Contest time heats up the water
RICK FIGNETTI
Just in case you were wondering what was happening last week on the
south side of the Huntington Beach Pier, it was the inaugural
American Surfing Championships.
Surfers from the Hawaiian Amateur Surfing Assn., the Eastern
Surfing Assn. and the Texas Gulf Assn. competed in a bunch of
different age brackets. Surfers in the younger age groups, who did
well, will get seeded into the U.S.A. Championships, along with some
surfers who do well in the National Scholastic Surfing Assn. National
Championships going on this week at Lowers.
The top ranked surfers will then be invited to trials, and the top
placers will qualify for the World Junior Titles in Tahiti later this
year. Still, a couple big questions, Hawaii and the continental U.S.
are two different teams. It’s been that way a long time in surfing
history, but for America to field a good team and secure good places
in the World Championships -- lets face the facts, Hawaii is part of
the U.S. and a lot of the best young talent comes from there -- one
team would be better.
Surfing America has just recently taken over, and the good news
is, most of the best surfers will get a chance to surf and a shot at
these world events before all the organizations sent members. But
another question also arises. At the American Championships, some of
the older surf divisions were held for U.S. titles, and by some
glitch in the system no West Coast surfers were invited to the event,
which was right here in our own backyard!
I hear they’re working on it right now, so next year all coasts
will be represented.
Last Friday and Saturday down at Salt Creek the start of the NSSA
National Championships began. It featured high school, college and
middle schools going head-to-head in competition. The results are
still top secret, but according to my information, San Clemente High
and Huntington Beach High School were in a super tight battle until
the quarter finals, when San Clemente started pulling away toward the
end. With San Clemente’s Pat Gudauskas leading the final, brother
Tanner close behind him and San Clemente’s Dane Ward possibly third.
Huntington Beach High School’s Corey LaPoint made the final as
well as East Coast shredder Jeremy Johnston. In the college action,
it was pretty close with, Mira Costa, Cal State San Marcos and UC
Santa Barbara running pretty tight, with Ryan Schnell and Dylan
Slater battling for first place in that final. And in the middle
school’s Hunti Kennelly was ripping in that final, too. The
National’s moved to Lower Trestles Tuesday for individual competition
in Explorer and Open divisions, which runs till Saturday’s finals.
National titles are on the line in all the different age categories.
We’ll keep ya posted, all’s I can tell ya is, a South swell is
forecasted.
Surfs up, see ya at the National’s, I’ll be there announcing, come
check it out, admission is free.
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