Maximum exposure

Mike Sciacca

This is just how Mike Gerard had hoped it would pan out.

A few months removed from unveiling a restructured Surfing America

in Huntington Beach, and just days before the 101st staging of Surf

City’s Fourth of July Parade and Celebration, the organization is

putting on its own fireworks show by presenting the USA Championships

at the Huntington Beach Pier.

The big event, presented by the Surf Industry Manufacturers Assn.,

began Monday, continues today and Friday with quarterfinal and

semifinal round action, and concludes Saturday with championship

finals.

More than 300 of the nation’s top amateur surfers have entered the

competition -- including several from Huntington Beach. Each is vying

for an individual title, as well the chance to land a spot on the

48-member 2005 USA Surf Team.

Competition starts daily at 7:30 a.m.

“This is the perfect setting for us,” said Gerard, the executive

director for Surfing America, the national governing body of

competitive surfing. “We’re holding this competition the weekend of

the city’s big Fourth of July celebration, which is what we had

planned to do.

“It’s sounds pretty patriotic to be selecting the members of the

USA surf team, right here in Surf City USA, on the weekend the

country celebrates the Fourth of July. And that’s cool.”

The USA Championships contest has drawn athletes from five

regional member organizations: the Eastern Surfing Assn, Hawaii

Amateur Surfing Assn., National Scholastic Surfing Assn., Texas Gulf

Surfing Assn., and the Western Surfing Assn.

The nine divisions of competition include open men, open women,

boys’ under-18, boys’ under-16, boys’ under-14, girls’ under-18,

girls’ under-16, open longboard and open bodyboard.

Seven major industry brands and SIMA . members -- Billabong, Body

Glove, O’Neill, OP, Quiksilver, Reef and Rip Curl -- and eight surf

media partners -- Fuel TV, Surfer, Surfing, SG, Surfline, Surf Life

for Women, Transworld Business and Transworld Surf -- are sponsoring

the event and the USA Surf Team.

For many of these amateur competitors, the lure of the USA

Championships can be found in its ability to present unprecedented

exposure to up-and-coming surfers who Gerard said would like to carve

out a professional career.

The 2004 USA Surf Team was selected during a competition staged at

the front end of last summer’s U.S. Open of Surfing. The roster was

officially unveiled last December at Pier Plaza during a ceremony

where Mayor Cathy Green presented the team with a key to the city.

A few months later, the team went on to capture a silver medal at

its first attempt at an International Surfing Assn. event, the

Quiksilver ISA World Junior Championships in Papenoo, Tahiti.

The 2004 USA Surf Team was the first team fielded by Surfing

America since it had been awarded national governing body status by

the ISA in March. Everyone in the surfing industry took notice.

“An event like this, in an arena such as Surf City, gives these

young surfers maximum exposure, from the media to travel around the

world,” Gerard said.

“The purpose of the USA Surf Team is to train and develop young,

talented surfers in the USA and help them build their portfolio as

future professional surfers. Our goal is to present a team that

properly represents the level of surfing talent we have in the U.S.”

One surfer looking to land a spot on the USA Surf Team is Kris

Wiernicki. The 15-year-old, a resident of Melbourne Beach, Fla., is

competing in the boys’ 16-under division.

Wiernicki has been in town for the past week. He won the East

Coast championship in April and last weekend placed fifth in the

Explorer Boys’ division at the NSSA national championships at Lower

Trestles.

This is Wiernicki’s first visit to Huntington Beach, and the hype

of “Surf City” hasn’t gone unnoticed.

“I mean, this is one of the surfing hot spots in the world, and

it’s great to be able to experience it,” said Wiernicki, who won the

sixth heat on the opening day of competition on Monday. “It’s a lot

more populated than I expected, compared to the other surf spots I’ve

been to. It was a bad current out there today, but it was fun.”

Wiernicki said landing a spot on the USA Surf Team would be a

stepping-stone to his professional surfing aspirations.

“The exposure, the chance to travel, those are the things all

surfers crave,” he said. “Those are the things that appeal to me, and

I hope to continue to be consistent with my surfing these next few

days to land a spot on the team. That would be awesome.”

Gerard said Surfing America will bring the Quiksilver ISA World

Junior Championships to Huntington Beach in October.

“This is a celebration of the future of surfing,” Gerard said. “We

are creating a system, a competitive road map, to nurture these young

competitors who, ultimately, hope to make it.”