USA Championships yield banner crop of surfers

Six days of action-packed amateur surfing competition came to a head

Saturday with the finals of the Surfing America USA Championships at

the Huntington Beach Pier.

Nine surfers earned individual titles and the USA Surf Team was

selected from the pool of talent that had taken part in the event.

The team will represent the United States at the International

Surfing Assn.’s Quiksilver World Junior Surfing Championships in

October, an event again hosted by Surfing America and held at

Huntington’s world-famous pier.

The nine division champions and 38 USA Surf Team members were

revealed after a competition that drew more than 300 of the top

amateur surfers from across the nation.

This year’s team is looking to improve on last year’s silver-medal

finish at the Junior Championships, which were held in Tahiti.

“Surfing America is proud to have brought the best surfers from

all five of our member organizations to Huntington Beach for this

event,” said Mike Gerard, executive director of Huntington

Beach-based Surfing America. “The level of talent demonstrated here

was exceptional, and what an honor it is just for these kids to make

it this far.

“There’s no doubt that the new USA Surf Team is made up of the

best of the best and we look forward to taking the ISA World Junior

Championships by storm.”

The contest brought together the top amateur athletes in America

from five regional member organizations: Eastern Surfing Assn.,

Hawaii Amateur Surfing Assn., National Scholastic Surfing Assn.,

Texas Gulf Surfing Assn. and Western Surfing Assn.

The nine division title winners were as follows:

Open Men’s: Dusty Payne, Hawaii; Open Women’s: Courtney Conlogue,

California; Boys’ Under-18: Kyle Ramey, Hawaii; Girls’ Under-18:

Erica Hosseini, California; Boys’ Under-16: Kai Barger, Hawaii;

Girls’ Under-16: Christa Alves, Florida; Boys’ Under-14: Riley

Metcalf, California; Open Longboard: Christian Wach, California; Open

Bodyboard: Chris Welpman, California.

The following athletes, listed by division, were named to the 2005

USA Surf Team:

Open Men: Nick Rozsa, California; Kevin Sullivan, Hawaii; Matt

Mohagen; California; Jeremy Johnston, Florida; Nick Blunda, New

Jersey; Ryan Heavyside, Florida.

Open Women: Courtney Conlogue, California; Jenny Quam, California;

Darlene Conolly, California; Christa Alves, Florida.

Boys’ Under 18: Tanner Gudauskas, California; Sebastian Zietz,

Hawaii; Drew Ventura, California; Dane Ward, California; Eddie

Guilbeau, Florida; Chris Waring, California.

Girls’ Under 18: Demi Boelsterli, California; Erica Hosseini,

California; Alana Blanchard, Hawaii; Connie Arias, Florida; Bethany

Hamilton, Hawaii; Lexie Papilion, California; Courtney Conlogue,

California; Christa Alves, Florida.

Boys’ Under 16: Cory Arrambide, California; Trevor Saunders,

California; Jeff Lukasik, California; Kai Barger, Hawaii; Jordan

Gaudet, California; Hunter Heverly, North Carolina.

Girls’ Under 16: Lindsey Bowman, Virginia; Amy Nicholl, Florida.

Boys Under 14: Eban Geiselman, Florida; Riley Metcalf, California.

Open Longboard: Joseph Aaron, California; Christian Clark,

California; Christian Wach, California.

Open Bodyboard: Kris Espinosa, California; Brad Mebust,

California; Chris Welpman, California.