Go Girl! Surfers backed

The Huntington Beach-based West Coast Wave Riders, an all-girl surf club and team, has announced shoe company Etnies Girl will be a new sponsor.

The sponsorship deal, signed last week, has the shoe company providing team jackets, stickers and an Etnies Girl tent to be used at the beach during competitions and practices.

“We’re so excited,” said team co-founder Debbi Ortiz of the sponsorship. “We love it, and the girls are all stoked.”

Manager Mark Ortiz said the team members unanimously decided they would approach Etnies Girl about sponsorship because the shoe company fit their ideals and style.

“When choosing a manufacturer, we chose for quality and what the product represented in the surf industry,” Ortiz said. “We wanted to try to choose a company that supported female surfing, and Etnies is huge in that area.”

“We think it’s important to foster the development of all girls who participate in action sports and who may become the stars of tomorrow,” Julie Shumaker of Etnies wrote in an e-mail. “Etnies Girl looks for organizations like West Coast Wave Riders that share our same mission of encouraging and empowering young athletes.”

West Coast Wave Riders has 23 members ? girls from all over Southern California between 8 to 23 years old and have above average surfing ability for their age, Ortiz said. The girls travel to ? and win ? surf competitions such as those sponsored by the National Scholastic Surfing Assn. and the Western Surfing Assn.

Huntington Beach rippers Milan Larson, 12, and Tess Lustbaum, 13, recently represented their schools in the Interscholastic State Championships, with the girls placing in the top five. Milan and her Sowers Red team placed second, and Tess’ Dwyer team tied for third place. Although this is Paige Ortiz’s first year in the scholastic association, the 10-year-old is ranked 13th in the Southwest Explorer Girls division, and she won October’s Roxy Wahine Classic two years in a row.

West Coast Wave Riders is also sponsored by Angel Eyewear, Xcel Wetsuits and Ocean/Earth.

Mark and Debbi Ortiz, whose daughter Paige is a member, started the nonprofit club last year. “There’s a lot more support for boys in surfing, especially when it comes to competitions,” Mark Ortiz said. “That’s why we really formed it, to make sure we can nurture and support the girls as they grow.”

The team practices together three to four times per month, but all the girls put themselves on a personal fitness program created by surfer and swim coach Karen Helen.

Mark Ortiz holds an annual tryout, but he tests interested surfers at other times, too.

He said the key to the club was the support each of the girls lends to one another.

“You got to be able to see it to understand,” Mark Ortiz said. “When one girl gets out of the water ? they run up to each other, high-five and sometimes grab each other’s boards. It’s a real feel-good club.”hbi.04-etnies-CPhotoInfoU31QICM820060504iynvkjnc(LA)Etnies Girl has signed on as a sponsor of West Coast Wave Riders, a girls surf club based in Huntington.