The goodwill tour continues

Mike Sciacca

They have conquered some of the best surfing spots in the world but

now members of the Huntington Beach High surf team will be out to test

unchartered territory: Ireland.

The 11-member Oiler entourage will leave Surf City on Aug. 20 for a

two-week exploration of the Irish coastline. There they will compete in a

high school challenge surf contest and seek to make new friends, much

like the international friends the program has gained in previous trips

to Australia, South Africa, Indonesia, France and Spain.

While in the city of Bundoran, in the county of Donegal, the Oilers --

Coach Andy Verdone, assistant coaches Barry Deffenbaugh and Ben Will, and

team members Shaun Ward, Brandon Guilmette, Sean Rios, Dave McCay, Brad

Ettinger, Willie Safreed and Brian “Rhino” Paullins -- will stay in three

cottages in the sparsely populated town.

After arriving in Dublin, they will travel some three hours by bus to

the western part of the country. The stretch of the Atlantic ocean that

meets Bundoran, where the team will compete, has not been heavily surfed.

A dozen surfers would be considered a big crowd, Verdone said.

With the 11-member Huntington group arriving shortly, the waters of

Bundoran will no doubt be considered heavily populated.

The weather? Well, it’s summertime in Ireland, but highs have only

reached the upper 60s, with lows hitting the mid-50s. Doesn’t really

matter to most surfers, though.

“Everybody is talking about Ireland as being the next big place to

surf,” Verdone said. “It is known as the European Indonesia. The bottom

line for this trip is to make new friends and invite them to come back

and surf Huntington Beach. We’ve had great success in the past with this

type of exchange program.”

Some of the Huntington athletes making the trip are sponsored, and

Huntington Beach Surf and Sport has been instrumental in the realization

of this adventure. Others have saved up from the jobs they worked. Still

others received the trip as a graduation present from their families.

In addition to the high school challenge the big event scheduled is

the September Quicksilver Masters World Championships, which actually

will be held Aug. 23. at Huntington Beach’s Peter “PT” Townend will be

vying for the crown.

One of the big perks of this trip will be the chance for these young

men to get in some surf time with some of the legends of the sport, among

them, Townend, Wayne “Rabbit” Bartholomew, Tommy Carroll, Tom Curren and

Mark “Occy” Occhilupo -- all former world champions.

Bartholomew and Townend are former high school mates back in

Australia, and Townend, a major force as a publisher in the surfing

industry, is an idol of Verdone’s.

The two surf in Huntington Beach on occasion.

“I had three posters up on my wall when I was younger -- Farrah

Fawcett, the rock band KISS and the other was of P.T.” Verdone said. “He

has been and still is such a major influence in the surfing world.”

Verdone says that Townend has had an integral part in setting up surf

trips for the Huntington Beach High program. Townend, he said, arranged

the program’s first trip abroad -- Australia -- in 1988.

Barry Deffenbaugh, now an assistant coach in the program, went on that

trip as a student.

“Funny, but back in the day, Barry was the one who needed a chaperon.

Now, he will be doing the chaperoning,” Verdone said with a laugh.

Ben Will, the other assistant coach, surfed on Huntington’s national

championship team and the recent Cal State Long Beach graduate was a

member of the 49er squad that won the surfing national title this past

year.

Members of the Oilers team also will be bringing some strong

credentials with them.

Ward, Guilmette, Rios and McCay all are recent graduates. Ward, last

year’s team captain, is a National Scholastic Surfing Association

champion; Guilmette was the 2001 NSSA Air Show runner-up; Rios was a

four-year member of the varsity and McCay won the Josh Hall Memorial

Scholarship.

Ettinger, a senior and the 2002 captain, just returned from a modeling

assignment in New York, where he shot with famed photographer Bruce

Weber; Safreed, also a senior, is the 2002 assistant captain and Paullins

is a sophomore who “charges,” Verdone said.

The Oilers will be bringing with them what they hope to be a good luck

charm: a custom designed surfboard, which they will present to their

Irish counterparts.

The board was shaped by Deffenbaugh -- considered to be a great young

shaper -- and the art work, an amazing compilation of shamrocks, surf and

the rugged Irish coast, was penned by South African Wade Sharp. Mark

Nakashima, who owns Chuck Dent Surf Center in Huntington Beach, “glassed”

the board.

On top of the board bears the name, “Ireland.”

“It is a symbol of goodwill,” Verdone said of the board. “We are

fortunate to be making this trip, and it is our expression of thanks to

the Irish people. We really hope they can make it to surf Huntington one

of these days.”