The O.C. rules

Mike Sciacca

Mike Hoisington made a bold proclamation five days before the debut

of the National Surf League’s California Cup: “I predict a big win

for us,” the Huntington Beach resident said. “We have the best guys

out there.”

Team Orange County, composed of local professional surfers

including Hoisington, proved the 28-year-old right by owning the

competition during the three-day Hurley Game Weekend held at the

Huntington Beach Pier.

The California Cup, a month-long series of surfing contests,

featured competition among teams representing Orange, San Diego,

Ventura and Santa Cruz counties.

Team Orange County -- its members wearing orange T-shirts bearing

their name and number on back -- routed Team Santa Cruz, 188.25-142,

edged Team Ventura, 185.5-180.5, and wrapped up the weekend with a

decisive, 195.3-167.3 victory over Team San Diego.

The weekend competition at the pier kicked off the inaugural

National Surf League and huge swells and warm weather made for a

perfect beginning.

“We’re really, really happy with the weekend,” said Suzy Shortt,

who is partners with Brad Gerlach and Jeff Cutler in the National

Surf League. “We have four more weekends of competition and we hope

everybody comes out to see the tournament. This proved to be a great

start for the league.”

Locals Timmy Turner and Brett Simpson tore it up for Team Orange

County, their performances instrumental in the team’s dominance, and

21-year-old Shaun Ward also figured prominently in the victory over

Team Ventura.

Ward, a 2001 graduate of Huntington Beach High, subbed in for Nate

Yeomans during the second day of the competition and pulled in

valuable points in his heat, which helped Team Orange County defeat

Team Ventura.

“It was insane out there,” Ward said. “The team concept is

exciting for surfing, exciting for the crowd, and the pressure to

perform well was there, too.

“What was great about this is that everybody was involved with

each other and rooting each other on. That doesn’t happen too often

in surfing.”

Reyes agreed.

The Surf City native caught up on his sleep immediately following

the tournament, and slept through much of Monday, too, before heading

out to check out the late-afternoon surf.

“I played baseball when I was younger, and this surfing

competition reminded me about playing a team sport,” said the

21-year-old. “You take your turn surfing, then your teammate surfs,

and you’re all there, cheering your guys on. There’s even some

friendly taunting going on between teams.

“I’ve never participated in a full game surfing competition

because I was surfing the ASP. But, now that I have surfed in a game

situation, I enjoyed it 100%. It was awesome. If you’re having a bad

time out there, you can be subbed for. And timeouts, well, they’re

great. I wish we had those when we compete as individuals in

competitions.”

Reyes took game MVP honors against Team Santa Cruz Friday.

Simpson, also of Surf City, was named MVP in the Team Ventura game,

and Laguna Beach’s Mike Todd earned the honor in Sunday’s game

against Team San Diego.

What made the weekend even more memorable, Reyes said, was the

outstanding morning swells.

“It was amazing out there,” he said. “The couple of days that I

surfed, it was the best I’ve seen in quite a while.”

The California Cup moves up the coast to Ventura, where the

second, three-day competition, the Quiksilver Game Weekend, will

begin Friday at Seaside Park at C Street.

Reyes said that Team Orange County will be in Ventura today ,

holding a practice run.

“We have such a great group of guys on our team and there’s so

much talent, that we can split our group into two teams, and practice

against each other,” he said. “Everybody was ripping last weekend,

and we want to do the same in Ventura.”