The Game is afoot

Mike Sciacca

The Game, a four-quarter format competition featuring some of the

world’s hottest surfers, will be played out at the south side of the

Huntington Beach Pier on Saturday.

The contest, which will begin with player introductions at 10:30

a.m. followed by an 11 a.m. start, will include Laguna Beach’s Pat

O’Connell.

O’Connell will surf for the West Coast all-star team, which will

battle a team of East Coast all-stars in a three-hour competition.

The Game, which was a grand experiment last summer, has turned

into a solid reality for the ESPN X Games.

Staging its first surf competition as part of the X Games IX

package last year in Huntington, the response to and success of the

event led to ESPN adding the contest to its regular lineup of action

sports.

The X Games celebrates its 10th anniversary this weekend. More

than 150 of the world’s best action-sports athletes are scheduled to

compete in a wide variety of sports categories, including

skateboarding at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

The X Games X runs through Sunday.

In the second edition of, The Game, the West Coast will be looking

for a bit of revenge Saturday -- last year, the East Coast, led by

six-time world champion Kelly Slater, handily won the inaugural

contest.”It was some of the worst surf conditions of the year last

year, but we all had so much fun,” O’Connell said.

Other key competitors include Slater, two-time world champion and

current ratings leader, Andy Irons, and Rob Machado, one of surfing’s

all-time greats.

Also competing is Taj Burrow, last weekend’s U.S. Open men’s

winner.

“I’ll be there, ready to go again,” Burrow said.

Florida’s Cory Lopez, the 2003 U.S. Open of Surfing men’s winner

and third-place finisher last weekend, will also compete.

“We’ve got almost every top surfer in the world competing in The

Game,” said Jeff Cutler of the National Surf League, creators of, The

Game.

“This year’s field is more stacked than last year, and it should

be really exciting for everybody who comes out to watch,” he said.

For the first time, Cutler said, a surfing event will be televised

live: ESPN will carry live, first-quarter coverage of The Game, and

ABC will pick up live, fourth-quarter coverage.

“We consider the X Games to be the All-Star event of the National

Surf League,” Cutler said. “It’s an exciting, three-hour game

featuring surfing’s top athletes. It’s going to be a big weekend.”

The West Coast squad is composed of Rob Machado, Cardiff; Andy

Irons, wild card, Kauai, Hawaii; Taylor Knox, Carlsbad; Dane

Reynolds, Ventura; Shane Beschen, San Clemente; Tim Curran, Oxnard;

Pat O’Connell, Laguna Beach; Mike Losness, San Clemente; Jason

‘Ratboy’ Collins, Santa Cruz; Nate Yeomans, San Clemente; Mike

Parsons, head coach, San Clemente; Dino Andino, assistant coach, San

Clemente; Garth Tarlow, assistant coach, Newport Beach.

The East Coast squad is composed of Kelly Slater, Cocoa Beach,

Fla.; Taj Burrow, wild card, Yallingup, Australia; C.J. Hobgood, wild

card, Satellite Beach, Fla.; Damien Hobgood, Satellite Beach, Fla.;

Cory Lopez, Indian Rocks Beach, Fla.; Aaron Cormican, New Smyrna,

Fla.; Asher Nolan, Neptune Beach, Fla.; Dean Randazzo, Atlantic City,

N.J.; Peter Mendia, West Palm Beach, Fla.; Bryan Hewitson,

Indialantic, Fla.; Matt Kechele, head coach, Melbourne Beach, Fla.;

assistant coaches Todd Kline and Wes Laine.