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.