Pushing limits against fear

When world-renowned surfer Courtney Conlogue goes paddling out into the ocean, she tries to push herself a little further each time. The “gnarlier,” the better, she says.

“It is really important to see girls push their limits,” the 15-year-old Huntington Beach surfer Courtney said at a Girls Inc. event in Costa Mesa on Monday. “They should push their limits any time they seem scared — when it’s fear holding you back.”

As adult professional action sports athletes converge in Huntington Beach this month for the U.S. Open of Surfing, girls from throughout the Southland and the world will meet just down the beach for an event of their own.

The second annual S3 Supergirl Jam has returned after a one-year hiatus to host the world’s best young female surfers, skateboarders and snowboarders.

Four athletes — snowboarder Gretchen Bleiler, skateboarder Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins, surfer Kassia Meador and inline skater Fabiola da Silva — will host the free event.

A skateboarding bowl jam contest and free skateboarding clinics will be Friday, followed by skateboarding bowl and vert ramp best trick contests, inline skating rail jam best trick contest and street skateboarding preliminaries Saturday.

The main activity Saturday will be a new element, when the best young female surfer will be crowned Saturday in the Assn. of Surfing Professionals-sanctioned Supergirl Junior Pro, which carries a nearly $60,000 purse.

The Junior Pro competition will highlight up-and-coming world professionals, including Courtney. Sunday will bring 15 tons of snow to the beach for the snowboard rail jam contest; the day also will feature skateboarding street competition finals and vert ramp demos.

With 100,000 visitors expected, the event will attract a quarter of the U.S. Open’s patrons, organizers expect.

Six of the event’s top competitors in skating and surfing came to the Orange County Girls Inc. center in Costa Mesa to talk to girls and show off some of their skills.

Along with Courtney, da Silva, 29, spoke about her career as one of the world’s top inline skaters, and skating competitors Lauren Perkins, Alize Montes, Allysha Bergado and Leticia Bufoni answered questions from the crowd and signed autographs.

“I am amazed at how young they are and doing it for five to 10 years,” said Girls Inc. Executive Director Lucy Santana-Ornelas. “It’s impressive there are girls out there doing this. We need to celebrate their successes more.”

Santana-Ornelas stressed the value for the girls in their organization to see how girls in non-traditional roles can excel. For action sports, like surfing and skating, not many women are seen in the media, she said. But these risk-taking women inspire girls to go for more in their lives, even if it is in different arenas, she said.

For the girls representing their field, it was nice to teach their profession as well as represent themselves as women who can empower peers. Courtney knows the difficulty of striving to achieve something women aren’t normally associated with.

When she first started, at 4 years old, Courtney would sometimes hear the gripes of older men who believed she shouldn’t be in the water. As time went on, she heard the gripes less and less as her proficiency increased.

Now, some people say she surfs like a man and can compete, but she doesn’t see it that way.

“I’m surfing correctly now — not surfing, ‘like a man,’” she said. “That’s how I look at it. The guys should start respecting us more.”

WHAT: S3 Supergirl Jam

WHEN: noon to 5 p.m. Friday; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday; 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: Just south of the Huntington Beach Pier

COST: Free to attend

INFORMATION: supergirljam.com

CANDICE BAKER may be reached at (949) 494-5480 or at candice.baker@latimes.com. DANIEL TEDFORD may be reached at (714) 966-4632 or at daniel.tedford@latimes.com.