Briefs: Skimboarding event scheduled
Aliso Beach in Laguna Beach will host the top riders next week when the 2015 World Championships of Skimboarding gets underway. The VIC, in its 39th year, will take place Aug. 29-30.
Competitors vying for past titles have come from Australia, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Philippines, Chile and Spain, and this year’s contest is expected to draw another batch of top contenders.
The VIC is the longest-running contest in skimboarding.
Registration for the event is closed. Titles will be up for grabs in 12 divisions: Pro Men, Pro Women, Amateur Women, Amateur Men (8-under), Amateur Men (9-11), Amateur Men (ages 12-14), Amateur Men (ages 15-17), Amateur Men (ages 18-21), Amateur Men (ages 22-24), Amateur Men (ages 25-29), Amateur Men (ages 30-39), and Amateur Men (40-and-over).
For more information on the competition, visit www.oceanvictoriaskimboards.com.
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Olympians defend volleyball titles
U.S. Olympians April Ross (Costa Mesa) and Phil Dalhausser (Newbury Park) successfully defended their titles Sunday at the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals Manhattan Beach Open.
Ross teamed with another Costa Mesa resident, Jennifer Fopma, to win the women’s tournament, and Dalhausser paired with Nick Lucena (El Segundo) to take the men’s tourney which capped four days of competition at the Manhattan Beach Pier.
In the two finals, Ross/Fopma, the women’s top-seeded team, defeated U.S. Olympian Nicole Branagh (Torrance)/Jenny Kropp (Manhattan Beach), 21-15, 26-24, and Dalhausser/Lucena, the men’s No. 3-seed, topped No. 4-seeded Tri Bourne (Manhattan Beach)/John Hyden (Sherman Oaks), 21-19, 21-17.
As is tradition with the longest-running beach volleyball tournament, the winning teams will have their names etched on the Manhattan Beach Pier.
Kropp teamed with Laguna Beach resident Whitney Pavlik for the New Orleans Open in May, the first event of the current AVP Tour.
Pavlik is out for the remainder of the AVP season recovering from shoulder surgery.
Former Laguna Beach resident and U.S. Olympian Jennifer Kessy and teammate Emily Day (Hermosa Beach), the No. 2-seed in the women’s tournament, reached the semifinals and finished in equal-third place. Kessy and Day fell to Ross/Fopma in Sunday’s semifinals, 21-16, 23-21.
The Huntington Beach team of Casey Patterson/Jake Gibb, the men’s top-seed, finished in equal-fifth place. Patterson and Gibb had won the first two men’s titles on the tour (New Orleans Open, New York Open) in addition to winning the FIYB smart St. Pete Grand Slam in June.
The next AVP event is the Chicago Open Aug. 27-30.
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Laguna’s Lewis racing in Utah
Michael Lewis of Laguna Beach is in Tooele, Utah, competing in Rounds 16 and 17 of the Pirelli World Challenge at Miller Motorsports Park. The three-day competition starts Friday and ends Sunday.
Lewis and his No. 41 EFFORT Racing/Curb-Agajanian Porsche 911 GT3 R is coming off a fifth-place finish at the PWC at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course which ended Aug. 9 at Lexington, Ohio. It was his
third consecutive fifth-place finish in a Round 14 PWC race.
— From staff reports