Joe Surf: Annual banquet honors the best from local schools
The Huntington Beach High School surf team held its annual end-of-the-season-banquet last week at the Quiksilver corporate office in Huntington Beach, with several of the school’s top surfers leaving with a full belly (Duke’s catered the event) and some college scholarships.
Huntington surf Coach Andy Verdone performed the emcee duties, introducing celebrity guests that included Bob McKnight, the co-founder of Quiksilver, Peter “P.T.” Townend, the first surfing world champion in 1976, and this summer’s Hall of Fame inductee, Ryan Turner.
The girls’ MVP award went to Samantha Cendro. Cendro, who will attend USC, was given the Josh Hall Memorial Scholarship Award.
The boys’ MVPs were Jacob Baker (Josh Hall Award, headed to UC Santa Cruz), Jeremy Guilmette (HSS Scholarship Award) and Tyler Killeen (HSS Scholarship Award).
The rookie of the year awards went to Griffin Foy (boys) and Chiasa Maruyama (girls).
Scholarship winners were: Maria Mirza and Hannah Reid (HSS); Sammy Harju and Christian Seebold (Sugar Shack); and Matt Warren and Tristen Romej (Quiksilver).
Dwyer Middle School was included at the banquet, and surf coach Stacy Wood handed out awards for their top surfers: Sixth grade boys — Luke Guinaldo; seventh grade boys — Matt Blackburn; eighth grade boys — Jaden Rea; girls — Sophia Cendro.
Dwyer’s ‘A’ team, which will participate in the National Scholastic Surfing Assn.’s national championships contest at Salt Creek next month, includes (from the boys’ team): Jaden Rea, Blackburn, Guinaldo, Cade Haakenson, Ashten Rea and Dana Hayes. The girls’ team includes Sophia Cendro and Paris Bailey.
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Meanwhile, down in Rio
The World Surf League is holding its fourth World Championship Tour contest of the season — the Oi Rio Pro — down in Rio de Janeiro. Both of our locals were still in the mix for a contest title as of Monday.
Huntington’s Kanoa Igarashi had a tough draw in Round 1, going up against Brazil’s Felipe Toledo and Hawaii’s Dusty Payne. Toledo scored a clutch 8.00 wave midway through the heat and road it to victory with a two-wave score of 13.77.
Igarashi placed second in the heat with an 11.60, ahead of Payne’s 11.30.
Igarashi surfed against veteran Aussie Josh Kerr in elimination Round 2 and scored a victory, pulling off a big 8.33 with his last wave of the heat to win, 15.33-13.27.
As of Monday, Igarashi was poised to go up against Brazil’s Miguel Pupo in Round 3.
On the women’s side, Santa Ana’s Courtney Conlogue, ranked No. 1 in the world, just keeps cruising along. She won her Round 1 heat with a 14.76 two-wave score, which including an 8.33 on her last wave.
The Round 1 win allowed her to jump directly to Round 3, which she won as well, edging out Californian Sage Erickson of Ojai and Hawaii’s Malia Manuel, 13.50-13.13-12.40.
The Round 3 win pushed her into the quarterfinals, where she was set to surf against Hawaii’s Tatiana Weston-Webb.
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Blame it on Rio
Kelly Slater pulled out of the Oi Rio Pro at the last minute for what the WSL officially called “personal reasons.” But it’s no secret what Slater thinks of the Rio tour stop.
Last year, Slater complained that the polluted waters off Rio made him sick. Joel Parkinson, Taj Burrow and Kai Otton also pulled out of this year’s event.
Surfline contacted Slater to get his reasoning for dropping out, and Slater joked he “missed my flight.” Surfline then gave Slater a multiple choice option: a) bad surf; b) polluted water; c) the Zika virus; or d) local violence.
Slater replied: “e) Personal reasons. And all of those could potentially be personal, couldn’t they?”
If the water pollution wasn’t enough, there was a shooting near the competition site just last week, near where a handful of WSL surfers, including Carissa Moore, Stephanie Gilmore, Keanu Asing and Dusty Payne, were eating and witnessed the aftermath.
The WSL can’t afford to have big names drop out of their contests, so it might be time to find another wave to replace Rio next year. Stay tuned.
JOE HAAKENSON is a Huntington Beach-based sports writer and editor. He may be reached at joe@juvecreative.com.