SURFING / BODY GLOVE CUP : San Clemente’s Beschen Hoping to Follow in Andino’s Wake

San Clemente’s Shane Beschen watched his friend, Dino Andino, earn rookie of the year honors on the Assn. of Surfing Professionals’ world tour last year.

And Beschen has similar aspirations.

Beschen and Andino won their main event second-round heats Friday at the Bud Pro surfing tour’s $22,000 Body Glove Cup at Huntington State Beach.

Under the new tour format, the Bud Pro contests are qualifying events for the world tour. So Beschen’s performance this year will dictate whether he reaches the world tour in the future.

He is well on his way. The top 28 surfers qualify for the world tour, and Beschen currently is in third place. He is also second in the Bud tour point standings after finishing second last year and fifth and fourth the previous two years.

“I’m focusing mainly on the world qualifying points,” Beschen said. “The competition at these (U.S.) events is pretty tough now that they’re qualifying events. They’re more of an international event.”

Long Beach’s Marty Thomas and Donavon Frankenreiter of Mission Viejo earned an easy trip to the third round--they were the only surfers to paddle out in their four-person heat.

Brazil’s Victor Ribas was scheduled to compete, but he injured his leg during practice and missed the heat. Hawaii’s Johnny Boy Gomes also was a no-show. The top two surfers in each heat advance to the next round, thus the free ticket for Thomas and Frankenreiter.

Daisuke Imamura, one of five surfers from Japan competing, has advanced through three rounds of trial heats to reach the main event second round. Imamura, the only Japanese competitor left, finished second to Shane Stoneman of San Juan Capistrano in his main event first-round heat.

Several local surfers were eliminate in the first round, including Huntington Beach’s Kirk Tice, San Clemente’s Jim Hogan, San Juan Capistrano’s Kasey Curtis, San Clemente’s Josh Baxter and Laguna Beach’s James Pribram.

Beach notes

Competition resumes at 7 a.m. today with the remaining 12 second-round heats and the first round of the bodyboarding.

Among the surfers scheduled to compete: Newport Beach’s Richie Collins, San Clemente’s Matt Archbold, Laguna Beach’s Jeff Booth, defending U.S. champion Mike Parsons of San Clemente and Santa Barbara’s Chris Brown, last year’s Huntington Beach champion and the current tour points leader.

The first round of the bodyboarding division begins at 8:20 a.m. with San Clemente’s Pat Caldwell, U.S. champion Mike Stewart and Ben Severson, last year’s Huntington Beach winner.

The bodyboarding finals are scheduled for 11:50 a.m. Sunday, followed by the surfing finals.

Results

Main event

First round

Heat 1--1. David Giddings, 2. Sean Mattison (Oceanside); Heat 2--1. Dwayne Maki (New Smyrna, Fla.), 2. Strider Wasilewski; Heat 3--1. Chris Drummy, 2. Bryan Pottger (Fountain Valley); Heat 4--1. Donavon Frankenreiter (Mission Viejo), 2. Victor Ribas (Brazil); Heat 5--1. Danny Melhado (San Clemente), 2. Noah Budroe (Huntington Beach); Heat 6--1. Amaury Pereira, 2. David Rose (Irvine); Heat 7--1. Reenan Rocha, 2. Scott Desidario; Heat 8--1. Jeremy Byles, 2. George Hulse; Heat 9--1. Mark Bannister (Sydney, Australia), 2. Taylor Knox (Carlsbad); Heat 10--1. Jason Senn (Capistrano Beach), 2. Juan Ashton (Rios Piedras, P.R.); Heat 11--1. Peter Mel (Santa Cruz), 2. Tim Reardon; Heat 12--1. Dan Kennedy, 2. Jake Spooner; Heat 13--1. Pat O’Connell (Laguna Niguel), 2. Jeff Deffenbaugh (Huntington Beach); Heat 14--1. Shane Stoneman (San Juan Capistrano), 2. Daisuke Imamura (Japan); Heat 15--1. Bobby Lockart (Huntington Beach), 2. Doug Silva; Heat 16--1. Chad Navarro (San Clemente), 2. Matt Branson (Australia).

Second round

Heat 1--1. Shane Beschen (San Clemente), 2. Giddings; Heat 2--1. Greg Anderson, 2. Dwayne Maki; Heat 3--1. Dino Andino (San Clemente), 2. Chris Frohoff (Hermosa Beach); Heat 4--Marty Thomas (Long Beach) and Donavon Frankenreiter. (Remaining 12 heats will be completed today).