Oilers doing double-duty in the surf today

RICK FIGNETTI

The big cross-town surf rivalry between Huntington and Edison high

schools will be heating up today at the Huntington Pier.

This surf contest will start at 6 a.m. and run about two hours,

with both teams fielding some pretty good squads. Huntington Beach is

undefeated and hopes to keep the momentum going till the National

Scholastic Surfing Assn. National Championships at the end of June at

Lower Trestles, with an eye on a possible national title. Still, You

can never underestimate the fired-up Edison Chargers, looking for a

big upset.

Right after the surf contest with Edison, Huntington Beach will go

back-to-back as they take on the new Surfing America United States

team. The U.S. team is being coached by Huntington Beach resident

Peter “P.T.” Townend, a former world champ. The team will then travel

to Tahiti for an International competition this weekend. Some of the

team members include national standouts Tanner Gudauskas (San

Clemente), Nick Rozsa (the Gold Coast), and Orange County’s Marty

Weinstein, plus Newport Beach’s Erica Housseini on the women’s side.

The talented Oilers squad, coached by Andy Verdone and assistant

Barry Deffenbaugh, will be led by Seal Beach’s Chris Waring, a

standout in the National Scholastic Surfing Assn. and South African

transplant Dita Saraiva, who’s been tearing it up this year. Kory

LaPoint, Ian Ekberg, Logan Strook and Alan Kincade should give the

U.S. team a pretty good warm-up before leaving for overseas.

Huntington Beach’s Sara Taylor has been stepping it up too and should

be a good threat in the women’s division as well. Good luck to all

the teams!

Last month, the National Scholastic Surfing Assn.’s college season

started with two events in Surf City and some of our locals did

pretty darn good.

Huntington’s Justin Hugron, did a double-double for Cal State Long

Beach, winning the men’s short board and then coming back to take

second in long boarding too, whoa. That helped his team get fourth

place out of 28 colleges. In the second surf contest, local standout

Todd Hutton placed fifth in the men’s short board final and Hugron

won the long boarding to push Cal State Long Beach into third place.

Oceanside’s Mira Costa College had two strong performances to win

both events, and UC Santa Barbara had a third and a second, as it

worked through the 2004-05 season.

The World Cup is at Sunset Beach, Hawaii, in some solid 8- to

12-foot surf. The trials started Monday and some of the early

casualties included former world champs Derek Ho and Tom Curren in

round one. Getting knocked out in round two were big-wave rider Makua

Rothman, who caught that 60-foot wave a year ago to win the big wave

awards, and East Coast shredder Dean Randazzo, the MVP of the X Games

in Huntington last summer. In round three, former C.T. star Ross

Williams went down, along with European champ Russell Winter and

Cali’s Bobby Martinez and Gavin Beschen.

Ripping it up and advancing were Hawaii’s Sunny Garcia, the last

event winner at Haleiwa, plus Laguna’s Pat O’Connell, North

Carolina’s Ben Bourgeois and locals Myles Padaca and “Bust’n” Dustin

Cuizon.

Some biggies yet to surf are world champ Andy “A.I.” Irons, Kelly

“Slates” Slater, C.J. Hobgood, Taylor Knox, Aussies Mark “Occy”

Occhilupo and Joel Parkinson, Hawaii’s Bruce Irons, San Clemente’s

Chris Ward and Shane Beschen plus Huntington Beach wunderkind Timmy

Reyes, just to name a few. We’ll keep ya posted on that big action

from the North Shore.

See ya. That’s it for now, Rockin Fig over and out.

* RICK FIGNETTI is an nine-time West Coast champion, has

announced the U.S. Open of Surfing the last 11 years and has been the

KROQ-FM surfologist for the last 18 years, doing morning surf

reports. He owns a surf shop on Main Street. You can reach him at

(714) 536-1058.