Five Area Surfers Ready to Compete at Oceanside

Five San Diego County surfers are entered in today’s main event, and several top names advanced on the third day of qualifying heats in the $22,000 Nissan Open at the Municipal Pier Friday. For the second day in a row, George Hulse of San Juan Capistrano was the highest scorer.

Hulse compiled 34 out of a possible 40 four points on his four best rides in the Bud Pro Surfing Tour event, part of the World Qualifying Tour.

But the tour’s two top-rated surfers--Shane Beschen of San Clemente and Richie Collins of Newport--are close. Both turned in performances that ranked in the day’s top-10 in the two- and three-foot waves.

Rob Machado of Cardiff, the tour’s hottest surfer, will lead the local contingent today. Machado, ranked second on the Bud tour behind Beschen after winning the previous two competitions, will take his first ride at 11:30 a.m.

Taylor Knox of Carlsbad (eighth on the tour), Mike Lambresi of Carlsbad (13th) and Colin Smith of Cardiff (15th) will also surf for the first time this morning. Doug Silva of Solana Beach (21st) finished second to Dino Andino of San Clemente, a World Tour surfer, in his first heat in the main event and advanced.

Silva, who finished second to Andino by the closest margin Friday (.50), will have to face Andino again in his opening heat today. Silva also had the fourth-best single ride of the day, scored a 9.0 by the judges.

One local surfer, Jeremy Sommerville of Del Mar, reached the main event’s second round before he was nosed out of the competition by Shane Powell and Chris Frohoff in his heat. Four other local surfers failed to survive the first round of the main event. Seth Elmer of Oceanside missed the cut by one, finishing third. Justin Poston of La Jolla, Chuy Reyna of Oceanside and Danny Hayward of Oceanside finished fourth in their heats.

The competition will resume at 7 a.m. today.