Nationals heat wave at Trestles

RICK FIGNETTI

Summer officially started Tuesday with the summer solstice. Combo

that with a heat wave and some warm air temps and the beaches have

been the place to be.

Surf City has been sizzlin’ with sunny skies, and some southwest

and west swells have been rolling in too. The water has been feeling

really warm the past few weeks, but it has dropped a couple of

degrees the last couple of days to the low 60s.

And yes, the groms are out of school, so it has been a crowdfest

on the sand and in the lineup here in H.B., but you might as well get

used to it for the next couple of months.

This is a big couple of weeks for the National Scholastic Surfing

Assn., which is holding its national championships at lower Trestles

through June 25. The top amateurs in the nation will be on hand to

surf all the different age brackets in the Open, Explorer, Airshow,

and Scholastic divisions.

Seal Beach’s Chris Waring tops the list of contenders after

winning the overall Open Men’s, Explorer men’s and juniors divisions.

San Clemente’s Tanner Gudauskas has been on fire too, and could

follow the footsteps of his brother’s Pat and Dane, who both won

national championships.

Up north ripper Nick Rozsa is always a threat. The Hawaiians are

looking really tough and field a strong team every year, with hotties

like Dustin Payne and Clay Marzo from Maui, Torrey Meister from

Haleiwa and “Down Town” Casey Brown from the Big Island. The East

Coast contingency will be leading the way with chargers, like Jeremy

“J.J” Johnston and Eric Gieselman, who are very explosive.

All these guys and more have a shot at the Governor’s Cup title.

In the women’s, look for young Hawaiian Carissa Moore to be the

favorite; she won three titles last year. O.C.’s Courtney Conlogue

has been turning it on with some big final placings lately.

Huntington’s talent starts with Johnny Elles and Chase Kane in the

mini-groms, and Jessie Steelman in menehunes. In the boys, Newport’s

Andrew Doheny and H.B.’s Johnny Thomas have been surfing really well.

In juniors, Waring, Logan Strook, Quinn McCrystal, Kyle Kennelly and

South African transplant Dita Saraiva are looking to make a final.

Brandon Guilmette will be there in the men’s division, along with

Waring, Ian Ekberg and Saraiva.

Senior Surf City residents Jason Haughey and Rick Larsen have been

turning on, as has Shane Van Herk in the longboards and Sara Taylor

in girls.

The college, high school and middle school championships were run

at Salt Creek along with some preliminary explorer rounds June 16-18.

Fifteen colleges, 12 high schools and 10 middle schools battled it

out for some prestigious titles.

I heard that in the high school final, San Clemente’s Dane Ward

and H.B.H.S.’s Waring were tearing it up, and their respective teams

were in the running for a national title, but the results are

top-secret.

If you wanna check out the best in the U.S. among surfing amateurs

and ya wanna get a tan, come on down to the nationals. We have

another south swell expected for the weekend and yours truly will be

doing the play-by-play from the announcers’ booth!

The Figster over and out.

* RICK FIGNETTI is a nine-time West Coast champion, has announced

the U.S. Open of Surfing the last 11 years and has been the KROQ-FM

surfologist for the last 18 years, doing morning surf reports. He

owns a surf shop on Main Street. You can reach him at (714) 536-1058.