 1,500 hypodermic (medical)

needles wading in the surf.

State and city lifeguards closed down the area where the needles

washed ashore, from Magnolia Street to just past the north side of the

pier.

‘Before that, though, the City hadn’t shut down the beach, and

that confused me,’ Matson said. ‘The only thing they (city) had done was

post signs reading that if you went into the water, you did so at your

own risk.’

The cancellation of the seventh event of the 10-event HB Surf Series leaves Matson with just two more competitions in the 1999 season.

The eighth series event is scheduled to be held Oct. 16-17 at

Goldenwest Street, and the season’s finale is slated for Nov. 13-14, at

the pier.

‘We won’t make up our seventh event of the season, which is

unfortunate,’ Matson added. ‘In six years we’ve never canceled a weekend

competition, but doing so this weekend was a no-brainer. I’m very

confident in my decision.’

To learn about the ratings points leaders as well as overall

standings, Matson said to log on to his group’s official web site at

www.hbsurfseries.com.